Selecting a payment processor

CiviCRM may be used for fundraising with or without processing online contributions. For example, you could use CiviCRM to support a direct mail and telemarketing operation and require online donors to mail in checks. You can also accept in-kind donations online without setting up a payment processor. However, the power and potential of the software is better realized when you implement a fully integrated online payment system.

Some organizations continue to use external online donation systems as they begin to use CiviCRM, which involves transferring the transactions to CiviCRM in order to use it as their centralized CRM for segmentation and reporting. This is a cumbersome approach given the ease of using CiviContribute to process online donations.

Most organizations doing online donations, event registrations, and membership and subscription payments will find it worthwhile to set up online payment processing in CiviCRM.

Payment processors, sometimes known as...