ETS Foundation was an early adopter of the Network for Good service, which offered non-profits a way to accept donations at zero cost to the non-profit. While it was hardly a perfect solution, integration sucked, it was workable and easy, both welcome attributes for a small non-profit such as ETS Foundation. Then a few months ago things started to unravel. The organization that they were using to process the credit cards filed for bankruptcy, supposedly without warning, which I doubt. We were not notified until some time had passed. At that point NFG promised we would be made whole, that all back donations would be received and that they were going to take over the donation processing and a much improved tracking system would be put in place. To date neither has occurred. The most recent promise is that all back funds owed will be paid by August 15. Today I received a notice that on top of everything, they are going to start charging to process donations as of August 1, no longer will 100% of a donors contribution go to us. That was the straw that broke this camel's back. I am removing NFG banners and links from ETS (as I will not be around to do that on July 31) and we are contemplating a lawsuit if they don't pay us and give us a full accounting in short order as promised. As I am a bit preoccupied at this time, when I return from EAA AirVenture Oshkosh and then Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in mid-August, we shall set up some other system to make contributions, assuming we decide it is worth the effort. To date, the majority of our significant donations have been received as checks, so it may not be worth spending the time to replace the NFG system.

We still desperately need your donations, and sincerely appreciate those we have received, but we are going to have to find a better way to process them.

Just so you know.

Doug and all:

I value this site enough to actually get off my duff and contribute from time to time, and will find a way to do so even if I have to write an actual paper check.

But an online payment menthod makes it really easy to support the site, and I'd sure appreciate a way to continue doing so.

I'd like to suggest PayPal, if you haven't already looked into it.

Bear

Thanks for your support and feedback. Will bear them in mind. I will never use PayPal. <img src="images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Doug -- couldn't help but be curious at your somewhat enigmatic comment "I will never use Paypal."

I've used them many times as both buyer and seller, and have had no complaints with their service. Have you?

A good friend had a serious problem with them in processing some transactions, costing him dearly and creating an ongoing problem that took months, and hours upon hours of his and his wife's efforts to resolve. As he is still contemplating legal action, I cannot say more. For more than you ever wanted to know, just do a search on Google and you will read of numerous horror stories. When things go awry, as they apparently do with regularity, the company is totally unresponsive. There's no indication that has changed since their purchase by Ebay. While their standard counter is that only a very small minority of transactions involve such problems, when you are doing millions of transaction, even a faction of a percentage is still lots of people being harmed. Given their attitude, I'll just pass, thank you.

Good luck with whatever action you decide to take.

NFG was never any good for me, as they wouldn't accept payments from outside the US.

Have you considered using the Amazon Honor System? They charge 15c plus 15% of the transaction amount. Not ideal, but it's better than having no online payment system at all.

<img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> I was one of the first 75 sites that was asked to participate in the launch of the Amazon Honor System. Was kind of honored to have been asked. Ton of work beta testing and such, it was a total bust. The cost is exorbitant, which donors really didn't like. Even NFG only wants 3%, but there are other issues there. Moreover, the Amazon system provided no capability to interact with donors, no reporting , it is totally anonymous. At least NFG provided some capability, even if severely handicapped with the option of anonymous.