Accepting Donations online

[Woodcycl]

What are the areas or steps I need to ensure are in place to add the ability on our website to accept donations (we are 501c3) via credit card, etc.? I know we need to probably puchase a Secure Certificate -- but do you know "how" I do that? Can I get one thru GoDaddy.com or some other provider?

What about a merchant account? And, do I need a specific kind of merchant account?

Any other areas?

I appreciate your insite into this area as I haven't done much with e-commerce yet in the way of web development.

[Direct1]

www.paypal.com (http://www.paypal.com/)
This will take you right to the donations page. http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/xcl/rec/donate-intro-outside
Good luck! :D

[Woodcycl]

PayPal requires the other person to be a member ... this won't go. I'm a long time PayPal user both personally and with business.

[pyssdogg]

if you don't wanna use paypal, then you'll just have to use some kind of merchant account

if you only want to sell one item or only take donations then just sign up with one of those places like ccnow, 2checkout, etc where you can just pay them a percentage and make a button that links to a checkout

[turbodog]

if you go the route of getting a merchant account-don't forget per transaction fees (20-30 cents) plus ~3% of the amount.

a good web designer may be able to set up a secure site which does the work.

one more idea: check quickbooks out-they may offer that feature as an add on to the quickbooks software (quickbooks.com)