A buddy sent me this screenshot the other day, and it made me sad.  Today, looking at it again, it made me mad.  She went to make a donation to a friend’s fundraising page (not a Firstgiving page, but it’s all good if it’s for a good cause) and the page would not accept her donation because it was less than $25.  What’s up with that?

Why would you refuse to accept donations under $25?  (In the interest of disclosure, Firstgiving’s system has a $1 minimum, which I think has to do with the minimum fees)  Sure, we all know that there are processing fees, but they’re a lot more for checks than for online transactions.  And processing fees are usually a percentage of the donation – like Firstgiving’s are – so why would it matter if somebody wanted to give even just one dollar online?

I understand wanting to encourage higher donations.  It’s for a good cause, right?  But doesn’t every little bit help?  Doesn’t getting smaller donors involved and making them feel valued eventually lead to more donations as they tell friends or larger donations as they get wealthier? 

I grabbed one of the top Firstgiving fundraising pages to check my assumptions.  This is an amazing page that’s raised over $30,000 so far.  Of the most recent 100 donations (totalling $2,210), 50 of them are under $25.  In fact, there are 23 donations under $10 and four donations of the minimum $1 each.

How would those 50 donors under $25 feel if we told them that they weren’t giving enough?  I suppose some would come back and give more, but I bet a lot of them would go away and give nothing.  That’s not what this is all about.