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How To Appropriately Use Venmo For Nonprofits

How To Appropriately Use Venmo For Nonprofits

How To Appropriately Use Venmo For Nonprofits

Venmo has made it easier for nonprofits and cultural institutions to drive donations, sell tickets, and accept membership payments anytime, anywhere. Venmo requires only a few taps for donors to send their contributions, so it can often be simpler than going through an online payment process. 

With Venmo, you can accept more donations at events, in and outside of charities, appeal to younger donors, and more. 

Below we’ll cover everything about how to drive contributions with Venmo fundraising, Venmo nonprofit donations, and other types of payments for nonprofits. 

Why Venmo is used for nonprofits

Nonprofits can benefit from using Venmo in a few different ways. With more than 70 million users, most of whom live in the U.S. and are between the ages of 25-35, you’ll be able to accept payments from a large number of potential donors. 

Below we’ll look at some key benefits of using Venmo for your donations and fundraising efforts. 

Venmo fundraising and nonprofit donation

Venmo is a great fundraising and nonprofit tool because of how easy it is for donors to make contributions. You can use Venmo anywhere that you have access to a mobile device, like a phone, and with just a few clicks, your donor’s contribution is well on its way. 

And because people are so familiar with Venmo, accepting donations from Venmo is typically a seamless and swift process. You can also add Venmo as a payment option on your website or fundraising page, which will help promote donations through Venmo. 

Other benefits of Venmo for nonprofits

Other benefits of Venmo for nonprofits include free publicity, affordability, and familiarity with younger donors. 

  • Publicity: Venmo has features similar to those on social media platforms. Users can like, share, and publicize their transactions. Young donors care about the causes they contribute to, so they will likely want to share contributions with their friends and family. This is a quick, easy, and effective source of publicity, and it’s absolutely free when users make their transactions public. 
  • Affordability: Venmo is a relatively affordable payment platform for managing individual transactions. Nonprofit Venmo fees are priced at 1.9% fee +$0.10 for each transaction. These percentages are lower than most credit card transactions and are sustainable for filling your individual payment needs. 
  • Cater to young donors: If you’re going to continue building your donor base, you have to reach new and young donors on the platforms they’re familiar with. Venmo’s user base, as we discussed above, includes people in their 20s and 30s. Even if most of their contributions are small donations, it’s important to build your CRM and databases with potential members and future donors. 

Issues with nonprofits using Venmo

To be clear, all nonprofits should have Venmo as a payment option for their fundraising efforts. Venmo is used by too many donors (especially young donors) and can help you connect with young donors and market your organization, if nothing else. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best solution for large donation and fundraising campaigns. 

If you’re looking to scale your donation efforts, there are more affordable options that cater to nonprofits. Some of the limitations of Venmo for nonprofits include:

  • Designed for individual and personal use, not massive campaigns
  • Alternative payment processors are free for nonprofits
  • Venmo has P2P for individuals, not campaigns
  • No recurring payment options for future donations
  • Can’t issue tax-compliant receipts with Venmo, which is important for tax season
  • Venmo doesn’t have any donor management or member management features
  • No way to benefit from donor forms or post-donor surveys

Venmo alternatives for nonprofits

If you want a sustainable, scalable, and comprehensive donor management system, you’re going to need something more than a simple payment processor. 

With advanced ticketing, member management, and donor management software, like ACME Ticketing, you can benefit from an all-in-one payment solution to meet all you donor campaign needs. ACME Payments supports Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and other popular payment methods. 

You also get several donor-specific features and functionalities that can help you:

  • Send custom messages to potential donors.
  • Deep link from your website or marketing emails.
  • Streamline your directory for donor-only transactions, taking donors directly to payment after selecting their donation amount. 
  • Automate customized confirmation emails. 
  • Benefit from contactless payment options and flexible POS systems. 

When and where to use Venmo if your nonprofit has to

Venmo does have a place for nonprofits, but it shouldn’t be your primary source of accepting payments. In order to grow, nurture existing donors, and leverage data to better market and connect with your donors, you need a comprehensive ticketing and donor management system, like ACME.

So where does Venmo fit in your donation strategy? Venmo can be used for:

  • Smaller donations 
  • At third-party vendor events where you want to appeal to young donors and make donations easy
  • One-time payments
  • Individual donations, especially with younger donors
  • When you don’t have any other options

Why ACME has everything your nonprofit needs

With ACME ticketing, you can accept payments and donations, grow memberships, advance P2P campaigns, and drive your campaign at scale. ACME’s contactless payments and offline ticketing options mean you can accept and track payments anywhere, anytime. 

Click here to learn more about how ACME can provide your nonprofit with everything it needs to drive the most successful fundraising campaigns and events.



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