When I make appeals for donations, I usually keep it short and pull out all the superlatives. But this one is a little more difficult.
Without warning or explanation, PayPal suddenly shut down our online donation account on Dec. 5, an account we had had for 13 years without a hitch. It was a pretty simple system, but it was reliable … until it wasn’t.
Because the notice read, “We’d like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least disruptive to your business … ,” it wasn’t clear at first that our donation system was actually down and that this was an urgent matter. We were assured by their customer service that there was nothing unusual about our account, everything was in order, and that this seemed to be a rare glitch. We appealed the decision, of course, and fully expected our system would be back online any day. But PayPal never notified us of their final determination, which goes against their stated policy. So we had no online donation system for nine days in the crucial fund-raising month of December.
This wouldn’t be a big deal, we could just switch to a different provider, except that a few hundred donors in the account were giving automatic recurring donations, or about 80% of our donor base. Some of these donors had been making contributions for years, many since our founding in 2011. Recurring donations are the backbone of any nonprofit organization, providing reliable, sustainable funding. But all of that is gone now and has to be rebuilt.
The GOOD NEWS is that after a few sleepless nights and fighting the urge to endlessly watch cute animal videos, we put a shiny new donation system in place that is much more robust and has more bells and whistles. It has more ways to pay in addition to credit cards (Google Pay, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, ACH, Cash App), the option to add the cost of processing (we so appreciate that), and the ability to make donations in memory or honor of someone. Yes, for the holidays you can give the gift of donating to us and let the recipient know.
We’re super pleased with it. I squealed when the first donation came in and I got to see the cool new features in action.
So, hey! Give it a go. You can even make an automatic recurring donation. Help ArtsWatch to rebuild our donor base.
Sponsor
If you’ve already given this year, THANK YOU! If you’re one of those marvelous recurring donors, you’ll be hearing from me asking you to renew in our gleaming new system.
What do we have in store this coming year?
We’re aiming to roll out a new web design in January, which will be more modern and user-friendly.
Then we’ll turn our attention to building new information resources that will benefit the entire arts community in the state: an event calendar, artist residency listings, calls for art, professional development opportunities, grant information, and organization profiles.
And of course we’ll continue to bring you our excellent arts and culture coverage from our first-rate team of writers and editors.
We mean it when we say we do this work for you.
Sponsor
May your holidays be warm, merry, and bright!
Laura Grimes
Executive Director
Oregon ArtsWatch
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