donater.co.uk

What It Is

Donater is a cashless donation tool for UK charities and nonprofit organizations. Its core idea is to upgrade traditional collection boxes, badges, or promotional materials into mobile donation entry points using QR Code/NFC smart stickers. After tapping or scanning, donors can give on their phone using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or by entering a bank card.

Core Features and Integrations

The product is focused less on general payment acquiring and more on improving charity fundraising conversion. It supports Post-Donation Gift Aid, donor contact collection, and prompts for social media sharing and following, helping organizations turn one-off donations into longer-term supporter engagement. For integrations, Donater can embed a Donation Button, Totaliser, or Live Map into a website, and also supports Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, WooCommerce, Square Reader, and Zoom, with donation notifications available as well.

Pricing and Payouts

Pricing is transparent and low-barrier: no monthly fee, no setup fee, and no commitment period. Each donation is subject to payment provider fees, plus a 3% management fee charged by Donater. For payments under £5, the payment provider fee is 5% + 5p; for payments over £5, European cards are charged at 1.4% + 20p, while non-European cards are charged at 2.9% + 20p. The site says donations can be received instantly and withdrawn at the frequency required, but it does not disclose more detailed bank settlement timelines.

Pros and Cons

The main advantages are easy deployment, strong suitability for in-person events and small nonprofit teams, and the ability to reuse existing collection boxes, reducing the cost of digital transformation. The drawbacks are that the overall cost can be relatively high for small donations; public information does not specify the payment provider, regulatory licenses, PCI/KYC/AML arrangements, risk controls, or chargeback handling; and no open API documentation was found. These areas require further due diligence when assessing suitability.

Best Fit and Access from China

Donater is better suited to UK-based charities, community events, festival fundraising, churches, or school nonprofit projects. If a Chinese organization needs cross-border fundraising, RMB settlement, or stable access from mainland China, the available information is not sufficient to prove that Donater is a good fit; its accessibility from China is unknown. Comparable options include JustGiving, Enthuse, GoFundMe Charity, Stripe Payment Links, and PayPal Giving Fund.