Encourage online donations to your charity

Online donations offer a quick, easy way for people to donate to your charity or social enterprise.

The first step in allowing online donations is to sign up with an online donation service. The next page has a comparison of charity online donation services.

If you are not a registered charity you cannot use these services, but could use Paypal, or another online payment service. Paypal offers a variety of payment services, including an option for non-profits.

Once you have set up an online payment service, you should add a "Donate" button to your website, ideally in a prominent spot on every page of your site.

You should also consider allowing people to set up direct debits online. This not only makes the process easier for donors, but also reduces your administration costs as you don't need to post and chase up forms.

However, online direct debit products don't come cheap. The Charity Technology Trust offers an online direct debit service, which has a set-up fee of £1,000, a £20 per month support fee and costs £2 for each paperless direct debit.