idealist.org

How Can We Use Network for Good to Get Online Donations

Summary:

This service allows donors to forward money to any recognized charity. Here's how to make a link from your website. Network for Good was created based on Helping.org in 2001.

Answer:

This item was placed in an archive with other early FAQ discussions of questions about accepting donations online on February 24, 2006. To see the other articles, open http://www.idealist.org/npofaq/0/1547.html —Ed.

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Network for Good provides a facility to allow any US registered charity to receive donations online; donors can, in fact, select any recognized 501(c)(3) and direct a donation to it (a few have chosen to opt out of the system). A small percent of the donation is charged to defray transaction costs; Network for Good is supported by several large backers and also asks each donor to make a small contribution to help cover the cost of maintaining the service.

The learn how to set things up with a link to Network for Good from an organizational website, see http://www.networkforgood.org/npo/fundraising/donations/index.html. There is no charge for setting up a link.

The rest of this page describes the original Helping.org service.
Helping.org is a service of the AOL Foundation. The AOL Foundation created
the website and underwrites all the costs of its operation. For more
information, see http://www.aolfoundation.org.

At http://www.helping.org/, visitors will find information about the
nonprofit sector, invitations to volunteer, and the opportunity to donate to
any recognized charity in the United States. (Organizations are allowed to
opt out of the Helping.org system, so a few charities may not be accessible
in this way.)

Helping.org invites charities to create a direct link from their own
websites to an online form where donors can enter their personal information
and the amount they want to contribute. Helping.org has a webpage which explains how to add information to your own webpage to encourage supporters to use the service to make donations to you. See http://www.helping.org/register/link.adp

Guidestar is a service of Philanthropic Research, Inc. It offers a database
of information about all registered 501(c)(3) charities in the United
States. You can visit the Guidestar database directly at
http:/www.guidestar.org/. Guidestar offers a facility for adding to and
updating the information about your organization which gives you a chance to
correct anything that might be out of date and create a stronger message
about the scope and value of your services. How to do this is explained at
http://www.guidestar.org/npo/

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Posted 12/15/99; revised 9/22/00, 9/26/05 -- PB