Programming question

[OneGrassRoot]

I don't know the proper terminology, so please bear with me. I'll have to use examples instead.

I post "Help a DUer" OP's periodically in DU (see my journal), to bring attention to DUers in need of help. Even though Wishadoo was not created with a fundraising intention, because of the economic state of things monetary crises are indeed the majority of posts in the Wishlist.

The best-case scenario is that someone has a verified PayPal account, which means they get the funds immediately and, depending upon a few variables, only a PayPal fee is involved. The downside to this is that I have to keep giving updates, relying on the recipient to provide updates, regarding the progress of that particular fundraiser. It has become a real problem for me to keep doing this.

With DUers there is a trust factor, as is the case with most existing communities, but it would still be best for people to be able to see via an automatic progress bar the status of things.

In the past, if the person was fairly computer literate, I was able to have them create an embeddable widget which has a progress bar to show how much money has been raised thus far.

https://giving.paypallabs.com/authenticate/review

Unfortunately, that widget won't be available any more after 7/31; it had gotten really glitchy lately anyway. I called PayPal and they don't have plans to offer an alternative (at least none they would make me aware of).

Now, I realize there are a gazillion fundraising platforms out there nowadays, including a few that don't even require a PayPal account. They're all different, with different pros and cons, but every one of them has a fee involved to use their platform.

GoFundMe is one of the best ones I've seen, because the recipient has access to the funds immediately, in contrast to other fundraising platforms which issue a check at the end of the fundraiser.

HOWEVER, there is a 5% fee charged by GoFundMe.

It's extra hard when the person in need doesn't have a PayPal account and needs funds ASAP. I've used my own PayPal account for that purpose, but I really, really, really dislike doing that and won't unless it's a real emergency. My job is to provide the space at Wishadoo to connect regarding needs/wishes/offerings; I'm not supposed to get personally involved, especially with funds (Wishadoo does NOT charge for use of the Wishlist, btw).

Soooooo, here is my question for programmer types:

Do you know of any off-the-shelf options that might replicate the PayPal giving widget (see above link) that is obsolete as of Wednesday? An embeddable widget that has a visible progress bar as donations are received? If not a widget, is there anything else that could serve the same purpose that I could embed in the individual Wishlist posts that involve fundraising?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Make7]

1. Most widgets probably won't work on DU3 since the html allowed here is pretty restricted...

... although most donation sites also create an event specific webpage that can be linked to in addition to creating embeddable widgets. Pretty much every donation site I've seen uses PayPal - especially the ones offering progress updates and immediately available funds.

Have you looked at Pitch In Box? It's free - you could link to an event page from DU and that should allow people to get updates with a single mouse click.

Another option is FundRazr. They charge 5% to the recipient but it's geared for use on FaceBook (if that is a preferred option).

In most cases, it would be easiest to get the person needing donations to set up their own widget/event page and share it with you so you can post it here (and elsewhere) - which means they will need a PayPal account (or need to create one).

I don't know much about this (other than being fairly certain widgets won't work on DU3) but I did look up some quick info using the Google machine to see what might be out there.

Good luck.

[OneGrassRoot]

2. Wow, Pitch in a Box is new to me!

That looks promising. Thanks so much!

Actually, it wouldn't be to embed here at DU; it's to embed at Wishadoo. The agreement made with DU admins is that I can post about DUers in need, linking to a Wishlist post at Wishadoo. It then falls under the Wishadoo TOS, and from there I can share here at DU with blanket approval to do so. Prior to this arrangement members wanting to post about a fundraiser had to go through an approval process, which can take a wee bit, so this has worked out for well DU community members thus far.

But Pitch in a Box may be the ticket. Thanks again!