After careful consideration, the Graduate Association has chosen to discontinue the donation collection services provided by IHQ. After using their services for the past 5 years or so, there was a growing concern around both the cost and the complexity of its management. Graduate Brothers often thought they were making monthly donations when in reality their card had expired or their donation term had run its course. The increase of credit card fraud has led to an increased turnover of cards among all cardholders (yours truly included).
The Graduate Association's ability to track donations was lacking as well. We had to rely on reports to be generated by an IHQ staff member and these were often obsolete by the time we recevied them. This made it challenging for us to determine in real-time who was giving and recognize them in a timely manner. On top of these two deficencies, we were paying IHQ a substantial annual fee, assessed as a % of funds raised.
Thanks to modern technology and the continued democratization of the merchant services industry, we've decided to manage donations internally. This shift will substantially cut our costs while also enhancing the capabilities of our donation system. By enlisting the services of the popular online credit card processing company, Stripe and a really cool add-on called MoonClerk, the Association will reduce its costs by almost 50% annually. At the same time, we'll be able to automate the process of notifying donors of any lapse in their giving. In fact, donors will be able to update their credit card information online before an error even occurs!
The Graduate Association will gain some powerful real-time reporting capabilities that will allow to better track and reward our generous and much appreciated donors. It's important to note that transactions are performed with bank-level security so there's no need to worry about your information being compromised. We'll be reaching out to our current donors over the next several months to encourage them to shift their contributions to the new platform. Check our new donations page here.