Glossary

Targeting refers to addressing specific target groups in marketing and fundraising. By leveraging data and technology, the right message is delivered to the right audience at the right time. Digital fundraising offers options like retargeting and lookalike audiences, enabling a more personalized and efficient approach than traditional offline fundraising.

Technical SEO involves optimizing a website’s code and infrastructure to ensure high visibility in search engines. Effective technical SEO leads to faster-loading pages and a user-friendly design, which can positively impact online fundraising. Typical technical SEO measures include optimizing page speed and sitemaps, adhering to Core Web Vitals best practices, and implementing SSL certificates.

In Tip Models, donors are asked to add a voluntary tip on top of their donation. Unlike cover-the-fee approaches, which pass on transaction fees to donors, tip models have no fixed fees to cover and rely entirely on donors’ willingness to support the platform’s operation.

A TLS Certificate (Transport Layer Security) ensures the secure, encrypted transfer of data between a web browser and a website’s server and is a key security factor in online fundraising. It protects sensitive information, such as payment data during online donations, from being intercepted by third parties. TLS certificates come in three validation levels:

• Level 1 certificates: Quick to install and often free, such as those from Let’s Encrypt.

• Level 2 certificates: Require verification of both the domain and organization.

• Level 3 certificates: Offer the highest level of security with comprehensive validation of the domain, organization, and legal details (e.g., public registry).

As a general rule: the higher the level, the better the security – although this also involves more effort and higher costs.

A TLS certificate also improves website loading speed and SEO ranking, positively impacting digital fundraising. For large digital platforms with significant online donation volumes, a Level 2 or 3 certificate is recommended.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a cost evaluation method that considers overall costs incurrred over the entire lifetime of a software product. TCO is an important evaluation criteria, as ongoing operational costs often weigh more heavily than initial purchase costs. A thorough TCO analysis helps avoid unexpected expenses during operation. The key cost factors within TCO include:

• Acquisition

• Setup and Installation

• Recurring License or Subscription Fees

• Integration and Customization

• Extensions and Upgrades

• Training

• Maintenance and Support

• Service-Level Agreements

• Payment and Transaction Fees

• Scalability Costs with Growth

• Updates for Data Protection and Compliance

The TCO approach provides nonprofits with full cost transparency, helping to realistically assess a fundraising tool’s long-term economic viability. A careful TCO analysis ensures that the chosen solution is not only cost-effective in the short term but also economically sustainable in the long term, effectively supporting the organization in achieving its fundraising goals.

Touchpoints are points of contact along the customer journey where interaction and communication with users take place. Touchpoints can take various forms, such as donation newsletters, physical mailings, or personal conversations. Touchpoint analyses are particularly used in digital fundraising to enhance the effectiveness of campaigns (see CRO). Soulclick integrates multiple touchpoints into seamless donor journeys.

A Tracking Pixel is a tiny, invisible image embedded in a website or email via an HTML code snippet. It tracks user behavior—such as page views, clicks, and engagement—to gather data for marketing purposes (e.g., retargeting). When a user loads a page containing a tracking pixel, it sends information back to the server, allowing marketers to analyze data and optimize campaigns based on user activity.

Transaction Costs refer to the fees incurred by online donation tools for processing online donations. Most platforms charge transaction-based fees, meaning a percentage of each donation is allocated to cover the operation of the software solution. These costs are typically composed of the following components: - Acquiring Fees: Merchant fees for facilitating contracts with VISA and Mastercard. - Card Fees: Charges associated with the specific payment methods. - Gateway Fees: Costs for maintaining the technical infrastructure that ensures secure and encrypted payment transfers. - Platform Fees: Costs for operating the SaaS solution, such as a donation portal. At Soulclick, we maintain transparency by distinguishing between external costs (acquiring, card fees, gateway) and internal costs (platform). External costs are passed on directly at a 1:1 rate, while the SaaS platform is offered at a fixed fee.

Most online fundraising tools charge a percentual fee per donation, in addition to a fixed monthly fee. These Transaction Fees are controversial in online fundraising, as they are directly tied to the donation amount, meaning the software provider's earnings scale with the success of the fundraising organization. For this reason, at Soulclick, we have chosen an alternative pricing model with a transparent fixed price for our software, while the payment fees are settled directly between the charity and payment providers.

Tutorials provides guidance on how to use a digital platform. Tutorials are typically shown to new users at the start to ensure smooth platform usage and proactively address common questions.

Twint Donations include all online and in-app donations processed via Twint, Switzerland's most popular payment method. Twint is particularly well-suited for spontaneous donations (e.g., at events) and for engaging a younger audience. However, the payment platform has faced criticism due to its high transaction fees which reduce the net amount charities receive. Therefore, charities should leverage Twint’s convenience while also offering alternative payment methods, such as credit cards, Google Pay, or PayPal, to provide donors with more options.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) refers to the verification of a user's identity using two different, independent components (factors). 2FA is used in login processes for applications and data that require enhanced protection.