Google Wallet Ushers in a New Era in Online and Mobile Fundraising for Nonprofits

On August 1, Google quietly launched Google Wallet for the Web – and the technology has the possibility of transforming online and mobile fundraising as we’ know it. Described simply, donors can sign up for a Google Wallet account, enter and save their credit card information, and then donate to any nonprofit (or purchase from any online store) that has a Google Wallet merchant account with only two clicks of a mouse (or two taps on a tablet). Your contact and financial information is stored in the cloud and your donation history is easily accessible in your Google Wallet account. What makes this even more interesting is that if you have an Android mobile device, you can then take your mobile wallet with you on your smartphone for point-of-sale transactions that occur offline. Also, nonprofits that have been wise to mobilize their Web content and build their mobile lists could text links to Google Wallet donation pages. Think about that for a minute. 🙂

Until the launch of mobile wallets, the technology behind online fundraising hadn’t changed much in its short 15-year history. To donate, you enter your name and contact and credit card information and then click the “Donate Now” button to process your donation with an email receipt arriving within a few minutes. If you want to donate to multiple nonprofits or the same nonprofit more than once, then you have to repeat the process with each donation. Not anymore. Google Wallet can be implemented Web-wide and your online donation and shopping history would be accessible anywhere at any time.

Now, there are numerous mobile wallets out there (Square, Visa, Isis, etc.), but Google Wallet does appear to be the first one to empower nonprofits to fundraise online. In the future, my guess is that when donating or shopping online we will be able to choose which wallet service we want to use with one-click – similar to how we now choose which credit card we want to use when donating or shopping online.

I’ll be covering mobile wallets in detail in my upcoming mobile communications and mobile fundraising webinar on January 15, but make no mistake and become familiar with this new technology now. This is the beginning of a new era in online and mobile fundraising (and e-commerce) that will have a big impact in 2013. That said, on this #FundraisingFriday when I was searching for a nonprofit to donate to that educates girls in Afghanistan in honor of Malala Yousafzai, I was thrilled to come across Barakat – a nonprofit that runs two schools for girls in Afghanistan and is pioneering the use of Google Wallet for online fundraising:

1. Enter donation amount and select the Google Wallet “Donate” Button:

2. Login to your Google/Google+/Gmail Account:

3. Create a Google Wallet Account and enter your credit card information:

4. Process donation and opt-in for e-newsletters (the default setting):

5. View your donation receipt:

6. View all donations and transaction history:

7. To donate to the same nonprofit again (or any nonprofit using Google Wallet), simply click twice:

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