Collecting donations differs from collecting payments: a donation page, long-running bank mandates, the right receipt, and donors who stay for years.
Key takeaways
- A regular donor on a bank mandate does not churn because a card expired. That is why Masav is common in nonprofits.
- A donation page is not a product page: suggested amounts, a standing-order option, and the purpose of the gift.
- The document sent to a donor depends on the type of organisation and gift - a question for the nonprofit's accountant.
- Israeli providers present dedicated solutions: SUMIT presents donation pages with card and Masav standing orders, Cardcom presents a clearing category for nonprofits and institutions, and Tranzila presents card clearing for nonprofits.
Collecting donations looks like collecting payments and behaves differently. The donor is not buying a product, the document they receive is not a tax invoice, the relationship runs for years rather than months, and the collection rail regular donors prefer is usually a bank mandate rather than a card. Anyone who sets up a nonprofit system as though it were a shop finds the gaps in year two.
How a donation differs from a payment
| A payment in a business | A donation to a nonprofit | |
|---|---|---|
| What the payer receives | A product or service | No direct consideration |
| The document | An invoice or receipt | A receipt suited to the organisation and gift |
| Relationship length | Months | Often years |
| Common collection rail | Credit card | Card or bank mandate |
| What ends the relationship | A conscious cancellation | An expired card, quietly |
| The page | Product, price, cart | Suggested amounts, purpose, standing order |
| What matters in reporting | Income by product | Donations by donor, purpose and period |
The fifth row costs nonprofits the most money and is almost invisible: a donor whose card expired did not decide to stop giving. They simply vanished from the report.
Why does Masav suit regular donors?
Because a bank mandate does not expire. Masav's own site presents a charges service for collecting payments, an information service covering account debit mandates, and handling of returned charges - that is, infrastructure for the whole mandate lifecycle.
What to know before starting:
- This is a joining process with Masav, with forms and defined joining dates.
- There is a file transmission schedule - Masav publishes business days and transmission times, and that changes when money arrives.
- A rejected charge comes back in a returns file, so updating the donor's balance is a separate step.
- The mandate itself is a document to collect and retain.
The full rail comparison is in Masav versus card charging, and handling the returns file is covered in the Masav return file and updating customer debt.
What a donation page needs
A good donation page differs from a product page in almost every field:
- Suggested amounts rather than an empty box. Three or four amounts, plus a free amount.
- A choice between one-off and standing order, on the same screen rather than a separate page.
- The purpose of the gift, if the organisation runs designated funds - which also affects reporting.
- A short explanation of where the money goes, next to the amount rather than on another page.
- Minimal fields: name, a way to make contact, and the payment method. Every extra field lowers completion.
- An option to dedicate or commemorate, where relevant - it drives significant gifts.
- A note about the receipt: what will be sent and when.
The last item matters more than it seems: a donor who does not know what they get back tends to give less, and a donor who did not receive a receipt contacts the organisation - work you can prevent.
What to build, in what order
- Decide who holds the donor record. One system, not a spreadsheet beside a clearing tool.
- Set up card clearing with a donation page - the fastest route to start.
- Configure automatic document issuing per gift, with no manual step.
- Add card standing orders, including expired-card handling.
- Arrange Masav if there are regular donors - the long step, worth starting early.
- Build a donor report by period, purpose and status.
Order matters: many nonprofits start at step 5 because somebody said it was right, and spend two months collecting nothing at all. Cards and a donation page go live fast, and Masav joins later.
What to measure in a nonprofit
- Returning donor rate year over year. That is the central metric.
- Standing order failure rate, separately for cards and Masav.
- How many donors were lost to card expiry - a number you can cut to nearly zero.
- Average gift size by channel, to know where to invest.
- Time from gift to receipt. Over a day means there is a manual step to automate.
The third is an opportunity: reaching out to donors whose cards are about to expire recovers a large share of them, and it is a simple action taken once a quarter.
What differs in daily operations
- Anonymous donors - decide in advance whether you allow them, and how it affects the document.
- A gift in someone else's name or in memory of someone - needs extra fields and records.
- Refunding a donation is an exception rather than routine, and deserves a procedure.
- Reporting to external bodies requires breakdowns a commercial system does not always produce - worth checking before choosing.
On each of these, the right decision depends on the type of organisation and the requirements applying to it. That is a conversation with the nonprofit's accountant rather than a technical decision, and it should happen before setup rather than after.
How to acquire a new donor without losing them on the way
Most abandonment in fundraising happens between the click and the payment, and most of it is preventable:
- A direct link to the donation page, not to the homepage. Every extra click lowers completion.
- A suggested amount that suits the audience, not one that looks high to an average donor.
- Mobile payment that genuinely works - that is where most donors are.
- A Bit or digital wallet option, which saves typing a card.
- Immediate on-screen confirmation followed by a receipt, so the donor knows it worked.
The last item also prevents duplicate gifts: a donor who saw no confirmation gives again, and then needs a refund - a poor experience for both sides.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Does a nonprofit need a different system from a business?
Not necessarily a different system, but different capabilities: a donation page, long-running standing orders, and sometimes Masav. Some Israeli providers present this as a defined category - Cardcom presents clearing for nonprofits and institutions, and Tranzila presents card clearing for nonprofits.
Cards or Masav for regular donors?
For a donor committing for years, a bank mandate is more stable because nothing expires. For a donor signing up right now on a phone, a card is fast and simple. Many nonprofits run both: cards for immediate acquisition, Masav for long-standing donors.
How long does arranging Masav take?
It is a joining process with forms and defined dates, so the answer depends on Masav and your bank. What can be said: it is not immediate, so start it alongside setting up cards rather than instead of it.
Which document is sent to a donor?
That depends on the type of organisation and the nature of the gift, and it is a question for the nonprofit's accountant rather than for an article. What is true in every case: the document should be sent automatically right after the gift, not become a manual task that piles up to month end.
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About the author
Yehonatan Saadia
Freelance automation, web & MVP developer
I'm Yehonatan Saadia, a senior developer who builds business automation, custom websites, and MVPs for small and mid-sized companies across the US, Europe, and Israel. These guides come from real client work, not theory.
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