Almost every part of daily life has moved onto a screen, and generosity has followed. People who pay for coffee with a phone and split a dinner bill in an app expect giving to work the same way. For nonprofits that want to reach more people, build deeper relationships with donors, and spend less time on administration, digital giving is no longer a side project. It is how a growing share of supporters prefer to give.
Three tools sit at the center of that shift: mobile giving, online fundraising platforms, and physical donation kiosks. Each solves a different problem, and together they cover nearly every moment when someone decides to give.
Mobile donations: giving on the go
For many supporters, the phone is the first and often the only device they use to find your cause. They tap a link in an email, scan a code on a flyer, or follow a post, and arrive at your donation page with a few spare minutes and one free thumb. If that page was designed for a desktop, with small fields and a long form, the gift often stops there.
A mobile-friendly giving experience removes those obstacles. Pages load quickly, amounts are large and easy to tap, and express wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay let a donor finish without typing a card number. Donatefy's online giving pages are built mobile-first for exactly this reason, with wallets at the top of checkout and cards just below.
Mobile giving works in the other direction too. With the Donatefy Mobile App, staff and volunteers accept contactless gifts on compatible phones with Tap to Pay on iPhone and Tap to Pay on Android, so the phone in your team's pocket becomes a giving point at a drive or a pop-up event. Donors give with the same contactless tap they use at any store checkout; here is more on tap-to-donate NFC giving.
Online fundraising platforms: the digital backbone of giving
A modern online fundraising platform is much more than a donate button. It is the system behind every campaign: the pages donors see, the checkout that takes the gift, and the records your team relies on afterward.
A good platform helps your nonprofit:
- Run several campaigns at once, each with its own page, link, and goal.
- Accept recurring donations that donors can manage on their own.
- Track giving by campaign and channel, so you can see what is working.
- Send thank-you messages and tax-ready receipts automatically.
These features do more than save time. Automatic receipts and self-service recurring plans remove the small frictions that cause donors to drift away, and every hour your team does not spend on data entry goes back into the mission.
On Donatefy, the E-Fundraiser is your branded giving hub, with every active campaign shown as a card with its own goal meter. Each campaign also gets a standalone page with its own link, a QR code for print, and components you can embed on the website you already have.
Physical donation kiosks: bridging in-person and digital generosity
Online giving gets most of the attention, yet many of the most meaningful moments of generosity still happen in person: after a service, during a museum visit, at a gala, or in a hospital lobby. Fewer visitors carry cash than they used to, and a donation box cannot take a card.
A donation kiosk brings the convenience of digital payment into those physical spaces. Kiosks fit naturally in:
- Places of worship, before and after services.
- Museums and attractions, at entrances and exhibit exits.
- Hospitals and community centers, in lobbies and waiting areas.
- Charity events, at registration tables and entrances.
Donatefy's donation kiosks accept credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and contactless taps through an integrated reader. A donor picks a campaign, chooses an amount, and taps, and the receipt goes out automatically. The FS-22 floor-standing kiosk is battery-backed for flexible placement, and the WM-22 mounts on a wall as a permanent giving point.
Expanding reach, increasing impact
Mobile, online, and kiosk giving each answer the same question in a different setting: how do you reach more people, with less effort, and turn more of their good intentions into gifts?
- Broader reach. Digital tools remove the limits of geography and office hours. A supporter across the country can give as easily as one standing in your lobby.
- Higher participation. When giving takes seconds, more people act on a spontaneous impulse, and more of them come back to give again.
- Better decisions. When every gift arrives with its campaign and channel attached, you can see which appeals and locations actually work.
That last point is easy to overlook. Many organizations add channels one at a time and end up with a separate report for each. Donatefy records gifts from every channel in one ledger in the Admin Portal, tagged with the campaign, channel, and device, and connected to a single record for each donor. That connected view is what separates smarter fundraising tools for nonprofits and churches from a stack of separate apps.
The future of giving is not only digital. It is connected, measurable, and open to everyone who wants to help. For a closer look at the spontaneous side of that future, read how to capture donations in the moment.
Embrace the future with Donatefy
Digital habits will keep changing, and the organizations that keep pace are the ones that make giving easy wherever their supporters are. Donatefy brings online giving, kiosks, handheld readers, and the Mobile App onto one platform, so a campaign you build once runs on every channel and every gift is receipted automatically. See how an omnichannel fundraising platform works, from campaign to receipt.
You can start with online giving on the Free plan at $0 a month and add devices when you are ready. Kiosks are a one-time purchase, $1,000 for the FS-22 and $700 for the WM-22, and devices activate on the Starter plan and above. See the full pricing.