How to set up Venmo for nonprofit organizations

When your nonprofit depends on donations, it’s important to do everything possible to encourage donors to give. One key step in driving donations is to make the donation process as easy as possible. 

As everyone — donors included — increasingly spends time on their computers and phones, accepting online donations becomes essential for nonprofits. Plus, using a payment platform that your donors already use makes the donation process more convenient, so they may be more likely to give.

Steps to setting up Venmo for nonprofit organizations

If you want to connect with your donors and simplify the donation process, platforms like Venmo are essential. Venmo is a user-friendly mobile payment service that streamlines the process of making payments or donations. Once users have set up Venmo accounts and connected their banking information, making payments or donations takes less than a minute.

Venmo is a trusted, widely used platform, so accepting Venmo donations can boost donors’ confidence in your organization and make the process of giving easy and convenient.  

With a Venmo charity profile, you can collect in-app donations with your Venmo username. You can also access important tools, including a verified-charity checkmark to show donors that you’re a legitimate charity and a donor history for donor relations management.

You can set up Venmo for a nonprofit in a few simple steps:

1. Create a PayPal for nonprofits business account (Venmo is a PayPal company). Start by creating a business account and then choose the nonprofit designation. You’ll need to enter information such as your organization’s employer identification number (EIN), website URL, and bank account details.
2. Log in to your PayPal nonprofit business account.
3. Click on Business Tools and find the Venmo charity profiles app.
4. Click Get Started, which will take you to the Venmo website.
5. Create a Venmo account or log in to your existing Venmo account if you already have one.
6. Build your charity profile. You’ll need to input information like your organization name, description, category, and keywords. You’ll also need to include contact information and your organization’s website. Keep your organization’s username simple and short, so donors can easily find it when they search for your profile to make a donation. You can also upload photos demonstrating the work your organization does.
7. Preview your profile and edit any details as needed. 
8. Click Publish.

How to receive donations on Venmo

It’s easy to receive donations on Venmo. You can share your organization’s profile name, and users can search your name to find your profile and make a donation.

Venmo also offers unique QR codes that make receiving donations even easier. Navigate to your charity profile home screen to view your QR code. A donor can scan the code with their phone, and you can post it on social media to help them quickly get to your profile to donate.

You can also accept Venmo donations via Jotform’s online forms. Integrate Venmo with Jotform to easily collect donations right through your website. Jotform’s no-code form builder lets you custom create a donation form and then embed the form on your website so your visitors don’t have to take the extra step of finding your profile on Venmo.

Venmo charges a 1.9 percent fee plus $0.10 per donation. When you integrate Venmo with Jotform for nonprofits, Jotform charges no extra transaction fees.

How to build strong relationships with donors using Venmo

When you use Venmo for donations, make it as easy as possible for people to donate. Share your Venmo information on flyers, at public events, and on social media, and integrate Venmo with your online donation form.

When you receive donations, be sure to promptly contact and thank donors. Beyond an initial thank-you message, add donors to your donor management system and follow up with them regularly. Share news about your organization’s accomplishments and show them the change that their donations are helping to generate.

Why pairing Venmo with Jotform makes an ideal donation platform

The quality of your online donation form can impact how many donors are able to successfully navigate the donation process. Complex, error-prone donation forms that aren’t mobile-friendly can cause you to lose out on donations.

Creating a donation form with Jotform can help solve those problems. Jotform’s donation forms are clean, professional, and easy to navigate. For the best results, include only the fields that are absolutely essential, and keep the forms as brief and simple as possible.

Integrating the form with a trusted payment processor like Venmo can boost donors’ trust in the forms and save them time too. If donors already use Venmo, they can easily and instantly enable payments and make a donation. Plus, Jotform offers a 50 percent nonprofit discount on its already affordable pricing.

Accepting donations by Venmo can be a helpful way to encourage donors to give, potentially leading to more funds that allow your nonprofit to do even greater good. 

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko