Top 7 Reasons to Accept Credit Cards at Your Next Fundraiser

There is  a lot of planning that goes into any successful fundraiser. But one area that is often overlooked is how you accept payments. Cash and checks are the traditional method of payment accepted for school fundraisers, but some of the leaders in fundraising are starting to accept credit cards both online and in-person.

These are the top 7 reasons why you should start accepting credit cards for your fundraisers:

1. 1. Ease of Tracking Funds:  “Golly, I love keeping track of all the pennies at my fundraiser!” said no one ever. When you accept credit card donations, there is already an electronic paper trail attached to each transaction. Every donation you take by credit card is one less donation you have to manually track.
   2. Receipts Made Simple: Sending receipts to donors can be a time consuming processes. It’s also easy for your supporters to lose receipts and request them again near tax season. If you take credit cards, you can automatically email a receipt to your supporters. Also, some platforms will let you customize your receipts with information such as your tax id and make it easy to re-send them if requested during tax season.
   3. Easy for Donors: Whenever we talk to donors about fundraising, we always hear about how they wish they could just use their credit cards to donate rather than having to scrounge up the cash or write a check. Happy donors = easier fundraising for you.
   4. People like Credit Card Rewards: A lot of people have rewards cards, so when they donate by credit card, you’re helping them get a few points closer to their next airline ticket. When they donate with cash, they are just a few dollars closer to having to make another trip to the ATM.
   5. No cash? No problem:  Accepting credit cards lets people be more generous. Sometimes people don’t give to a fundraiser – or give less – because they are low on cash. With credit cards, people can give as generously as they wish.
   6. Raise more money:  You might be wondering just how much more you can raise using credit cards. Classmunity clients have reported bringing in up to 30% more in donations when a fundraiser accepts credit cards.
   7. Securing your funds: Reduce the risk of fundraising fraud by having your credit card donations deposited directly into your bank account. Using services such as Classmunity, Square, or Paypal lets you collect funds with confidence.

There is one caveat to taking credit card funds: there is a small credit card processing fee (see the fine print of whatever platform you are considering). When determining the prices of items you are selling (or suggested donations) you should to factor that in – or perhaps ask your donors to cover the credit card processing fees.  Despite this, many fundraisers we’ve worked with have seen a large increase in funds raised when accepting credit cards.

It may take a little bit of time to set up, but the benefits of taking credit cards at your next fundraiser are significant.  If you’re interested in learning more about how Classmunity can help, drop us a line at contact@classmunity.com!