Clover Donations (coming soon!)
Exciting news!
We wanted to tell all of you about our brand new product called Clover Donations. We are creating the easiest and most intuitive way for your organization to accept donations online. We’ve been plugging away super hard at this new product for a few months now, and we’re ready to tell the world about it.
Check out our announcement video below:
Many of you have been asking for a solution to online giving, and up to this point our recommendation has unfortunately been PayPal. We’ve decided to finally solve this problem and fix the gap in the church and non-profit industry in true Clover fashion. As easy and robust as it can possibly be.
Clover Donations will allow you to accept donations online. You will be able to accept money online from anywhere with an internet connection – whether from a computer, mobile phone or tablet… Your donors can give wherever they are.
You will also be able to accept all major credit cards as well as bank account transfers… with one-time gifts or automatic recurring donations. You can customize your donations forms for your organization, and even set up multiple different forms.
On top of simply accepting donations, you’re also going to want to manage things. We created a brand new tool called the Donation Center. The Donations Center gives you donation reporting, transaction control, and even donor management. Plus, it allows you to customize your forms and receipt emails. It’s designed specifically for churches and non-profits, so it should serve your needs much better than a generic payment processing company.
Pricing: If you know anything about the merchant service industry, you know that setting up the ability to take donations online is a beast of a task… You’d typically have to set up your own merchant account, gateway, and even find someone to create and host your online donation form, all with setup and monthly fees involved.
We really feel like this industry should be easier than that. We’re working closely with a great company called CashLinq to drastically simplify the process, and allow us to set up everything you need for just $10/month (with no setup fee!). Plus you get the Donation Center and access to our awesome customer service.
Launch Date: As we mention in the video, we are shooting really hard for the beginning of December to allow you guys to have this product before the typical ramp up for end of the year giving. Once we’re up and running, we’ll be sure to announce it all over the place so you can sign up and start accepting donations!
In the meantime, check out www.cloverdonations.com to read a little more about our new product. (We’ll have a full site coming later).
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Updates:
There has been a couple of new posts after this initial announcement. He have a pricing update post, as well as answers for a bunch of FAQ’s. Check them out!
87 Comments
This is amazing. What about your Canadian customers? Is this going to be an option for us as well?
Awesome news guys! we’ve been wanting to do this for a while. THis will make it easier to implement.
Do you know if there will be an option to not allow credit cards? We don’t want people to go into debt to make a donation or pay thier tithes.
Really? Just $10/month? No transaction fee?
If the answer to all those is yes… then I may travel out there and hug you all.
How will this work or integrate with a clover site?
Hey Matthew. Yes! Absolutely. We wouldn’t want to forget our Canadian customers!Update: It turns out that the banking and credit card system is a lot more complicated in Canada. We’ll be working hard to offer service outside the US in the future, but when we launch, it will be limited to customers in the states. (Although you’ll still be able to accept money from other countries).Hi Mike,
Yes. We thought of that! You will be able to select the options you want specifically. You can allow for no credit cards, but allow for a bank transfer if you like. Should be perfect for you guys.
Will this work for non-USA banks. ie Will it work for Australian donors using a credit card on an Australian bank?
Hey Joe,
It will be $10 bucks a month, plus a flat transaction fee. Still should be a great savings compared to what’s out there! Check out the details: http://www.cloverdonations.com/pricing/
Hey Benjamin,
Yes! It will absolutely integrate well with your Clover site. We will have more information out next week, but it will be a lot like the Launch buttons you currently have for your Media Player, Calendar, etc. Easy access for your members for sure!
EXCELLENT! Question: Could the system be used to – say – collect event registration fees as well as donations?
Hey Jeff,
Yea, definitely. We hope to eventually make it seamless for event registration, but with this first release it could definitely be used that way! More details coming in the next week or two, but yes, it could work well for this!
Thank you guys! For NPOs is going to a great solution!
Hey Don,
We hope so! We are looking into it and will release more information when we have specifics. Most definitely our plan though!
is it going to have a “report or recipt for donors”? and taxes for the gov?
i am so interested in this. You continue to impress
Is there a way to designate a donation for a specific fund (i.e. – camp, benevolence, missions, etc.)?
YES YES YES!!! I cant believe how awesome you guys are – thanks for making this a reality! You can believe that as soon as its available we’re gonna use it!
This is great news guys. Just curious, would small store integration be an option or is it specifically donation based? Just curious.
This could not come at a better time. We have been ‘dreading’ getting into this are as we are just getting our website up and running. THANK YOU as always for being so forward thinking and generous.
God bless,
Treva Tankard
Harvest Church
This is AWESOME! I have been majorly researching this exact product with so many different companies and NONE seem right. After looking into this, I am totally on board with you! You guys know EXACLTY what churches need and want and you know how to deliver! I am very thankful for you and praise God for what you do!!! I wanna give you all a HUGE hug!!!
Keep doing great things.
Will we have the option to choose a merchant processor of our choice? 3.5% plus0.45c seems a little high considering the options that are out there today.
What about the securing of the credit card and bank account information?
Hey guys,
I know that you don’t have so many customers out here… but do you think it will be possible to do that in France, like it will work with every Cards (Mastercard, Visa, etc.) ?
Anyway, thanks.
Answer to prayer. Nuff said. Thank you peeps! XOXOXO ~Victoria @ The Devoted Woman
This is a good step forward for the product but unfortunately I feel 3.5% and 45cents per transaction is one of the highest rates I have seen. If you shop around at all you know you can find rates as low as 1.8% with some other great merchants. Is there a plan in place to lower the rates to be more competitive?
As a church, we are emphasizing the principals of financial freedom put forth by Dave Ramsey.
Following these principals, we discourage the use of credit cards. Will it be possible to limit transactions in the Donation Center to debit or bank transfers?
Aw, thanks Victoria!
You guys are doing a great job. We look forward to seeing your new service. I especially like the fact that your services don’t require a giant users guide. It is all common sense.
May the Lord continue to bless your work!
Fr. Tom
3.5% and $.45 per transaction, plus $10/month is very high. Most merchant fees are much lower than this and Papal is only 2.2%. That’s a $12 per $1000 savings by going with paypal. I would love to use this, so please consider coming way down on the fees.
This looks great! Question: Are we going to be able to pull giving histories for each individual donor? It would be really helpful for giving people charitable contribution receipts for tax purposes at the end of the year.
What are the fees for bounced checks (ACH) and declined credit cards, etc…
Hell ye…..errr Heaven yes! This is going to be Awesome! Thanks for being lead by the spirit on this one guys! Now if we can get some more functionality out of the calendar like multi-color event markers. That would be super extra awesome! But regular awesome is good though!
This is what we have been looking for! Thanks for meeting this need.
Will the giving stat/profiles export to Quickbooks or Excel?
Is there going to be seperate pricing for NPOs and FPOs (like paypal offers)? Thats one of things that is most attractive about their donation capability…just curious if your pricing will be competitive in this way.
Excellent! I have been researching options for event registrations and online giving recently, and simply adding on to our Clover sites will be so lovely! And thanks for including us Canadians, too!
Will it work in Australia?
What an awesome feature! We have been planning to get this area up & running and as you said it is a headache. This will save us so much time & trouble. Looking forward.d
Can’t thank you guys enough! A donation solution for our website has been our #1 priority!
Jeff
What percent is CashLinq taking of each donation made with this service?
think that this is a really great idea.
Will it work in the UK?
Is this something that will be available to use with non clover sites also?
Hey guys, love this new option and can’t wait to present it to my board. A couple questions that I know they will ask…
1. I read above about the option to accept only bank transfers and not cards. Is it possible to differentiate between cards and only accept debit cards but not credit cards?
2. Is there still a % transaction fee on bank transfers and debit cards, or is that only on credit cards?
Thanks and keep up the amazing work!
Josh
Awesome!!!! This could not come at a better time. You guys never cease to amaze. Keep up the great work.
Will we be able to link this to clover forms? In otherwords, if I am doing an event registration, will I be able to have the user enter their registration form and then pay the fee?
Hey Darwin,
Yes, there will be a reporting feature with a history of giving. It most likely won’t be a one click solution for sending out your year end tax letters, but it will most definitely be able to separate your donors and their giving records!
Hi Dori,
Yes! You will be able to have multiple forms and funds:)
Hey Heath,
Yes, it is definitely donation driven and designed specifically for giving, but for now, if you’re selling tickets to something, or have an event where you need to receive payments, it could absolutely work! It might be a bit of a workaround for a store, but maybe down the road we will have something more specific for this.
Hey Brian,
The guys are going to post a more specific article about all that the 3.5% includes. Hopefully that will help you make your decisions on if this a good fit for you and your organization. Clover Donations is definitely a more robust and fuller offer than most online giving resources out there. We’ll do our best to lay out all that it involves!
Hi John,
I will let Ben and Jim address this one more in depth, but know that we will most definitely be in compliance with HTTPS and PCI security standards.
Hey Lorenzo (and our other international customers!),
We are working on the details with international use for Clover Donations. We’ve been asked about France, Australia, Canada, and the UK so far, and we aren’t exactly sure just yet. We are doing everything we can do to help it along. More news to follow!
Hey Caleb,
Jim and Ben will speak to this a bit more in depth with a more detailed post soon, but know that there are a lot of factors that go into the different rates you’ll find (and a lot of difference in what is ‘included’ in your price). You’ll hear about “Qualified” or “Non Qualified” rates, and how they vary. Whether or not a resource includes Customer Service, a Donor Management Tool, Reporting Features, etc.
I think you’ll find that Clover Donations is quite a bit more robust and has a lot more to offer than a lot of the online giving sites you’ll find out there.
More details coming soon!
Hi Aaron,
For now, debits and credits are in the same genre, so you will not be able to separate those two, but you can definitely opt for the bank transfers only if you prefer!
Hi Dayne,
Keep an eye out for the upcoming blog post. We will give more details on what your 3.5% includes so you can compare apples to apples and make the best decision for your organization.
Clover Donations is definitely a much fuller resource than most options out there and we’re happy to give you all the details. Coming soon!
This is great! We have had a Clover site for quite a while and have recently been shopping third party online giving companies because of the hassle we have with our current one.
What steps should we be taking right now to prepare our merchant accounts and gateway’s that are currently connected to different companies? The more we can work in advance the better.
Thanks
Hi David.
Yes! You will have a Donor management tool that gives a history and giving record for each person.
Hey Jim,
Yes. All your giving records will be exportable!
Hey Nathan,
All of our pricing is really directed toward the Non Profit market. No differences for other options at this point!
Hey Justin,
We will have a more detailed post this week (hopefully), so keep your eyes on the blog! We’d love to give specifics on price breakdown and also all that Clover Donations includes. So much more than your typical PayPal experience! We think you’re going to be happy about it ~
Hi Luke,
Yes! Great question. Clover Donations will work with any other offering out there! It is perfect for the Clover site owner and also for others who’d like to have a great tool to plug in!
Hi Josh,
Yes, you can delineate between credit cards and bank transfers and the % does change. With bank transfers, the charge is only 1% (plus .45 per transaction). At this point credit cards and debit cards are in the same genre so if you offer one, you will need to offer both options. If you’d prefer though, you can opt out of those and only offer bank transfers!
More details coming soon!
Is there a way to only accept debit card transactions?
Hey Sean,
Yes, you can most definitely use this tool for event registration, but it is a little bit of a workaround! We’ve definitely created this for online donations, but we’re all for you using it however you like!
Hey Philip,
Great question. For now, if you accept debit cards, you’ll need to accept credit cards as well. They are in the same classification with online giving.
You can however have only bank transfers if you prefer? That is one way to exclude the credit card option. Maybe that could work for you? This gives you a really low transaction % too!
Hey Chris,
Regarding decline check and credit cards fees, we will have a more detailed post soon with this type of information for you!
The quick answer is that because the transactions are typically declined on the spot, there are little to no fees associated with this. There are times when other things are involved (with charge backs, when fraud is involved, etc.), but this is classified separately and a not a very common thing!
We’d love to be able to unify our online donation with clover, but those costs are outrageous. We will be getting a 1.59% rate and 25cent per transaction. Paypal is 2.2% and .30/transaction. I’m not convinced to go with the service because the cost is twice that of our current service, not to mention the $10/month…talk me into it because it looks slick
We also will start using ipad kiosks with card swipers–does your new clover system include some type of card swiper?
Hey Dave,
Aw, we’d love to talk you into this, but mostly we would just say you may want to wait for a bit more information. We realize we didn’t give a ton of details with our announcement Friday, but we hope you’ll wait just a bit to make your decisions.
The biggest thing I can say to you now is that Clover Donations is just a completely different offering than your typical PayPal transaction. There is so much more to it and we think everyone will see it just isn’t an apples to apples comparison.
Customizable forms, multiple fund options, reporting, donor management, and customer service whenever you need it! It’s a different product that provides one of the same services. . . we think you’re going to enjoy seeing the finished product.
More details coming soon Dave!
Dave,
I love Mac products, too, but I’m not sure I’d “complain” about pricing and then talk about my iPads in the same breath.
Just messing with you,
Mike
I just want to ask, how much of these higher fees go to Clover? Thank you.
Yes, thank you!! You guys rock
Hey TC,
We are working out the details and will follow up with a new blog post very soon. Keep your eyes on the blog!
I agree that your credit card rate is too high for us, but we are considering using the bank transfers only. We certainly love the ease of everything else on your site!
One thing that is very important to us is controlled admin access. Would it be possible to have the reporting on individual donors be password protected, even from the webmaster, so only those who handle collections could view individual records? Our church highly values confidentiality in our collections, and only a few people can have access to individual records. The collection reporting of trends, totals, etc. are fine for staff viewing, just not the individual donor records.
Will this handle multiple funds. Example: Tithe and offerings / Capital Fund Drive / Preschool Tuition, and report donations by fund?
How often will transactions be uploaded to our bank – by transaction, or by batch (i.e. weekly)?
This is a great addition to your product. The pricing is a bit of a question for us. You’re quoting 3.5% + $0.45 per transaction. We’re currently using Paypal. The Paypal rates are: 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction with no monthly fee. Is this just an initial launch price? Will it come down in the future?
That’s great news. Question I have is on the pricing. I think it reads 3.5%. I believe that Paypal is 2.9%. Am I right on this? It sounds like we won’t be able to keep our option with Paypal (maybe via a link or something). Love to see them match Paypal – or am I simply reading the percentage rate wrong? Thanks
Hey Brian,
Regarding your question about preparing to change to Clover Donations, there really isn’t a whole lot you’ll need to do! It should be a fairly simple process of getting your account in order and then showing your church how to use it!
We will be posting more details in the days and weeks to come, so keep your eyes on the blog for more information.
Looking forward to it!
Hi Paula,
Yes, absolutely. There will be a variety of options for your Admin account and the access you allow for any others working with your Donation information. This will definitely be under your control.
More details coming soon!
Hey Steve,
Yes, multiple funds and multiple forms! And the details of the deposits and timing of them coming soon! We are working out the details but should be giving more information in the next days and weeks to come.
Hi Andy,
We are still working on this and should have a bit more of the details very soon!
Hey Brad. Hoping to have more details soon. Keep your eyes on the blog for a new post from the guys!
When you’re thinking about the international thing, don’t forget about ‘lil ‘ol New Zealand way down at the bottom of the world. Looks like a very convenient feature!
Can we pay the $10 fee yearly like we do with the hosting or does it have to be monthly? Btw, I’m excited for this.
Hey Rene!
More details coming this week. Keep your eye on speakingofclover.com
What about overseas clover customer ? will this work with customer outside of the US ? what happens to taxation etc ..
Hey Jason,
We are working on this too! More information coming about this in the weeks to come. If you haven’t yet, check out the new blog post. We’ve changed things up a bit and will be releasing early 2012!
Did not see a comment re: commercial accounts so,… will this be available in a format that is less “Donations” and more “Payments”? I have a church account and a commercial account that I manage. I may want to use this options on both.
For the answers to all the questions anyone has asked so far, check out this new post: http://www.speakingofclover.com/2011/11/clover-donations-faqs/
Great insight! That’s the anwser we’ve been looking for.