“So why should our nonprofit work with Charity Charge?”
This is the question most nonprofit leaders or CFOs ask upon discovering us. And I could sit here and write a whole blog on the value propositions that our founder, Stephen Garten, built this company on, but I’d rather you hear straight from our customers!
We are proud to stand by so many amazing nonprofits around the world and empower them to create positive change in their communities and beyond. So without further ado, here are the main reasons NGOs chose to work with us and apply for our business credit card for nonprofits:
1. High risk and personal liability are a part of the past…
“Charity Charge is the first organization in the non-profit space offering a business credit card that makes senior level staff at associations & non-profits lives easier. As the managing ED of five associations, I have to put monthly expenses on my personal credit card which means that my personal credit score may fluctuate. Charity Charge allows the association to have a credit card without it being tied to a specific person.”
-Kaity Van Amersfort, CEO at C&R Management
“We signed up for Charity Charge because it’s free… and every purchase we make generates automatic cash back for Response. We love that they exclusively work with nonprofits and are values aligned.”
–Shannon Meyer, Executive Director at Response
“When we learned that we could shift our business expenses to a Charity Charge credit card, it was an easy decision. The automatic cash-back rebates are great, and the fact that [they are backed by Mastercard’s Zero Liability and ID Theft Protection] allows us to further reduce our organization’s risk and liability.”
-Kate Williams, CEO at 1% for the Planet
2. Our mission aligns with nonprofits – not the traditional banking system
“We chose to use the Charity Charge nonprofit card because we needed to work with a company that understands how nonprofits differ from normal for-profit companies. It’s important for us to partner with a company that supports its community.”
-Holly McDaniel, Executive Director at the Austin Diaper Bank
“When we learned about Charity Charge we really loved what they were doing for the non-profits in our community. They took the time to visit our organization and learn more about our mission. By talking to them we could tell their staff truly cares about all the Non-Profit organizations. Charity Charge made us feel like we are important in our community and important to them as their clients.”
-Helen Roberts, Director at Kirby Hall School
“We’re truly grateful for our partnerships with services like Charity Charge, enabling us to do our education and preservation work.”
-Will Caverly, Executive Director at The Mill at Anselma
“We were having trouble with our business card (declining charges for no apparent reason and hard to reach for resolution) so I did some research and found a card that was all about helping us as a non-profit. It seemed like a win win.”
-Jeanette Harvey, Executive Director at Hope Women’s Resource Clinic
3. Vastly greater flexibility provided to nonprofit employees to scale their mission – especially when compared to debit cards
“Being a small nonprofit, we did not have established credit. Obtaining debit cards for our staff who travel and purchase was cumbersome and limited. Being able to have these credit cards enables us to begin to build credit and obtain credit cards for our valuable staff.”
-Lori Divine, Treasurer at Buddhist Pathways Prison Project
“Part of Global Impact’s role is to incubate innovative nonprofits coming up with incredible ideas. CC allowed us to quickly secure credit for these clients that would have taken months with our regular bank and the card’s branding helps get their message out. Many nonprofits are very tech savvy and transacting with credit cards is a big part operations. CC makes this quick and allows them to get on with their mission. We do a fair amount of transactions and we’re looking for a card that provided some reward program. Receiving 1% back for us and our clients is great way to have a little extra spending room for nonprofits who are watching their expenditures very carefully.”
-Luis Guardia, Chief Business and Financial Services Officer at Global Impact
“ALPFA has gone through 4 years of insolvency and it has been really, really difficult to get any bank to give us any form of credit, including major banks. However, our financials and our cash situation are in much better shape now with $5.5M in sales yearly (past 4 years) and only about $250K of debt compared to $5M same time 4 years ago. You saw this for yourselves and helped us! The impact we want to do for our Latino community on furthering their education and obtaining their first career jobs cannot be done alone and very happy to see Charity Card as a partner on this endeavor!’
-Selene Benavides, CFO at ALPFA Inc
“We are very happy and grateful for the hard work Charity Charge is doing for the non-profits on the front lines. Having the flexibility that the Charity Charge card will provide is wonderful. I cannot tell you the peace of mind we have suddenly gained with having the card. We are very grateful and empowered to do more!
-Vallerie Guillory, CEO and Executive Director at Trinity Without Borders
4. Getting value from the perks, instead of losing them
“We weren’t often using the credit card points which accumulated with our other corporate credit card, and those points expired over time. Now, instead of accumulating points, we automatically designate 1% of our monthly purchases to our favorite non-profit – which happens to be Hill Country Conservancy! It’s awesome to see that donation on a monthly basis.”
-Cindy Holt – Director of Operations – Hill Country Conservancy
5. The ease of credit card processing and streamlined online platform
“My favorite feature is that there are no processing fees to send the money. The entire 1% cash-back is donated. I was also impressed with the ease of reporting from the online portal; it makes life much easier when processing multiple card users and expenses each month.”
-Cindy Holt, Director of Operations at Hill Country Conservancy
“For a fast-paced nonprofit like ours, it is critical for our team to be aware of our spending in real time. Charity Card’s self-service online portal gives us the visibility needed to keep pace and ensure our paid marketing campaigns run smoothly. They embrace technology to support social impact, like we do, so it was an easy decision for us to choose them.”
-Paige Dearing, Marketing Director at Philanthropy U
“The JCC was looking for a technology platform that would allow for automating our credit card processing. With 20 plus cards in use for our organization it is essential that we have partners who are responsive, and we can trust in assisting us to operate as efficiently as possible. The staff at Charity Charge do that for us.”
-Kenneth H. Karsh, CFO at Jewish Community Center of Baltimore
“We love Charity Charge at The DoSeum! The people leading the organization and those working in daily customer service areas are amazing. The onboarding process and operational online platform are very user friendly. The DoSeum has not only benefited from the rebate but the user management aspect has greatly improved our staff accountant’s efficiency. Charity Charge’s online platform has also aided our transition to a more efficient and paper-limited expense tracking process. We have been super happy with the program.
–Dee-Ann Calderon, SVP of Finance at The San Antonio Children’s Museum, “The Doseum”
“Part of Global Impact’s purpose is to incubate and support innovative nonprofits, as well as help streamline their financial operations. Charity Charge allowed us to quickly secure credit cards for our nonprofit clients that would have otherwise taken months.”
–Luis Guardia, SVP of Finance at Global Impact
6. Our incredible customer service
“We love the customer service that Charity Charge provides! Usually, when we have a question regarding a charge, we have to call the bank and sometimes have to wait to be transferred to the correct person. With Charity Charge, all we had to do is call up Abby and she talked to the bank for us. This saved us time and took one more thing off of our plate since we are a small administrative team.”
-Claire LaChance, Financial Officer at Kirby Hall School
“Love that a percentage of all purchases benefits SA Youth! Also, your customer service has been outstanding. The team at Charity Charge took the time to explain how the card works, making it easier for us to sign up and encourage others to do the same.”
-Asia Ciaravino, CEO at SA Youth
“We are relatively new to using the card, but the customer service that we have received from Charity Charge has been reassuring and unexpected.”
-Juliet Nees-Bright, Executive Director at The Toby Keith Foundation
7. The power of advancing their mission with every purchase
“The Charity Charge Nonprofit Business Card allows us to easily give back to our foundation with every purchase we make. It makes sense to use a card that allows to advance our mission with our everyday purchases!”
-Tricia Burkhardt, Director of Development and Social Media at Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation
“It is such a treat to see funds going to Impact Network! I love that our business card is helping to support our students and giving back to the cause we have invested so much time and energy into.”
-Reshma Patel, Executive Director at Impact Network International
“It’s important to look for revenue generation that is unexpected, but makes perfect sense. We signed up because we do occasionally have to make purchases on our business cards. If we can make money for our foundation while doing what we have to do anyway, it’s a win-win situation.”
-Juliet Nees-Bright, Executive Director at The Toby Keith Foundation
8. Nonprofits love empowering their employees
“Our previous credit card was severely outdated. There were no rewards, rebates, points, or any other benefit. We were limited to one card and that card only had the organization’s name printed on it. Any time an employee needed to make a purchase, they would have to “check out” the card from a secured drawer. Sometimes merchants would question the authority of the employee signing for the purchase. This did not put us at ease. Also, if an employee was away at a conference, they would have the physical card and everyone back at the office would be without it.
We also didn’t have online access to our account. We had to wait for the statement to come in the mail before we could reconcile all the transactions and pay the bill. I can’t tell you how much easier it is to have our new Charity Charge cards for each employee, with their name and organization name printed on them. The statement is available online and I can see right away who has made which purchases.”
-Alyssa Ikner, Finance & Administration Manager at United Way of Blount County
“I just completed our reconciliation for the 2nd statement and it went very smoothly with the Charity Charge card. The staff like coding their transactions on the website and I am able to download all the details and upload it to our accounting system which is saving me hours of work. I can’t wait to get everyone transferred over!
-Susan Fletcher, Controller at Austin Parks Foundation
9. Increasing line of credit and enabling growth
“For years, we have had credit cards through a large, national bank, that also acts as our school bond trustee. This bank wouldn’t give us a limit higher than $35,000, because we didn’t maintain a depository relationship with them. This made larger purchases during the summer months very difficult, as we had to pay the balance down weekly to free up availability. Our depository relationship is with another bank, and while that bank offered us a higher limit, their cards were continuously hacked online and we were regularly cancelling and replacing cards due to poor fraud controls built into those credit cards.
In no time at all, Charity Charge was able to get us a credit line of $100,000, based on the strength of our financials and our operations. We are very grateful for your help in getting us a credit line and resulting credit cards that will actually meet our operational needs on a regular basis. Thank you so much! We are looking forward to working with you going forward!”
-Jill Zimmerman, CFO at Villa Montessori School
10. The instant cash-back benefits
“Our organization decided it was a worthwhile opportunity to earn cash back by using the card to pay and purchase items that we normally would have used cash, checks or other credit items. These approaches did not offer the benefit of earning additional revenue like the Charity Charge Card. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of cash-back that our organization earned in only four months of utilizing the card. This has by far been the most unexpected benefit of using the card.”
-Adebola T. Olowe, Sr., Executive & Artistic Director at Bi-Okoto Cultural Center
“We are absolutely thrilled about the cash back option that the Charity Charge card has.There’s always something to fix at our 250 year old historic site and Charity Charge gives us just a little bit more cash on hand to work with.”
-Will Caverly, Executive Director at The Mill at Anselma
11. And everything else we just couldn’t fit into any category…
“We were looking to replace our old corporate credit card with a card that had the modern features we needed. We were struggling to meet our financial and internal control needs with only one physical card with a low limit. After researching several credit cards offered by our community banks, we still felt like there was something missing. We weren’t ready to commit to anything yet. Then, we learned about the Charity Charge Nonprofit Business Card, and it just made sense. We are always looking at ways to supplement our revenue and decrease expenses. After seeing the passion behind the founder of Charity Charge and seeing its mission align with ours, we knew we wanted to be a part of this on the ground level.”
-Alyssa Ikner, Finance & Administration Manager at United Way of Blount County
“Moving to Charity Charge has been fantastic for our school. The cash back is a great boost directly to our bottom line, and Stephen and his team are much more responsive and knowledgeable especially compared with our other bankers and credit card companies.”
–Gavin Wilson, Director of Finance and Operations at Headwaters School
Charity Charge/Commerce Bank have made our organization more efficient, we no-longer have to operate through reimbursement. The customer service is amazing and the professionalism is next to none. The card also gives 1% back Conejos Clean Water for every purchase or bill we pay for with the card.
-Mike Trujillo Co-Director and Finance and Organizational Development at Conejos Clean Water
“In June we began using the Charity Charge credit card and saw the benefits immediately. The card gives us 1% cash back on purchases and it’s free.
For our new budget year we decided to use that 1% to boost our Family Engagement parties. Charity Charge has a true heart for helping nonprofits make the most of the dollars entrusted to them so when I speak to anyone on their team, I know that they are looking out for our best interests!”
–Kay Foos, Office Manager at Friends of the Children Austin
These are just a few of our clients’ stories. We can’t wait to keep helping nonprofit organizations all across the world make smarter, safer financial decisions.
If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits that our Nonprofit Business Card can provide to you, please give us a call at (512) 759-8575 or fill out our form here.
