PayPal NonProfits - 2012 User Manual
PayPal FOR NONPROFITS
GET STARTED GUIDE
January 2012
JANUARY 2012
PayPal for Nonprots: Get Started Guide
Get more out of your fundraising efforts by giving donors a convenient and safe way to contribute. Encourage
supporters to act by placing a Donate button prominently on your home page.
• Discounted rates for 501(c)(3) status
• Your donors don’t even need a PayPal account
• Accept all major credit cards
Receiving donations and selling fundraising merchandise online for your organization is easy with PayPal. In
this guide, we’ll review how you can:
• Sign up for a business account and verify your nonprofit status
• Create buttons and generate the related code for one-time and recurring donations and purchases
• Customize your payment pages to match the look and feel of your site (optional)
I. Set Up and Confirm a Business Account
Go to www.paypal.com to set up a Business account, and click on the Business tab. Here’s what to expect:
Step What to Provide How Long it Takes
Sign up • Account/business owner’s
name, address and email
• Business name and address
• Customer service information
Confirm email address Email address used for sign-up 2 minutes
Add and confirm bank
account
If applicable, verify your
nonprofit status (only
for organizations with
501(c)(3)status)
• Bank name
• Account and routing numbers
• Name associated with account
• Evidence of tax-exempt status
• Bank statement or voided
check in your organization’s
name
• PayPal email account
• Contact information
• Description of your
organization and type of
payments it wants to accept
(such as donations and
merchandise payments)
5–10 minutes
3–5 days
3–5 business days
You can log in a day after signing up for
an account and submit items through
the Resolution Center.
Note: Once you’ve added a Donate
button to your nonprofit website, you
can begin accepting donations right
away. However, you won’t be able to
withdraw or transfer funds until your
nonprofit status has been verified.
2 January 2012
PayPal for Nonprots: Get Started Guide
II. Create Payment Buttons
To create a button, you’ll need to select a button type and set its parameters. PayPal’s Button Designer tool will
generate button HTML code that’s easy to copy and paste to your website. Select your button based on the
actions your supporters need to take:
Donate – To contribute a fixed or variable donation amount
Subscribe (Recurring donations) – To make recurring payments or donations
Buy Now – To purchase one item at a time
Add To Cart – To pay for one or more items in a single checkout
How to Create a Donate Button:
1. Go to www.paypal.com and log in using your new Business account.
2. Click on Profile, then More Options. Under the Selling Preferences column, click on My Saved Buttons.
From the My Saved Buttons page, select Create New Button.
3. On the Create a PayPal Payment Button screen, select the Donations option from the Choose a Button
Type pull-down list.
4. Enter the name of your nonprofit in the Organization Name field and an optional Donation ID number to
identify the type or purpose of the donation – this can be anything that you choose.
5. Customize your button if you choose. You can opt to make the button smaller, include credit card logos, or
change the country and language for the button. You can also use your own button image. For this option,
you’ll need to provide the URL of the location of your button image on a secure (HTTPS) server. If you store
the image on a secure server, your customers won’t receive messages from their web browser indicating
that the payment page contains insecure items.
6. Select a Currency from the pull-down list.
7. Under Contribution enter a fixed donation or payment amount, or if you choose, you can leave the field
blank for donors to enter an amount of their choice (up to $2,000).
8. Click Create Button to save the button. Once saved, you can use this button again as a template for other
Donate buttons.
How to Set up a Subscribe Button for Recurring Donations
Donors can make regular, scheduled PayPal contributions to your nonprofit with the Subscribe button.
Like other payment buttons, the Subscribe button’s HTML code redirects donors to PayPal to make their
contribution, and returns them back to your site after the secure donation is complete.
To create a Subscribe button for recurring donations:
1. Follow Steps 1 and 2 in the “How to Create a Donate Button” section above.
2. On the Create a PayPal Payment Button screen, select the Subscriptions option from the Choose a
Button Type pull-down list.
3. Enter the payment details of your subscription.
3 January 2012
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