FirstGiving & Frontstream Payments
What’s this I hear about FirstGiving changing ownership?
FirstGiving has been acquired by FrontStream Payments, a complementary player in the credit card processing space that processes over $4B annually. We’re excited about what the acquisition will mean in terms of our ability to expand donation processing options for our nonprofit customers and API partners, as well as additional investment in our existing peer-to-peer fundraising platform.
Who is FrontStream Payments?
FrontStream is a leading merchant solutions provider of integrated payment products, with a history of building successful payment solutions for specific verticals, including automotive, retail, nonprofit, education and transportation. They work with a range of industry partners seeking solid, 100% secure, compliant and scalable payment solutions. Their self-service, modular fasttransact™ payment platform not only solves many of the PADSS (Payment Application Data Security Standard) compliance challenges faced by businesses and software providers today, it also offers configuration features that can be packaged to meet the specific needs of any business. It has become the favored solution for many industries needing an iron-clad, full-featured and seamless platform for processing payments according to stringent VISA and MasterCard compliance regulations in a card-present or card- not-present environment.
Why do FirstGiving and FrontStream make sense together?
We’re excited about this partnership because it gives us an ability to offer a broader range of payment options to our API partners. As more partners have taken advantage of our charity search and donation processing APIs and developed innovative ways to build a custom donation experience into their product offering, we’ve recognized both the opportunity to add robust new features to our existing product set, and the need to expose more of our services to partners to expand the world of giving. Both require additional investment and expertise in payment processing, making FrontStream a great fit for our future growth.
Aligning with a company with expertise in payment processing also allows us to service a much wider range of nonprofits. In addition to offering turnkey fundraising and donation processing solutions to small and mid-tier nonprofits, we’ll now be able to service the needs of larger nonprofits who need flexible, brandable payment solutions.
What does this mean for me as a FirstGiving partner?
In the short term (next 60-90 days), you shouldn’t notice any difference. You’ll continue to receive the same great product, service and support you’ve been used to, from the same people. We remain committed to powering your application and plan in invest heavily in expanding our offering. In short order, we plan to release new features that will expand your processing choices to make our service more efficient and easier for you, the donors you enable and the organizations you process for.
With FrontStream and their expertise, we will be able to offer enhanced reporting and insight into data for both partners and nonprofits, as well as additional payment processing options, including the ability to process funds directly to a charity’s account.
How do I learn more?
If you still have questions around the acquisition of FirstGiving and how it may affect you, please contact our API Product Manager Chris Dumas at 707-812-1234 or fill out the form to the right for more information. If you’re not following us on Twitter, you’ll find us at @firstgiving and @frontstream, where we’ll be answering questions publicly and posting new developments as they occur.