Using Venmo and/or PayPal

Cameron Alzubi

Now that Venmo and PayPal are hard-coded payment options, is has anyone incorporated those payment options into their online giving pages? If so, what does that look like?

Lauren Fardella

We only Have PayPal activated along with our Online Express Form. The PayPal option is just a button on the donate now page.

https://fulfillnj.org/donate/

Austen Brown

Hi Cameron Alzubi‍ - It was announced during the RE-NXT Product Update for US organizations that an option to process payments via PayPal through Blackbaud Checkout will be coming soon to OLX forms, with other products getting access to this feature later in 2021. If you would like to view the Product Update recording on-demand, click here.

Lauren Fardella

Hi Austen!


will this only be an option if we create the forms in NXT?

Austen Brown

Hi Lauren Fardella‍ - It is my understanding that they are releasing it to Online Express forms first, and then other Products including NXT forms. Check out the on-demand Product Update (linked below) for more information.

Judy Spigarelli

Cameron Alzubi:

Now that Venmo and PayPal are hard-coded payment options, is has anyone incorporated those payment options into their online giving pages? If so, what does that look like?

Are they already available? Perhaps I'm missing it on my OLX forms.

Austen Brown

Hi Judy Spigarelli‍ - These payment options are 'coming soon' to OLX. See my comment below to Cameron, it contains more detail.

Judy Spigarelli

Austen Brown:

Hi Judy Spigarelli‍ - These payment options are 'coming soon' to OLX. See my comment below to Cameron, it contains more detail.

Thanks so much, Austen That's what I thought, but then was unsure. I appreciate your assistance!

Miki Martin

Our Advancement Department just opened a Venmo account in order to take payments for our recent student fundraiser. Currently, we are just sharing the QR code online via social media until things are incorporated more. Venmo just cut us a check for the fundraiser for us to deposit into the correct fund in Finance.


For this fundraiser, we did not track individual donors because so many of them were just for $5 and $10 and have no affiliation with our school. My goal for future use is to get the information from the donation page so I can upload it to RE.

Cheri Crist

Lauren, how did you get the PayPal button on your donate page?

Lauren Fardella

@Cheri Crist PayPal provides us a html code we can plug into the donation page on our website. This sits Above the code for the OLX page

Geoffrey Goodfellow

This is great information, and I've set up PayPal for our institution, and it is working fine. The problem I'm having is that the initial Online Express form on our website only shows “Credit Card” and “Direct Debit” as payment options. Its not until you click “Credit Card” that you are presented with the option to pay with PayPal on Blackbaud Checkout screen. For donors, they may not even realize that PayPal is an accepted payment method with us unless they attempt to donate with a credit card first. Can this be fixed?

Kristi Gessler

This is interesting Geoff. Are you using Blackbaud Checkout - where there are both the PayPal and Venmo buttons that has just been recently been released?

Kristi Gessler

Our organization is thinking of moving toward the new Blackbaud Checkout with Paypal and Venmo and are interested also to know if any organization out there has done/is doing this? One question I have are the PayPal/Venmo fees on top of the Blackbaud OneRate fee of 2.8% +.26 per transaction. It appears then we will have 2 sets of fees for these transactions. Also the reporting for Venmo - I'm hearing that it will be in PayPal, but in a PayPal chat, they said it would be in Venmo. This processing side of things is hazy and very important to us. Would love anyone's comments!

Austen Brown

Hi Kristi - the PayPal fees that you referenced are not on top of what you are charged via BBMS, they are separate and only for transactions processed via PayPal. Additionally, after Venmo was added to Blackbaud Checkout recently it caused errors and was subsequently removed - PayPal remains an option within Blackbaud Checkout. Any donation processed via PayPal/Venmo will be within your linked PayPal Business Account. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here or DM me.

Natalie Sambamurty

Has the Venmo problem been solved yet? We would love to have that feature on our site. Thanks!

Austen Brown

Hi @Natalie Sambamurty - Nothing has been mentioned by Blackbaud concerning Venmo lately, but I would imagine they are actively working on a fix. In the meantime, you are still able to utilize the PayPal integration with Blackbaud Checkout and offer that additional payment option to your donors.

Natalie Sambamurty

Do you still use Venmo? Is it easy to use?

Austen Brown

I have recently transitioned into the consulting side of the world, but at my previous organization we did not offer Venmo a payment option unless it available within Blackbaud Checkout. When it was working correctly, without errors, it was as easy to use for donors as the PayPal option is currently.

Jenny Marquardt

@Austen Brown this is a PayPal processing question. We have noticed that when we transfer our money from PayPal it can be transferred to any bank account. How are others ensuring it isn't being transferred to a personal account? Trying to figure out the internal controls.

Austen Brown

Hi @Jenny Stephens - At my last org, Finance ran point on the PayPal account and controlled access. The only bank account/s loaded into the PayPal account were the organization's. Same with RE, restrict access based on job responsibilities and think through who really needs access to this area of the process.