Donorbox vs PayPal: Which Is Better Optimized For Fundraising?

PayPal is a popular payment processor, but it isn't optimized for non-profits in the ways that Donorbox is. Here's a list of reasons why so many non-profits are using Donorbox to accept donations. The most notable downside of using just Paypal is that donors cannot increase donation amounts or pause and resume recurring plans.

1. Donorbox Supports Daily, Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual Recurring Donations

Donations on PayPal are limited to one-time and monthly. For various reasons, not everyone can contribute on a monthly basis, and these limitations can often result in someone opting to donate to a cause just once. At Donorbox, we understand the need for more flexibility when it comes to recurring donations. That's why non-profits who opt to use our fundraising platform can accept one-time, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual recurring donations. With Donorbox, recurring donors get their own Donor Login to manage their own donation plan. Donors can easily pause, cancel or resume donations, edit their payment information, change a donation amount, and even change the charge date of a donation. 

2. Best of Both Worlds: Pay by Card or PayPal

Donorbox uses both Stripe and PayPal as its payment processors, meaning you can accept both Stripe and PayPal donations on our platform. Our donation forms also accept payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH (eCheck).

3. Ask Custom Questions

In your campaign editor, you can ask custom questions and give donors simple ways to respond. For example, ask donors to designate their funds to a particular cause or even ask if they'd like to volunteer. The choice is yours.

In contrast, PayPal's donation forms cannot be customized this way.

4. Ask Donors to Cover the Credit Card Processing Fee

Organizations that use Donorbox can ask their donors to cover the credit card processing fee. This covers the 2.2% + $0.30 credit card processing fee from Stripe or Paypal (this fee can be reduced for registered nonprofits), as well as the 1.75% platform fee.

5. Suggested Donation Amounts

Donorbox's checkout process is very straightforward and designed to save your donors as much time as possible. In fact, Donorbox provides suggested donation amounts, guiding your donors along the donation process.

PayPal's donation forms require the donor to type in the amount they wish to donate.

5. Ease of Fund Transfer

When receiving donations through PayPal, the money first goes to your PayPal account, and you then have to transfer it to your bank account. This adds extra processing time before the transfer is considered complete, delaying your access to the money you need.

Stripe is also another payment gateway that Donorbox uses. It deposits your donations directly into your bank account, giving you quick access to your funds.

6. Customize your Email Receipts

While PayPal only provides a donation platform, Donorbox provides extended support, even after your donations have been made.

While both platforms offer automatic donation receipts, only Donorbox allows you to customize them to be more personalized. You can add text, images, hyperlinks and change fonts, colors, and sizes. It’s pretty handy if you’d like your receipt to contain special info like legal terms and conditions.

8. Send Year-end Tax Receipts

Along with the automatic one-time and recurring donation receipts, Donorbox also has a year-end tax receipt feature. Specify your fiscal year, customize your receipt, and send your donor's their annual tax receipts.

9. Integrations

Donorbox offers some useful added integrations to give even more functionality to your fundraising campaign:

• MailChimp  - MailChimp handles all your email marketing needs, from designing newsletters to tracking results.
• Salesforce  - Salesforce is the #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform, managing sales, marketing, and customer support.
• Zapier  - Zapier builds connections between frequently used apps to automate your work so you can be more productive.
• Company Matching - double your donations with corporate gift matching. We've teamed up with Double the Donation to provide you with a seamless integration that allows companies to match their employees' donations.
• Text-To-Give - Text-to-give allows your supporters to donate right from their smartphones, their phones' native texting applications, and web browsers. This feature is currently available only in the United States and Canada.
• HubSpot - Sync all of your donations, recurring plans, supporters, and campaign data to HubSpot in near real-time.
• Rock RMS - Integrate Rock RMS with Donorbox to sync your recurring tithes, offerings, supporters, and fundraising data to your church CRM.

10. Fundraising Thermometer

Donorbox has a host of added features that give you complete control over how your donation form works for you, including a fundraising thermometer to share your progress and encourage more support.

In short, our platform and all of our features are geared toward non-profits. And while PayPal is an excellent payment processor, choosing who to use for fundraising purposes is clear. 

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