PayPal vs Stripe: how are your donors donating?

Raisely Team -

From PayPal to Stripe, donors are getting to know new-age ways of donating to their favourite charities. Raisley is here to help by diving into global donor trends!

Potential donors could be banging on your digital door – but without diverse payment processing options, your campaign might not fly high.

As the world becomes more and more tech-fueled, it’s important to stay in the loop with the latest ways to process donations.

From Stripe, to Paypal and even digital wallets, there are multiple ways to make payment processing simple, accessible and ready to rumble.

Whether you’re a number cruncher, a trend-spotter or just a little curious about the world of non profit donations, we’ve got the latest in global fundraising figures to ignite your inspiration.

Let’s dive in!

How are people donating on Raisely?

According to global trends, almost half of all global online purchases now happen on our tiny phone screens.

Our own research shows 65% of all donations on Raisley are made from a mobile device.

And that figure keeps on climbing - mobile payments are already 54% higher than they were in 2016.

Stripe vs PayPal: Raisely Payment Gateways

At Raisely, we offer charities the opportunity to be flexible with their payment processing methods.

Using Stripe and PayPal, individual campaigns can connect their own accounts and indulge in the flexibility of adding multiple ways to pay.

Paypal for a positive experience

With over 400 million active accounts, PayPal has long been the go-to platform for buying, selling and sending money.

According to a Civic Science, more than one-third of Americans who used a digital wallet made their magic through PayPal.

In addition, 35% of the respondents process their recurring donations through PayPal specifically.

We’re big fans of PayPal for nonprofits, and it’s clear the rest of the world is too.

Stripe for success

We love Stripe for nonprofits because of their low fees and the seamless software integration.

While the data on Stripe for nonprofits isn’t as cut and clear as PayPal, we know our Raisley users love the flexibility it offers for processing donations.

If you're a registered charity you may also be eligible for Stripe's non-profit pricing. You can learn more about eligibility, and how to apply here.

It’s important to note, though: PayPal cannot be used for regular donations, payment routing, or registration payments.

If your campaign requires any of these features, it’s a good idea to connect a Stripe account instead.

Raisely: safe, secure and satisfying!

Regardless of how your donors give, the money you raise with Raisely is always in safe hands. Your donations always go directly to your chosen payment gateway.

We never hold them in our account, or in escrow – we’ve got your back.

Our friends at Stripe and PayPal will settle card payments for you, then deposit them into your bank account in a flash.

It’s also good to note that you only need a regular business account to accept these donations – there’s no need for a merchant bank account!

When it comes to reporting time, Raisley makes it easy for you to get the facts. You can generate financial reports that go into the nitty gritty of each individual payment, and from there, you can download the data as a CSV file.

A happy Stripe user? We’ll also give you a bank payout report that details the individual donations inside a single bank transfer from Stripe.

Raisely: keeping fundraising flexible

Raisely is a fundraising platform with one foot in the future – so we’re proud to offer our movers and shakers a range of flexible payment processing options. Let’s get into them!

Express Donations

All the givers who want to donate with one click, say yeah!

We love a fast transaction, and so do your donors.

By using express donations to collect your donations, your donors get to skip the queue and avoid the tedious tasks of filling out their name, email and credit card details.

Apple Pay or Google Pay take the reins here, depending on the user's device or browser.

Why do we love it? Two reasons:

  1. On our standard 3-step form, about 10% of people drop off on the second step. That's where we ask them to enter their name and email, along with any custom fields you're collecting. People are time-poor!
  2. Everyone loves an easy option. Showing someone that they can complete their donation in one click through their favourite wallet is bound to stop people from clicking away from their compassion.

It’s basic psychology – and it’s not just us who swear by the one-click wonder.

Shopify is loud and proud that their one-click checkout options increase conversion rates by nearly 2x.

Holy moly.

Digital Wallets

One key to fundraising success in 2020 was the popular nonprofit payment processing trend: the digital wallet donation.

Thanks to the pandemic (and our newfound love for contactless payments), digital wallets have taken the nonprofit world by storm.

According to Paysafe’s Payment Trends 2022 report, 40% of all US smartphone users over 14 were using digital wallets at the end of 2020.

Additionally, over 80% of Millenials and Gen Z users have made using digital wallets a habit.

Our friends at Stripe reported that digital wallets are now nearly ⅓ of all card payments in the UK, Australia, and the US.

Unbelievable, right?

It’s true. To make the most of the movement, Apple Pay and Google Pay (alongside credit cards and PayPal) are now shown automatically on the final step of the Raisely donation form.

This means:

We’ve even started making magic with QR Codes!

Our latest update on Raisley’s page builder offers the option of the QR Code block, providing you and your teammates with a downloadable QR code that can either be linked to the Campaign URL or Fundraisers Profile Page.

QR Codes allow flexible ways of donating, and we’re chuffed to be closing in on them a little more here at Raisely.

To find out more about using QR Code Block, watch this video.

Make your fundraiser fly

So… are you ready to soar?

Whether you’re surprised at the stats or ‘in the know’ from the get-go, getting close and personal with the way your supporters donate is the secret sauce to raising more.

While you get your fundraiser up in the air, the team at Raisley are keen to keep a close eye on the way digital trends morph and move with the times.

Want to learn more about how to make it easier for your donors to donate? Sign up to our newsletter.

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