Braintree Payment Gateway for NPO’s

Braintree – a division of PayPal, is a payment service provider based in Chicago. Founded in 2007, Braintree helps businesses of all sizes to accept and process payments.

Through this payment gateway, your business can accept online and mobile payments from 45 countries in 130+ currencies.

The PCI compliance of Braintree is virtually automatic. It stores all the credit card data of all its merchant systems in its own secure servers so you do not have to worry about PCI compliance when processing transactions.

With Braintree card processing you can accept payment through:

  • Credit and debit card including MasterCard, Visa, Maestro, Discover, American Express, Diners’ Club, JCB, and UnionPay. Click here to know in which countries these cards are accepted
  • ACH Direct Debit
  • PayPal
  • PayPal One Touch
  • PayPal Credit
  • Venmo
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • Android Pay
  • Visa Checkout
  • Masterpass
  • Amex Express Checkout

Some of the other features Braintree offers for businesses are:

  • Seamless Checkout
  • Drop-in UI
  • Custom UI
  • Data Security
  • Fraud Protection
  • White-Glove Support
  • Reporting
  • Recurring Billing
  • Anonymous Payments
  • 3D Secure
  • Account Updater
  • Third party integrations like BigCommerce, WooCommerce, yodel etc. Click here to view the entire list.

Now that we’ve covered the core features offered by Braintree, let’s take a look at how NPO’s can benefit from this payment gateway. We contacted Braintree with the following questions and they were patient enough to answer all of them.

1. What is the pricing structure for NPO’s?

Pricing for verified charitable 501(c)(3) organizations is 2.2% + $.30 per transaction. There is no monthly fees, and minimum transaction processing amount. You only pay for what you use. Visa, MasterCard, Discover, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay are all included at the same rate.

2. Does Braintree support recurring payments?

Yes. The recurring payment system can be set to monthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual basis.

3. What happens if a donor’s credit card expires? Is there a way to inform the donor?

To a certain extent, expired credit cards can be used to transfer funds.

To avoid declines, it is good to keep the payment methods up-to-date. For example, merchants who primarily transact with US customers can activate the account updater to avoid failed transactions.

Customers have the ability to update their payment information without any interruptions to their current subscription plan. Braintree’s Account Updater feature includes no additional costs for merchants who have purchased the standard full stack solution package.

Account updater is a feature that automatically requests updates if a customer’s vaulted card expires or is replaced. This helps to avoid failed transactions or gaps in services you provide to customers. Braintree has agreements with Visa, Mastercard, and Discover Card to update vaulted cards if,

  • Card expires
  • Card is set to expire in the current month
  • Recurring billing payment is due within 2 weeks
  • Card has been processed successfully in the last 13 months but was declined within the last 30 days (relevant transaction activity)
  • Card has been flagged for next day card refresh

Also, Braintree cannot assist you with updating clients regarding their expired credit card. From your end, you can run a scan to get a list of expiring credit cards and update clients via email.

4. What happens when a subscriber wants to change their subscription? (e.g. upgrade/downgrade)

For upgrades and downgrades, use plugins like PayPal Powered by Braintree and Braintree for WooCommerce or make changes through the API.

If proration on upgrade or downgrade is enabled, customers will be immediately charged
or credited a prorated amount.

5. Is it possible to set the subscription options to ‘indefinitely active’ until the member/donor (a) cancels or (b) their credit card expires?

You can set the subscription cycle to never expire. You can also customize the retry logic for unsuccessful transactions.

6. Should users have a registered Braintree account to pay using debit/credit cards?

Only a merchant has to set up an account with Braintree, not the user.

7. Is it possible for donors to make an anonymous donation?

To process a transaction, you needn’t pass the cardholder’s name. So collecting or not collecting the information is your choice.

8. Does Braintree integrate with WHMSC?

WHMSC integrates with Braintree. Click here to read more.

9. Can Braintree be integrated with WordPress?

Merchants typically use plugins such as WooCommerce, PayPal Powered by Braintree and Braintree for WooCommerce to integrate with WordPress.

When choosing a payment gateway for NPO’s think carefully about what you want. Think beyond costs and find out the one that will benefit your organization. If it is a payment gateway you’ve been using for a long time, ensure that it’s still providing the benefits you want.

We hope that you found this information useful and that it helps you more easily choose the best payment gateway for your non-profit organization.

Which payment gateway are you using for your NPO? What do you like and dislike about them?
Do share your experience in the comments section below to help other NPO’s make better payment gateway decisions.

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