An Overview of Secure Credit Card Donation Processing & PCI Compliance

In addition to all the social, mobile and Web giving features and all of the great administrative enhancements, reliable online fundraising tools providers spend significant effort to ensure that the back-end processing element of service is robust, safe and secure.

Ask your processing partner if it is PCI-compliant
Talk to your credit card processing partner about its level of PCI compliance. Most of the services that have been around for a while are PCI-compliant at some level, although not all are PCI Level 1 because of the cost and rigors that are required annually to maintain certification. However, you may find that some newer and very small services haven’t yet passed a PCI Certification. Visa’s list of PCI DSS Validated Service Providers is a great resource for learning about PCI DSS compliance and credit card security.