Virtual Terminal Unlocked

Welcome to this edition of the Click and Pledge's Fundraising Command Center podcast where we talk the why, the what, and the how in the Click and Pledge's ecosystem. This is the What series. Today, we're doing a deep dive into something that, you I know, think it's overlooked sometimes. We talk a lot about the flashy online forms.

Right, the public facing stuff.

Exactly. But what we're talking about today is the operational hub. The command center for all those high touch manual transactions. We're talking about the virtual terminal.

Or the VT. And yeah, it really is the nerve center for every donation that doesn't come through a public website link.

I want you to just picture the scene for a moment. The phone rings.

Happens all the time.

It's a passionate donor. They're ready to give right now. Or maybe someone is opening a pile of envelopes from a direct mail campaign. That's a huge moment of truth.

It is and it's a moment of intense pressure.

And that's where things can go wrong.

Well yeah, the old way is scrambling for a sticky note.

Oh I've seen it!

Jotting down a credit card number, which is a huge security risk, and then trying to do math in your head while sounding calm and professional on the phone.

The VT is designed to just eliminate all of that panic.

Completely. It's a secure, efficient interface built specifically for those manual entries. So Phone, mail, in person, you name it.

And the key is it processes instantly and it updates everything. All your fundraising stats, all your patron records, it's all live. No more spreadsheets.

No delay. Yeah. It's all about building confidence for your team. And I think the first big advantage there is what we call operational freedom.

Okay. Let's unpack that. Operational freedom.

Sure.

Because that hits on a real challenge. We always tell people to keep their public donation forms clean. Right? Simple.

Absolutely. Two, maybe three main campaigns. You don't wanna overwhelm the donor.

But internally, an organization is juggling way more than that.

Oh, a whole universe of offerings. Legacy funds, special memberships, specific memorial contributions, maybe even, you know, SKUs for t shirts, things you would never put on the main website.

So the virtual terminal acts as the team's internal catalog.

That is the perfect way to put it. Your staff sees everything, Every fund, every item you've ever created, even if it's completely hidden from the public.

So that donor who calls and says, I want my gift to go to the 2,005 library renovation fund?

Your staff member doesn't even blink. They just pull it up from the list. No scrambling, no manual overrides, it's all there.

And that catalog ensures incredible accuracy in mapping, right? The money goes exactly where it's supposed to.

Precisely. We suggest staff select the campaign name first. And the system is smart. If it's a peer to peer campaign, it then opens up the team and fundraiser fields.

So the right volunteer gets credit for the donation?

Always. And if you skip all that, it just defaults to the general organization fund. So nothing gets lost.

You know, a feature that I think is really critical for these manual entries is tracking where the donation idea came from.

Yes. The source of the inspiration.

Right. Maybe they saw a Facebook ad, but decided to call instead of

And that's where the built in tracker variable is so useful. It's you know how public forums use those URL parameters like question mark truck equals fall appeal? Sure. Your staff can just type that tracker code directly into the VT so that offline gift is instantly tied back to the online marketing effort. You get clean end to end data.

Okay let's move on to the part that gives staff the most anxiety the math.

Ah yes, the no math superpower.

As someone who is terrible at mental math under pressure, I love this.

It's more than just a convenience though, it's a huge way to reduce risk. Human error almost always happens when someone's trying to calculate tax deductibility on the fly.

Especially with something like a GALA ticket.

That's the perfect example. So with the VT, once your staff selects GALA ticket from that internal catalog

It just fills everything in.

Everything. All the critical financial details. You never have to calculate a thing.

So what kind of details are we talking about here?

First is the fair market value or FMV, so the actual cost of the goods. For that $500 gala ticket, maybe the meal and entertainment are valued at $100

So the system automatically populates that $100 FMV?

Exactly. Which means it also knows the unit tax deductible amount is $400.

And it's all right there on the screen.

All right there. And here's a really important detail, if you have a campaign that's say 80% deductible and an item with a fixed FMV, the system is smart enough to combine those for the final correct receipt calculation. No one has to do that math.

So the staff just selects the item, hits process and they can be a 100% confident the receipt that goes to the donor is accurate.

That is the goal. And it goes deeper. The item GAU, the general accounting unit codes, they're attached automatically. For finance teams, that is a lifesaver.

Oh, can imagine.

Manually assigning GAU codes to checks is a nightmare. This automates it. We even have the donor offset fee option built right in if the donor offers to cover processing costs.

Okay, so the system handles the item, the price, the compliance. What about the donor themselves? Patron management.

Right. Respecting the donor's time is key. Especially for repeat donors. Staff can just look up an existing patron right there in the VT. Name, email, contact ID.

So no more. Can you spell your last name for me again? For a donor who calls every month.

Exactly. You find the match and boom. First name, last name, email address, it all populates. It makes the donor feel known and valued.

Now we get to the really critical part. Ironclad security. Because if your staff is writing down credit card numbers on a piece of paper in this day and age

You're taking on an enormous risk. Yeah. A huge compliance risk.

Security has to be the foundation of all of this.

It absolutely is. The virtual terminal is a complete PCI compliant and certified system. But the real day to day security comes from token tokenization.

Which powers the card on file feature?

It does. Let's, you know, explain tokenization simply. When a donor gives you their credit card number, our system immediately replaces it with a unique, secure and basically meaningless code. A token.

So it's a stand in.

It's a stand in. That token is stored securely but the actual credit card number is never stored on your servers. Your staff never even sees it again.

The benefit there is massive. First, it reduces your security burden for PCI compliance, but for the donor experience.

It's all about speed and trust. That returning donor calls, and your staff doesn't have to ask for the 16 digits again. They just select the stored payment method from the card on file list.

It's faster, it's safer.

And it just shows the donor you have a professional system in place.

And because you have that secure token, that opens up a lot of flexibility with scheduling payments, doesn't it?

It really does. The VT allows for future dated transactions. This is so practical. A donor says charge my card next Friday when I get paid.

Simple.

Simple. Your team just schedules it for that future date, works for a standard credit card entry or a card on file.

And that secure foundation I assume is what allows for the recurring options right in the virtual terminal.

Of course. We recommend leveraging both of the main models. First is the standard subscription. A fixed amount charged weekly, monthly, quarterly. You choose.

The classic recurring gift.

The foundation of any good giving program. You can even set it as indefinite recurring.

And the second model is, I think it's more for big campaigns or events.

That's the instarments option. This is great. A staff member can split a total amount into equal payments. Let's say a donor commits to $1,200

You can split it into 12 payments of 100

Exactly. 12 equal monthly payments. The system handles the whole schedule automatically. You're guaranteed to collect that full commitment over time.

We should probably mention the other payment types really quickly.

Sure. We support eCheck of course. We do just, you know, advise clients to be aware of the required seven day blackout period for future dated eCheck's. That's a Nashio rule, an industry wide thing.

So that's for security?

For security and fund availability, yes. We also support custom payment types. That's for recording things like a physical check or cash. But those can only be for past or present dates, not future. They're for reconciliation.

That is a huge amount of flexibility screen, and that's before even getting into adding custom additional questions or customizing the error seat with a header.

It's true. And what's really interesting is that we talk about the the VT for these one on one calls, but we've also built in some really advanced tools for dealing with just, massive amounts of data.

Okay, this is the stuff that I think is a lifesaver for the admin team after a big appeal.

It really is. Yeah. I mean, think about receiving hundreds of paper forms in the mail. The data entry is a huge time sink.

So what's the solution?

That's where the batch upload feature is a game changer. You can process up to 200 transactions at once, you just map your data into a CSV template, upload it, and the system securely processes the whole batch.

The hours saved right there must be incredible. It's huge.

Yeah. And then there's manual batch entry. This is a bit different. It's perfect for someone entering payments throughout the day, maybe at an event registration desk.

So they enter as they go?

They enter the data for multiple card transactions, but they don't process them one by one. They just queue them up. Then at the end of the day, they process them all as a single secure batch.

Ah, so it streamlines the workflow.

Exactly. And finally, for our clients who are really deep into Salesforce, there's the report batch tool.

Specialized. This connects reporting directly to payment processing.

You got it. It lets you process transactions up to 99 at a time based on an order number from a Salesforce report. A great use case is processing application fees where you already have a pre authorization. You run the report, the VT sees the data, and it processes the final charges.

It turns your reports into an action tool.

Pretty much.

This brings up the big question then. We've just spent all this time talking about a truly enterprise grade system. It's secure, it's tokenized, it's flexible, it's accurate, it has advanced batch tools.

It's the command center.

It is. And in the fundraising tech world, features like this. They usually come with a really high price tag, a big monthly fee or an expensive add on.

And that's the most powerful thing we want you to take away from this. This entire suite of tools, the virtual terminal, the no math defaults, the tokenization, all the batch processing, It's a core feature. It's included in the click and pledge ecosystem at no additional cost.

$0.

$0 for the license. We just, we fundamentally believe that every organization deserves professional, secure, efficient tools for handling every single donation no matter how it comes in.

So whether you're small or large?

It doesn't matter. You deserve a system that gives your team confidence that eliminates errors and that protects your donors data. The VT is your safety net and it's included right out of the box.

So for you listening, what this really means is you can empower your team. You can help them handle those high pressure donor moments with total confidence. It gets rid of the math anxiety. It gives you rock solid security, and it provides the flexibility to collect funds how and when your donor wants to give.

It's your donation command center and it's ready to go. For more information about this and all Click and Pledge products make sure to visit clickandpledge.com and request for a one on one training or demo. Whether you are a client or curious about our platform, just ask us and we will gladly get together with you to chat.

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