Collecting and processing payments – your center's financial health depends on it. It can also be one of your most time-consuming and unpleasant administrative tasks. Fortunately, it’s an area where the smart use of technology can provide dramatic benefits. This article will discuss technology for everything from simple invoicing to sophisticated online payments. You'll learn keys to success -- and pitfalls to avoid.

Accepting credit card payments makes sense for most childcare centers and school-age programs. Why? Parents love the convenience and perks, such as airline mileage, that they get when paying by credit card. And, your center benefits from quicker, more efficient fund collection that electronic payments make possible. However, childcare centers face a confusing array of payment processing solutions, and risk ending up with the wrong technology or paying more than they should. In this article, we demystify electronic payment technology and provide some useful guidance on avoiding pitfalls.

Would you like to reduce outstanding receivables, make it easier for parents to pay their fees on time, while dramatically reducing the time you spend managing payments? It may seem too good to be true, but you really can achieve all these benefits by implementing a system of preauthorized electronic fee collection.

E-mail is the most basic form of communication for nearly all organizations today. Millions are sent every day so it’s very important to understand what goes into making a quality e-mail. This article explains all the different tips and secrets that can boost any Daycare Program’s email marketing success rate.

Calculating the Real Cost is one of the biggest differences between a browser-based fundraising solution offered by an Application Service Provider (ASP) versus an installed solution accessed through thin client software (such as Terminal Services, Citrix, etc.) is total cost. Many nonprofits evaluate cost based on the total cost at the time of purchase. However, the hidden costs in additional people and technology can quickly add up over time

There are approximately 1.4 million nonprofits in the US, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, and fewer than 50,000 or so use any type of professional fundraising and constituent relationship management (CRM) software. Like accounting software, fundraising software comes in many forms and many different price levels.

Most nonprofits accept credit cards. Why? Because donors love the convenience and perks, such as airline mileage, that they get when they pay by credit cards; and because your nonprofit can benefit from the quick collection of funds and the tendency for donations by credit card to be larger (one recent study noted a 20% increase over non-credit card gifts).

This article can be used as a guide for anyone who is new to the online fundraising. It contains key terms with which nonprofit development directors and fundraisers should be familiar. The glossary can be used to enhance online fundraising knowledge.

Would you like to reduce your fundraising costs, increase the lifetime value of your donors, while making it as easy as possible for your donors to give on a regular basis? It may seem too good to be true, but by creating a successful preauthorized gift program, you really can achieve all these benefits for your organization.

Your organization wants to make it convenient for remote users (board members, development staff, volunteers, etc.) to access your organization's fundraising system from home, on the road or in other places outside of your main offices. Internet technology has certainly made it very possible to cost-effectively access needed data (donor contact information, special event details, recent solicitation analysis, etc.) in real time from anywhere in the world.