Non-Profit Organizations: You Should Utilize Credit Card Payments and Donations

A non-profit organization should utilize the capabilities of accepting credit cards for payments and donations.  The bottom line is that by accepting credit cards, it can help your organization reach your financial goals faster and more efficiently.  It is crucial for your organization to understand the processing fees and how to minimize your costs.

What You Need to Know

When you chose a processor for accepting credit cards as a non-profit organization, it is important that you have an understanding of the two components that make up the cost of processing: interchange and assessments.  It is also imperative to understand what your mark-up cost is with the processor.

Interchange - For any business or organization, the interchange fee makes up the bulk of the cost to process credit cards. Interchange is a set of “categories” used to classify transactions - Each interchange category has a rate associated with it. When your organization accepts a card, the transaction is charged according to the rate for the category it falls into.  The interchange fees are paid to the issuing bank that issued the credit card to your customer.

Assessments - In credit card processing, assessments are the fees charged by the credit card associations (Visa, MasterCard & Discover.) These fees are in addition to the interchange rates and are paid to the card associations.

Markup - The processor’s markup is the amount that the processor makes as their profit from processing your transactions and handling the payment for you.  It is important for you to research your processing options, find a true expert in the field and chose a partner that you trust like Apex Payment Solutions!

What is important for a non-profit organization?

Non-profits, like all other businesses, still have to pay interchange, assessments and markup.  However, with a processor who is familiar with non-profit processing - it may be possible to secure lower interchange rates which would mean a lower total cost for you.  How your organization is set up and categorized is crucial because transactions that will only go to a lower rate if your organization is set up correctly with your merchant category code (MCC) – it is a 4-digit number assigned to a business or non-profit organization when they begin accepting credit cards. The MCC has a direct impact on what interchange fees your organization will pay for credit card transactions.  This is why it is crucial to have a processing expert help guide you through the set up process and to make sure your business is classified properly in order to save on your bottom line.

Other ways to save the bottom line

As we have stated throughout this blog, it is important to pick an expert that not only will help you secure a good rate (interchange + assessments + markups) but will help you find other ways to lower your overall expenses. 

Credit card processing for non-profits does not have to be a headache. Let Apex Payment Solutions help you find a way to incorporate credit card payments to increase your bottom line while minimizing your total costs.  Contact us today to find out how we can help your non-profit organization!