Social fundraising platform Believe.in has partnered with online payments processor Stripe today to help cut down the time it takes for charities to process and receive fundraising sponsorship, recurring monthly payments and one-off donations.
Believe.in launched in March and differs from competitors such as HopeMob and Givey because it guarantees that 100 percent of the money raised through its platform – including any GiftAid reclaimed in the United Kingdom – will go straight to the relevant charity.
The company had previously partnered with the PayPal Giving Fund to ensure there are no credit card fees whatsoever. With the new Stripe integration, Believe.in claims that charities will receive new funds up to one month faster “than the existing norm.” The caveat, however, is that Stripe takes a flat fee for processing online payments, which means that charities will need to account for this if they plan to do a large amount of fundraising through the platform.
“We have a number of game changing products in the pipeline for charities that will fundamentally alter how they access and use the web to increase awareness of their missions and do things more effectively with the aid of technology,” Matthias Metternich, CEO and co-founder of Believe.in said.
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“Today’s partnership is another example of our commitment to fusing creativity, design and technology together to create tools that help charities change the world for the better – direct donation transfers is a big part of this new modern tool set.”
Believe.in is one of the most attractive and fully featured fundraising platforms that TNW has come across. Each user is given a profile page with a custom URL, which they can use to write a short bio, show their support for any number of charities and also post status updates about their philanthropic deeds.
The platform is its own, self-contained social network, giving users the ability to comment, republish or ‘heart’ any activity posted on the site. Rather like Twitter and Facebook, it’s also possible to search and connect with pages dedicated to individual charities, which is a nice touch for those hoping to find an undiscovered but equally worthy cause.
On top of all this, however, is a robust fundraising mechanism. Each challenge or goal has its own custom URL, with clear progress indicators for visitors – who don’t need to be a Believe.in user to donate – to track and offer support.
To coincide with the Stripe integration, Believe.in is also announcing today that a new dashboard design is being rolled out to charities, making it easier for them to access, view and manage donations in real-time.
Image Credit: Juan CARLOS/AFP/Getty Images
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