Look for a new donations platform

[jamezpolley]

Current system

Main OAF system

• Stripe for credit card handling
• Self-hosted CiviCRM instance for subscription management
• Donations forms on self-hosted Wordpress/CiviCRM instance
• Signups can be done through CiviCRM; but changes (inc cancellations) require that people email us and we manually handle
• We can see information about subscribers in Stripe, but that's the only reliable source.

PlanningAlerts system

• We also have a donations form on planningalerts itself which specifically targets the $4/month recurring donors
• No integration with CiviCRM; donors here don't show up there and vice versa. It's possible for the same person to end up with two subscriptions, one via CiviCRM and one via this system, and no way to cancel either without emailing us.

Current problems

• Dual subscription
• Manual work for change/cancel
• No way for donors to see an overview
• CiviCRM install is out of date; CiviCRM plugin often fails -> donors can't donate.
• Some donors prefer a direct bank transfer

Requirements for a replacement

Must have

• Work with existing Stripe account
• Allow for recurring or one-off donations
• Alow for suggested donations (5/15/25/50/100 month, 25/60/125/100/1000 once)
• Allow for "Other" amounts
• Be able to be embedded into oaf.org.au and planningalerts sites
• Reliably take donations when people try to donate
• Needs to be able to be up and running ASAP

Strongly preferred

• The ability for donors to manage their own donations
• Ability to import existing Stripe customer data
• End-of-financial-year receipts at the start of July (ie, our financial year, not US tax year)
• Low cost
• A way to integrate with mailout platform (to allow targeted messages thanking donors - slightly different from messaging to not-yet donors)

I'm embedding various options into https://www.oaf.org.au/test-donation-page/ as I go.

[jamezpolley]

Donorbox

• [x] Work with existing Stripe account

• [x] Allow for recurring or one-off donations

• [x] Alow for suggested donations (5/15/25/50/100 month, 25/60/125/100/1000 once)

• [x] Allow for "Other" amounts

• [x] Be able to be embedded into oaf.org.au and planningalerts sites

• [ ] Reliably take donations when people try to donate I guess we won't know this until we try it..

• [x] Needs to be able to be up and running ASAP

• [x] The ability for donors to manage their own donations

• [ ] Ability to import existing Stripe customer data Nope.

• [x] End-of-financial-year receipts at the start of July (ie, our financial year, not US tax year)

• [x] Low cost

  Donorbox is free if you receive less than $1,000 in donations for a month. If you reach $1,000 for a month, we charge a small platform transaction fee of 1.5% for the entire month's donations. Donorbox invoices and charges your billing card at the beginning of the next month if any fees are incurred during the month.

API access is $17/month. Mailchimp integration $8/month. Corporate gift matching through https://doublethedonation.com/ $40/month (largely US companies). Salesforce integration $50/month.

• [x] A way to integrate with mailout platform (to allow targeted messages thanking donors - slightly different from messaging to not-yet donors)
  • Direct integration if we use mailchimp
  • Otherwise, api + zapier can work with campaignmonitor or other systems
  • [x] Multiple "campaigns" - eg, planningalerts-recurring, planningalerts one-off, OAF recurring, OAF one-off

API docs: https://github.com/donorbox/donorbox-api - seems to be read-only.

Expected cost, assuming API access is turned on, and assuming only one month per year where we exceed $1000USD: $579USD

Donorbox allows manual recording of a cash/check/bank transfer donation through the web UI

[jamezpolley]

Donately

• [x] Work with existing Stripe account

• [x] Allow for recurring or one-off donations

• [x] Alow for suggested donations (5/15/25/50/100 month, 25/60/125/100/1000 once)

• [x] Allow for "Other" amounts

• [x] Be able to be embedded into oaf.org.au and planningalerts sites

  • Paid feature, untested
  • Campaign page is at https://pages.donately.com/openaustraliafoundation/campaign/planningalerts-eofy-campaign; I haven't spent much time customising it, but it does show the "give now" form.

• [ ] Reliably take donations when people try to donate

• [x] Needs to be able to be up and running ASAP

• [x] The ability for donors to manage their own donations

  • https://donately.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009058354-How-to-edit-your-recurring-donation describes the process
  • API also allows for updating of person details and donation details so we could have our own dashboard to do this

• [ ] Ability to import existing Stripe customer data

• [ ] End-of-financial-year receipts at the start of July (ie, our financial year, not US tax year)

  • none provided; but data is in the API

• [x] Low cost

• [x] A way to integrate with mailout platform (to allow targeted messages thanking donors - slightly different from messaging to not-yet donors)

  • Nothing direct - but webhooks and API mean this can be added
  • [x] Multiple "campaigns" - eg, planningalerts-recurring, planningalerts one-off, OAF recurring, OAF one-off

API docs: https://api-v1-docs.donately.com/

Expected cost over 12 months for $25,000 in donations: $588 subscription, $500 platform fees, $1088USD total

Donately also allows for supports to create their own fundraisers - "Help me raise money for this cause i care about!" which contribute to the overall campaign. According to The Literature this kind of social awareness tends to increase overall donations.

Donately allows recording cash/check donations through the web UI or API - which then puts the donor into the system and sends them a receipt email

[jamezpolley]

We've decided to go ahead with Donorbox - it's cheaper and offers more of what we need right now. Further work on EOFY2019 tracked in https://github.com/openaustralia/oaf/issues/272