Donation and donor-management software for a mosque

Once the mosque is open, the collection does not stop, it gets organised. Tracking donors, issuing tax receipts, retaining regular donations: this is the work of dedicated tools, and the best ones know how to connect to each other to spare you double entry. Here is how they differ and how to combine them.

In classical Islamic civilisation, mosques, schools and fountains were maintained by pious foundations, the waqf, whose administrators kept meticulous registers of the assets bequeathed and the income assigned to each use. Keeping a place of worship alive over time has always rested on rigorous bookkeeping.

Taking in and managing are two different things

Two needs are often confused. The first is to take in: to receive the donor's money, by card, by direct debit or on site. The second is to manage: to know who gives, how often, to send them their tax receipt, to thank them, to approach them at the right moment. A small mosque can start with a simple collection tool. As soon as donors number in the hundreds, management becomes the real subject, and it is what makes the treasurer win or lose time.

The tax receipt is at the heart of all this. It gives the donor a right to a tax reduction of 66 % of the amount given, within the limit provided by article 200 of the general tax code. It is a powerful argument for giving, provided you can issue it without spending your evenings on it. Our guide on the tax receipt sets out the conditions to meet.

Three families of tools

The market solutions fall into three families, which do not serve the same use.

• Free collection platforms, like HelloAsso, serve to take in donations, memberships and ticketing free of charge. They issue the tax receipts but do not deeply manage the relationship with donors.
• Donor-management software, like OHME, are CRMs: they centralise the donor file, segment it, automate the receipts, and connect to the payment tools. They do not take in money themselves.
• All-in-one suites, like AssoConnect, bring together collection, member management, accounting and website in a single paid tool, designed for structures that want to centralise everything.

Many associations combine a collection platform and donor software rather than entrusting everything to a single tool. This is precisely what the API connections allow, which we discuss below.

The criterion people forget: where the money arrives

Before comparing features, ask a simple question: do the donations arrive directly on the mosque's bank account, or do they first pass through the platform before being paid on? Some direct-debit solutions credit the association's account with no intermediary. Other collection platforms centralise the funds and pay them on afterwards, with a delay of several days. For a mosque that must meet fixed costs, this delay and this control matter as much as the cost. Also look at the format of the receipts issued: they must comply with the CERFA in force to be valid.

Making the tools talk: the API connection

This is the point that changes everything, and it is still little known. Good software is not used in isolation: they link to each other through what is called an API connection, that is an automatic bridge that moves the data with no re-entry. In practice, OHME connects to the main payment and collection solutions of the association sector, among them HelloAsso, Stripe, GoCardless or Mailchimp for emailing. Setting it up requires no technical skill: you link the accounts in a few clicks.

Here is what a coherent setup for a mosque can look like:

• HelloAsso for one-off donations, memberships and event ticketing, free of charge.
• GoCardless for monthly donations by direct debit, which ensure stable income.
• OHME as the command centre: all the donations from both sources flow in automatically, the donors are placed in a single file, and the tax receipts generate themselves.

The benefit is concrete. Instead of copying donations by hand from one platform to another then issuing the receipts one by one, everything happens in the background. The treasurer keeps a single view of each donor, whether they gave online, by direct debit or during a campaign. And the donor often has a personal space to find their receipts themselves, which reduces the requests to the office accordingly.

The choice of the direct-debit solution deserves particular attention, for a security reason we set out in our comparison dedicated to the direct debit: a provider independent of your bank protects the continuity of your regular donations should you have to change institution.

The solutions in brief

The table below sums up the essentials; the sheets that follow set out each solution.

OHME

OHME is a French software specialised in the management of contacts and donors. It is neither a payment tool nor accounting software: it focuses on the donor file, its segmentation and the issuing of tax receipts, which it generates automatically at each donation or on an annualised basis. Its pricing depends on the association's budget and not on the number of contacts, and a free discovery offer exists for small structures.

• Its strengths: connection to many payment and emailing tools, automatic tax receipts, fine donor segmentation, personal space for the donor, RGPD compliance.
• Its limits: you have to add a payment solution to it, and its logic takes some time to learn to exploit all its power.

HelloAsso

HelloAsso is the most widespread collection platform in France, used by hundreds of thousands of associations. It is free and takes no commission: its model rests on a voluntary contribution offered to the donor, who stays free to reduce it. It covers donations, memberships, ticketing and crowdfunding, and issues the tax receipts automatically. Religious associations are admitted.

• Its strengths: no fee for the mosque, immediate handling, automatic tax receipts, embeddable donation button, wide adoption and an ecosystem of partners.
• Its limits: little customisable pages, funds centralised then paid on with a delay, no accounting or advanced donor management without a complementary tool.

AssoConnect

AssoConnect is a paid all-in-one suite that brings together member management, collection, association accounting, a member space and a website. It targets structures that want to professionalise their management and steer everything from one place, notably employing associations or those with several hundred members.

• Its strengths: very wide coverage, built-in accounting, complete member space, automatic receipts and invoices, a single tool to administer.
• Its limits: a monthly subscription cost to which transaction fees are added, and a functional richness sometimes oversized for a small mosque.

The others to know

Several solutions complete this landscape. Zeffy presents itself as entirely free, on a contribution model close to HelloAsso but with a higher suggested tip. Yapla mixes association CRM and collection, with pricing that climbs fast as you add accesses. Donorbox mainly targets organisations that collect in several countries. Stripe, finally, is not an association tool but a card-payment engine that other software uses behind the scenes, with a commission per transaction. For a mosque, the most relevant option generally remains to combine a free collection, a reliable direct debit and a good donor file.

How to choose for a mosque

For a small mosque starting out, HelloAsso alone covers the essentials: taking in money and issuing receipts, free of charge. As soon as you really want to track your donors, run targeted campaigns and retain regular donations, add donor software like OHME and link it to your collection and your direct debit. For a large employing mosque, which must also keep accounts and manage employees, an all-in-one suite like AssoConnect can justify its subscription by replacing several tools. In every case, check the flow of the funds, the compliance of the receipts and the possibility of connecting your tools to each other.

Frequently asked questions

To go further

This comparison is part of the Management & operation area. For the legal frame of receipts, see our guide on the tax receipt, and to organise the collection as a whole, our guide organising donations. To take payment on site, see our donation terminals and payment terminals.

See all the management tools →