PayPal is a trusted global brand and a popular choice for donors. Accepting PayPal donations is an easy way to increase donations, but it isn’t a free option.

Along with most payment gateways, PayPal deducts a fee from donations before funds are deposited in your organization’s PayPal Account.

What are the PayPal donation fees? We’ll talk you through this and explain the benefits of using Donorbox to accept PayPal donations.

PayPal Nonprofit Fees for 2020

The standard rate for PayPal processing fees is 2.9% and $0.30 per donation.

Eligible organizations can apply to receive the discounted nonprofit fee of 2.2% and $0.30 per donation.

PayPal says this about their donation fees:

“PayPal offers discounted transaction rates for 501(c)(3) charities for most products, and consistently low rates for all other nonprofits. No extra fees for setup, statements, withdrawals or cancellation. 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction and no monthly fee for charities.”

Organizations need to apply to receive PayPal’s nonprofit fees. Otherwise, the standard PayPal donation fee applies.

Benefits of Using PayPal for Donations

A few benefits of using PayPal for donations include:

Organizations can easily accept online donations — including in-person donations.

Express Checkout allows donors to stay logged in to quickly complete their donations.

Donors can give by credit or debit card, even if they don’t have a PayPal account.

The PayPal Giving Fund can help your organization reach new donors on PayPal, eBay, and other technology platforms. You need to enroll to be eligible.

For UK-based organizations, Gift Aid can be secured on eligible donations. This can boost donations by up to 25%.

Donorbox Versus PayPal

PayPal allows your organization to accept online donations but it isn’t optimized for nonprofits. Donor management isn’t possible if you’re only using PayPal and recurring donations are limited.

At Donorbox, we’ve partnered with PayPal to allow organizations to accept PayPal donations and take advantage of our donor management features.

Here’s what Donorbox’s partnership with PayPal offers your organization:

1. Recurring Donations Are Flexible

Donorbox allows donors to easily set up flexible recurring PayPal donations — these can be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

PayPal allows donors only to set up monthly donations. For donors who want to give less often than this, the lack of flexible options can mean they only make a one-time donation.

For churches, weekly tithes can be set up as recurring donations. Your congregation can choose to repeat their donations on a specific day of the month. This makes it easier for people to give their tithes and can increase donations to your church.

Yearly memorial funds are another option for recurring giving. Your donors can make regular tribute donations in memory of a loved one. This can be enabled on your Donorbox donation form.

2. Donors Can Cover Processing Fees

With Donorbox, you can ask donors if they’re happy to cover credit card processing fees to maximize their donations.

They can choose to cover the 2.2% + $0.30 processing fee for PayPal donations, and the 1.5% Donorbox platform fee.

This can help your organization save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in processing fees each month.

3. Funds Can Be Received Quickly

With Donorbox, donations are sent straight to your organization’s bank account.

If you’re only using PayPal, your organization needs to transfer donations from your PayPal account to your bank account.

Removing this step saves time and effort, and gives you quick access to your funds.

4. Customized Receipts

Your organization can send a customized thank you receipt to your supporters after they’ve donated. This isn’t possible if you only use PayPal.

Sending customized receipts helps build stronger relationships with donors. It also helps your organization to be tax-compliant.

5. A Quick Checkout Process

Donorbox connects with PayPal Express to give donors a quick checkout experience.

It also integrates with PayPal One-Touch, which allows donors to stay logged into PayPal and move quickly through the checkout process.

6. Access to the Donorbox Platform

You can also access Donorbox features, including:

Customizing your donation page and using donation tiers to boost donation amounts.

Integrating with MailChimp, API/Zapier, and Salesforce.

Readily available integration with web platforms, including Weebly, WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix.

Company donation matching — companies can match donations made by their employees.

Sending year-end tax receipts to donors.

These features aren’t available if you’re only using PayPal.

Accepting PayPal Donations With Donorbox

It’s easy to accept PayPal donations through Donorbox — we’ll walk you through it here.

Step 1: Go to Your Donorbox Account

Once you’ve logged into your Donorbox account, head into your account settings and click on Payment Methods.

Step 2: Add PayPal in Your Payment Settings

Add your organization’s PayPal account email and click Connect.

Step 3: Log In to PayPal and Connect

You’ll then be taken to PayPal where you’ll enter your account email again, country/region, and login credentials. All that’s left is to click “Agree and connect” to authorize PayPal to connect with Donorbox.

That’s it! You can now accept PayPal donations.

Over to You

If your organization is eligible for the lower PayPal nonprofit fees, a fee of 2.2% and $0.30 per transaction is deducted from donations.

If you’re not eligible for this, the standard processing fee of 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction applies.

With Donorbox, you can ask your donors to cover PayPal processing fees and maximize donations.

Take a look at our nonprofit blog for more tips on maximizing donations and raising more funds for your organization.