Do You Take Diners Club?
In 1950, the first credit card, the Diners Club card, was created. It was touted as a card that could be accepted “everywhere” — or at least at any participating store.
For most of us, Diners Club cards went the way of the Rolodex and the Selectric typewriter — maybe still used by some, but not so much.
For nonprofits, accepting a Diners Club card has not been an option for decades. Most organizations take cash, check, or credit card — or not.
Depending on the circumstance, most organizations will accept cash, but not all. Because of COVID or other concerns, many major businesses have stopped taking cash (i.e. Whole Foods, Sweetgreen, most airlines, and many restaurants). Obviously, cash has its issues beyond COVID (like the PTA event I once went to where the committee head was putting the cash received in her pocket “for safekeeping”.)
Most organizations take credit cards (“all major credit cards”), but they will not take “all credit cards”. Whether it’s American Express, VISA, MasterCard, Discover, or even Diners Club, it’s important to be clear about what you accept.
Many, if not most, nonprofits really, really prefer checks, so that they don’t have to pay the credit card fee. I’ve had lengthy discussions with nonprofit managers about the pros and cons of accepting credit cards, as they often lament the approx. 3% charge to do so. They often suggest strongly pushing payment by check, to avoid that fee.
Pushing payment by check has all sorts of issues as well — especially with physical checks. Checks can bounce. People can say “the check’s in the mail”. Snail mail can not make it to its destination. And most people no longer use checkbooks.
Online bill pay is great, and usually works out fine. But not all donors are comfortable with that, and it doesn’t work well with immediate, on the fly, solicitation programs.
For events (when they start up again), asking only for checks will leave out the majority of folks who don’t bring checkbooks with them. However, asking for only online payments (i.e. square, stripe, etc.) make some people uncomfortable, and then there’s that pesky fee.
Venmo is great, but not great for tracking tax-deductible payments. Paypal generally has a fee associated with it.
If you’re thinking that “oy vey!”, this is a fraught issue, you’re correct. And here’s another wrinkle…
Why is it that so many solicitations from nonprofits — whether it’s on the website on in a snail mail piece — say that you can contribute by donating your car or securities?
For many charities, I think they’re only saying that because someone else had it on their materials, and it sounded good. My experience is that this car/securities thing has rarely been thought through.
Let’s start with the car donation thing. First, I have spoken to many heads of nonprofits, and when I asked them if they really accept cars, they looked at me with a bit of a blank stare. When I finally got someone to answer the question, I was told that “there are services that do that for us”. None of them had ever — even once — had someone ask to donate a car — yet this “offer” appeared on their solicitations. And guess what — the truth is that donating your car to a charity is often “the least cost-effective way to give to a charity,” per Stephanie Kalivas, an analyst with CharityWatch.
As to the securities thing, I have myself donated securities to nonprofits, but other than when donating via a Donor Advised Fund, it’s been a challenge. With more than one organization, I had to speak with the CFO and explain to them how to accept my stock. On at least one occasion, I had to walk the CFO through the process of setting up an account with a brokerage house in order to have them be able to accept the securities I wanted to donate. Perhaps the nonprofit should figure out how and if they can really accept said securities before they promote it as a means for making a donation.
Bottom line: Accept that there are pros and cons with pretty much all forms of payment. Spend some time thinking about what type of payment you are going to accept from donors, and then create a specific, detailed plan to accept those forms of payment. Saying, “hmmm…I need to get back to you on that” is not an acceptable response to a donor call.
And don’t say that you accept “all credit cards” if it’s not true. (If you really do accept Diners Club, go right ahead.)
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- Lisa