How to Connect Donorbox Forms to Venmo through PayPal Checkout
You can let your donors donate with Venmo via PayPal Checkout on Donorbox. The steps to get started are simple, and this guide will help you do that right away!
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You can let your donors donate with Venmo via PayPal Checkout on Donorbox. The steps to get started are simple, and this guide will help you do that right away!
Venmo is a peer-to-peer payment system that’s also one of the most popular mobile payment options in the US right now. It was founded in 2009 and has been owned by PayPal since 2012.
70 million+ people are using it for their payments. Hence, for nonprofits in the US, Venmo is a great payment alternative that they can add to their donation processing system.
In this blog, we’ll discuss why Venmo is great for nonprofits and how you can connect your Donorbox donation forms to Venmo through PayPal Checkout.
Venmo is a digital wallet suitable for individuals and businesses. One can download the Venmo app on their Android or iOS phone, create an account, and link their bank accounts, credit/debit cards to it to start using the payment service. Users can also put money in their Venmo account that can be easily used to make payments at any point in time.
For nonprofits, one of the best features Venmo offers is the advantage of social proof. People can share their transactions and comments with their friends on Venmo’s “friends feed”.
Nonprofits that use PayPal to receive donations can let their donors donate via Venmo. With PayPal Checkout, it’s as simple as clicking a button and making the payment through the Venmo mobile app right away.
The below 3 steps will help you connect your Donorbox campaign forms to Venmo through PayPal Checkout and receive donations made via Venmo.
Click “Payment Methods” on the left side navigation menu of the Donorbox dashboard.
Scroll down to the PayPal option and input your email address to sign up on or connect your existing business account to PayPal. Click “Update”.
You’ll be taken to PayPal. If you have a business account on PayPal already with the provided email address, you’ll be asked to confirm wanting to connect this account to Donorbox to receive donations. You can then log in and get started.
If you need to create a business account on PayPal with that email address, you’ll have to input your email ID (as shown in image 1) and then, select your business type (as shown in image 2) to start the signup process.
Image 1:
Image 2:
After that, you can add your address details and other important information to get started with the PayPal business account. Know more here.
On Donorbox, you’re now ready to accept donations via PayPal.
Note: Donorbox automatically upgrades all their new PayPal users to PayPal Checkout unless they’ve failed to complete the signup process or their country doesn’t support it. In those cases, they’d be limited to PayPal Classic. Hence, do check if you already have PayPal Checkout enabled before you follow this step. If you have it enabled, you can go straight to step 3.
Venmo payment option is a part of PayPal Checkout which is a smarter payment method (with buttons) by PayPal.
On Donorbox, you need to upgrade to this option to be able to receive donations via Venmo. Click the “Enable PayPal Checkout” button highlighted in the image below and you’re done.
Once you’ve confirmed wanting to enable PayPal Checkout on the PayPal page, you can come back to the Donorbox dashboard and you’ll see it is activated.
Yes, you’re done! Your Donorbox donation forms are now connected to Venmo through PayPal Checkout. Donors selecting to donate through PayPal to your nonprofit will now see the below options on the PayPal Checkout page.
Donors donating on a desktop will be shown a QR code (image 1) that they can scan on their Venmo App to make the donation.
Image 1:
Those on mobile will be redirected to the Venmo App to complete the donation:
Image 2:
Venmo donations made via PayPal Checkout will follow the PayPal transaction fees rule. According to PayPal’s updated transaction fees for charitable donations, they’ll now charge 1.99% + $0.49 for each transaction. You need to be a registered nonprofit in the US to avail these fees. For non-registered organizations, the usual transaction fee of 2.89% + $0.49 applies.
Here are the reasons why a nonprofit would want to include Venmo in their donation system.
As per research, about 7.4 million of all Venmo users in the US are aged from 18 to 34. About 1.4 million Venmo users fall within the age group of 35 to 44. It’s a great opportunity for a nonprofit to target the younger people in its community by making it easy to make a donation.
It is said that this payment app is mostly used for small transactions around $60 or so. If you receive many small donations or you’re thinking of reaching out to students and other donor levels that may not have a lot of cash on them, Venmo can be great.
Venmo’s “friends feed” helps donors share the donation they just made with selected friends and family members. It’s an interactive social-media-style feed that was once made available to the public but now is restricted to only the friends’ lists of people.
Nonprofits can receive Venmo donations via Paypal Checkout. And the donation amount will be received in the nonprofit’s PayPal account. This means you get to leverage the power of PayPal’s secure payment system while also using a new-age digital wallet like Venmo.
Digital wallets like Venmo are here to stay and rule the market. They’re not just popular among the younger generations but also slowly making their way to the baby boomers. So if you want to attract and engage a wide range of people and age groups, Venmo is a must-have for your nonprofit.
With Donorbox, accepting donations via Venmo becomes even easier. You don’t need a Venmo account and can continue using your existing PayPal account to receive donations. If you’d like to know more about Donorbox, here’s our website. You may also want to check out our nonprofit blog for fundraising ideas, tips, and nonprofit management insights!
In this section, we’ll answer some common questions on getting Venmo donations via PayPal Checkout on Donorbox.
As a nonprofit, you’ll only need a PayPal business account to get started. On your Donorbox dashboard, you need to enable the PayPal payment method and upgrade to PayPal Checkout and your donors will see the Venmo payment option when they choose PayPal as their payment method.
There will be no additional transaction fees for Venmo. Primarily, your donations are made via PayPal Checkout and hence, PayPal’s transaction fees of 1.99% + $0.49 (for registered charities in the US) will be applicable.
Although PayPal is available across many countries, Venmo is only available in the US. That is why only US nonprofits can avail of this upgrade on Donorbox.
PayPal Checkout only supports one-time donations currently. You can’t receive recurring donations via Venmo on this payment method.
On Desktop, your donors will be shown a QR code as they click the “Venmo” button on PayPal Checkout. They can scan this code on their Venmo mobile app to make a donation.
Product Manager - Integrations @ Donorbox
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