Does Shopify offer specific plans for nonprofit organizations?

[LetticeK]

I have been trying to get in touch with someone at Shopify support and the Contact Support option has nothing that answers the question and no option to even chat with someone.  I

I am a volunteer for an Animal Rehab and Rescue. We are a small nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. We are struggling for donations to care for our wildlife so I thought maybe an online store would help us. I researched online but could not find much about Shopify and if there are any plans specifically for nonprofit organizations. We do have a Wix website and I am hoping to integrate something with the site.

Is there someone who could give me some more information as far as if Shopify has any type of plans for non-profit organizations? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Maz]

Hello, @LetticeK!

Great question! 

We offer two plans for non-profit organizations: NPO Lite and NPO Full. In order to get signed up for one of these plans then you will need to connect with our live support here at this link.

The team may need to verify your status as a verified charity, so it's good to be aware of that.

While we’re not able to provide account-specific support via the Shopify Community at this time, we’d be happy to continue assisting you there! Below you'll see some more information about each plan:

The NPO Lite plan with an online store costs $29 per month. 

The NPO Lite plan offers additional features that are not typically available on the Basic Plan. These features include:

• 1% transaction fees if using a third-party payment provider (instead of 2% on the Basic plan)
• Lower Shopify Payments credit card rates (Shopify plan rates instead of the Basic plan rates)
• Ability to accept donations through Shopify Payments if registered as a charity in the US or Canada
• Unlimited Staff Accounts (instead of 2, which is a Plus plan feature)
• Real-time Carrier Shipping (an Advanced plan feature)

The NPO Full Plan with an online store costs $99 per month. 

The NPO Full plan is similar to the Shopify plan but comes with more robust features. These features include:

• 0% transaction fees if the merchant is using a third-party payment provider (instead of 1% on the Shopify plan, which is better than the Advanced Shopify plan feature)
• Lower Shopify Payments credit card rates than the Shopify Plan (Advanced Shopify rates)
• Unlimited Staff Accounts (instead of 5 on the Shopify plan, which is a Plus plan feature)
• Ability to accept donations through Shopify Payments if registered as a charity in the US or Canada
• Real-time Carrier Shipping (an Advanced plan feature)

Since you're new here, I wanted to share a resource with you. If you're interested, check out this external blog, 5 Things That Can Make Nonprofit Marketers More Effective at this link.

[inclusionpr]

I moved my company (an NPO) over to Shopify from WP based on this information and the assurance from at least two support people that it's true. Sadly, I've come to learn that you do not receive a discount on credit card fees -- ours are still at 2.7% -- and you cannot accept donations seamlessly through Shopify Payments. 

I've been back and forth for weeks now with several support people, and none of them have been helpful. It's extremely disappointing to learn that Shopify was not transparent about this plan. So now we are stuck looking for a solution to accept one-time and recurring donations without spending $100/mo on a third-party app. 

[Maz]

Hi, @inclusionpr!

Thanks for sharing your concerns here.

Can you tell me which NPO you were advised on? Was it NPO Full or NPO Lite in your case?

Did support advise on why you would not receive the correct fees? Please provide as much information as you can regarding your interactions with support.

Looking forward to your response.

[inclusionpr]

Thanks for your reply, @Maz . So, I've learned we are receiving a discount on credit card fees. Apparently, the regular rate is 2.9, and we are at 2.7.

However, my biggest concern is the ability to collect donations. Shopify makes it sound like you can seamlessly collect donations through Shopify Payments, but you can't. 

Sure, you can set up a product as a "donation," but you can't collect recurring donations or issue tax receipts. No matter which way you slice it, to do this properly, you need to pay for expensive apps, which makes Shopify more expensive than WP in the end. 

Every donation app I've found that offers what I need is $99+ per month, and anything affordable doesn't run the donations through Shopify Payments or issue tax receipts to donors. 

There is zero seamless here unless you have big bucks to spend. In the end we will need to embed the widget from the platform we were previously using to collect donations and issue tax receipts. 

So now, if we ever decide to sell physical products on our site, visitors will be required to "check out" twice if they also want to make a donation. 

I've spent hours researching this, and this is all I've come up with. Also, 99% of the donation apps I've come across are designed to collect donations on behalf of other charities. We are the charity and need to collect donations. I'm starting to think we should just stay on WP.

[ericr1]

Is this program still active? I am on the board of a non-profit and they applied for this program and was told it was no longer active.  Is this the case?

[Ollie]

Hey @ericr1. 

Thanks for reaching out. 

If you are interested in using a non-profit pricing or subscription plans, you will need to have the account/store owner to reach out to our live support and speak directly to a Support Advisor. With that being said, you can get in touch with our live support by navigating to the Help Center. 

When you arrive on the Help Center, you will need to let the virtual assistant be aware that you would like to Speak with support and you will be connected with a Support Advisor accordingly. 

Let us know if you have any questions.