What am I working on now?
Credit-card processing. It's vital; people just spend more if they know they can put it on a card. Bidding goes higher in the live; people signup for more easel-parties, etc. PLUS, it lets us sell tickets online (when coupled with our SchoolAuction.net website) and we can use it throughout the year for things like selling Chinook Books, etc.
And something I know to be true: we can use pretty much any bank we want. There are specialized services designed to just provide credit-card processing services to fundraising auctions; the biggest such player (Greater Giving/Auctionpay) has their offices just a few miles down the highway from us. There's another one in Minnesota. But like any middleman/specialty reseller of services, these companies mark up the fees, by any where from 1 to 2% (the underlying bank fees range from 1.74%-2.5%, based on a whole bunch of qualifications.) In return, they give you an "express pay" service - you can have guests swipe their card when they check in at the beginning of the night, and then if they don't want to wait in a line at check out, they can just leave, and you can charge them later.
But you know what? There really isn't a need anymore for these specialized resellers. There are many, many "regular" merchant-processing banks that are willing to compete for non-profit accounts - even PTAs. Couple that with an Internet Payment Gateway, and I can integrate it into our auction software to provide for swiping at check-in (the "express pay" option), and thus, a quick and easy check-out on auction night. And if I skip the specialized reseller, then I can get away with paying about half the processing charges. Woo hoo!
So, I have an application sitting in my inbox, from a local company, and I'm going to get that filled out (with the PTA Treasurer's help) in the next day or two. The rates are reasonable (interchange plus 0.35%) and the service is great, and it's going to work well.
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