A registered National Historic Landmark located in Ely, Nevada, the Nevada Northern Railway Museum (NNRY) maintains the original railway locomotives, rolling stock, track, passenger station and buildings that served the historic copper mining region of Central Nevada for over a century. As the best-preserved example of a standard-gauge short-line in North America, NNRY has received multiple tourism awards and has been featured in seven episodes of The History Channel show American Restorations.

After using Altru for six years, NNRY sought an integrated solution that better met their needs for ticketing, reservations, memberships, donations and merchandise sales, including reservations and discounts for multi-night lodging.

Selecting the right system would lay the groundwork for NNRY’s continued growth and success. NNRY selected Doubleknot.

Since implementing Doubleknot, NNRY reports:

• A 400 percent increase in online donations with a donation request integrated into the checkout process
• A 33 percent increase in reservations
• An overall upward trend in revenues booked online compared to call-in sales

Read the complete case study here!

Best Practice: Use Integrated POS/MPOS for On-Site Sales

Admission-based nonprofits are unique, with enterprise-level requirements for ticketing, registrations and reservations as well as nonprofit-only needs like fundraising and membership management.

But, most POS solutions are designed for the for-profit entertainment industry, and don’t easily support the additional ways that nonprofits generate revenue. If your ticketing, admissions and retail sales aren’t fully integrated with your membership, registrations, reservations and donations, you might face the following problems:

• You have to configure everything in two systems: one for online purchases and one for payments at your site.
• Fees may be higher. Generic payment solutions can have less favorable terms than the ones you’ve already negotiated.
• Because payments are recorded in another database, you have to manually consolidate sales and registration information from different systems for accounting.
• You can’t access purchases that a customer already made online, so you can’t update registrations or collect outstanding payments and have the information automatically updated in your records.

In addition, separate payment solutions fail to capture every constituent interaction in a single database for reporting and analytics.

To empower our clients to save time and money, Doubleknot offers Sales Station, a complete front-desk/front-gate/retail POS solution with support for industry-standard peripherals like ticket printers, receipt printers, scanners and more. With Doubleknot and Sales Station, you set up everything you offer to the public once, and it’s available for sale directly to customers through a web browser, or at your site at a Sales Station register.

And, the Sales Station mobile app for iOS delivers the flexibility of a mobile payment system with the power of our integrated database so you can sell and validate tickets, update registrations, collect donations and sell merchandise anywhere. The Sales Station app for iOS eliminates the need to set up an unrelated system for mobile sales, which saves money on processing fees as well as administrative time to set up and reconcile different systems.

So, no matter it’s purchased, every admission ticket, special event, camp and class registration, birthday party reservation, field trip, membership purchase or donation is recorded in a single integrated database with comprehensive analytics and reporting tools for a 360-view of your constituents.

With Doubleknot and Sales Station, you can:

• Add easy-access buttons to the Sales Station screen for any event, reservation, membership, merchandise or donation
• Add anything to a purchase (even if it’s not assigned to a button) with a few simple taps
• Reduce wait time and speed admissions by using the Sales Station app on iPads and iPhones as a pop-up ticket or membership booth
• Look up registrants and attendees, update registrations and collect payments anywhere
• Ask for donations to support an exhibit as visitors exit, and accept donations at special events on or off your site
• With roaming membership sales, convert visitors to members and credit the cost of today’s admission against the membership price
• Go Green with our optional paperless solution that includes electronic signature capture, electronic receipts and mobile ticket delivery and display!

Support for the Sales Station mobile app for iOS
is included in every Doubleknot subscription!

Call us at (408) 971-9120 x203 or visit
hello.doubleknot.com to learn more and request a demo. 

Improvements to Text Message Receipts

We are pleased to announce that you no longer need a Google Voice account to use Sales Station’s option to send receipts to customers by text message. This change simplifies the Sales Station setup process and increases the delivery speed and reliability of text message receipts. Please note that all text message receipts will be sent from the phone number (415) 741-1018.

If you’re already using Sales Station, no changes are required—your text messages will automatically be sent through the new system. If you’re not using Sales Station, please call or write us to discuss how this innovative app for iPads (included in your Doubleknot subscription) can help you save time, increase revenues and better serve your constituents.

Sending an SMS text message receipt from Sales Station

Why Generic Plug-In Credit Card Readers are a Poor Choice for Nonprofits

Your Nonprofit Isn’t Generic. Don’t Rely on a Generic Payment Solution!

Using Square or a similar solution for collecting in-person credit card payments may seem like a good idea, but the truth is, generic solutions can cause very real problems:

• You have to configure everything in two systems: one for online purchases and one for payments at your site.
• Fees may be higher. Generic payment solutions can have less favorable terms than the ones you’ve already negotiated for your online sales.
• Because payments are recorded in another database, you have to manually consolidate sales and registration information from different systems for accounting.
• You can’t access purchases that a customer already made online, so you can’t update registrations or collect outstanding payments and have the information automatically updated in Doubleknot.

The Doubleknot Sales Station app for iPads is the only fully integrated mobile point-of-sale designed specifically for nonprofits. With Sales Station, you can sell merchandise, sign up new members, collect donations and book new registrations and reservations anywhere.

You can even look up an existing registration, update the information and collect outstanding payments on the spot. And because Sales Station is fully integrated with Doubleknot, every piece of information is automatically stored in the single, unified database.

Every Doubleknot subscription includes the use of Sales Station at no additional cost, so if you’re already a client, there’s no reason to delay. Let us know that you’re interested, and we’ll get you started right away.

If you’d like to learn how Doubleknot’s integrated online, on-site and mobile solutions for nonprofit ticketing, admissions, registrations, reservations, memberships and fundraising can help your organization,  please let us know!

• Call us at (408) 971-9120 x203
• Send us an email at Sales@doubleknot.com
• Click here to request a custom demo

Tap. Swipe. Done. On-Site Sales and Donations are that Simple.

With Doubleknot Sales Station, every sale is this simple:

TAP Add tickets, memberships and anything else you sell to the purchase. Member benefits can be applied automatically!
SWIPE Accept all major credit cards.
DONE Store transaction centrally and send an e-receipt. All online and on-site purchases are stored in the same database for easy reporting and analytics!

Want to learn more?
Watch our short video
or
Call us at (408) 971-9120.

Doubleknot Sales Station is an integrated point-of-sale solution for nonprofits including zoos, aquariums, museums, science centers, nature centers and botanical gardens. We offer a mobile POS to collect payments and donations anywhere on your site (or off your site), and a fully integrated POS cash register solution so you can manage exactly the same tickets, memberships, registrations, donations and merchandise sales through every channel of your organization. Learn more about Doubleknot at www.doubleknot.com!

How Doubleknot Helps Nonprofits Facing the Overtime Final Rule

Your nonprofit may have to start seriously watching the clock to comply with new overtime regulations.

In a blog post titled Known, Unknowns, and Options for Nonprofits on the Overtime Final Rule, the National Council of Nonprofits does an excellent job summing up the issues that nonprofits may face to ensure compliance. For example, whether your nonprofit is covered by the law depends on a number of variables about your organization’s activities, your revenues and the state or states in which you operate.

Despite the gray areas about how the law pertains to nonprofits, one thing is clear: nonprofits are challenged more than ever to reduce the amount of time-consuming administrative tasks so staff can focus on developing and delivering the core elements of your mission.

Doubleknot can help. Doubleknot integrates the administrative and customer-facing functions of ticketing and admissions, registration, reservations, memberships and fundraising into a single system that supports:

• Online customers
• Call-in customers and other back-office purchases
• Retail sales, ticketing and admissions
• Mobile sales and payments for everything you offer

Doubleknot stores all your information in a single unified database for analytics and reporting, and provides dozens of built-in standard reports as well as a full-featured custom report writer. As a result, it’s easy to share information among departments and generate reports that link previously-unconnected data (like whether families who register for camp also respond to donation appeals.)

Nonprofits that rely on Doubleknot spend less time manually managing administrative and information tasks and more time on what really matters: delivering your mission.

Call us at (408) 971-9120 x203 or write Doubleknot@doubleknot.com to learn how Doubleknot can help reduce the time your staff spends on administrative tasks.

(Almost) Everything Doubleknot Can Do (in about 75 seconds)

We’re very pleased to present our new “explainer” video, which covers the scope of Doubleknot’s solutions in a little over a minute. Click below to watch, and let us know what you think!

BEST PRACTICE: Avoiding Chargebacks

Chargebacks occur when a customer calls their credit card company or bank to dispute a transaction. Because the merchant is responsible for proving that the customer was rightfully charged, chargebacks cost time and money. For Doubleknot’s clients, the most common reasons for chargebacks are:

• The customer doesn’t recognize the transaction. This can happen when a spouse makes a charge without telling their partner, who can’t identify the purchase on the credit card statement. Another common cause is simply forgetting that they made a purchase through your system.
• The customer didn’t receive the goods or services they ordered. For example, if you cancel a class and do not promptly refund your customers, or if someone orders an item in your online store and you don’t fulfill and ship the order in a timely manner, customers may have a legitimate reason to begin a chargeback.

Once a dispute enters the chargeback system, the disputed amount is withheld from your account. Even if the credit card company or bank resolves the dispute in your favor, you may still be assessed a chargeback fee typically ranging from $15 to $30. Here are a few guidelines to reduce the chances of chargebacks:

• Act quickly. When someone calls or emails you to inquire about a charge, be sure to respond quickly. If you don’t respond in a timely manner, customers are more likely to escalate the issue to their credit card company or bank.
• Make sure that your products match their description. This applies to events, memberships, programs and reservations as well as to merchandise: if the facility rental wasn’t as described, or they didn’t learn what you said they’d learn in a class, you may be liable for the chargeback.
• Provide excellent communications and customer service. When customers feel that you’re responsive and open to communications about their orders, they’re much more likely to work with you directly to resolve an issue than to call their credit card company or bank.
• Make sure your cancellation and return policies are clear. This helps customers understand when they’re entitled to a full refund, a partial refund or no refund at all.
• Issue refunds ASAP. If a customer is owed a refund, issue it as quickly as possible. If you agree to refund a purchase and the customer doesn’t see evidence of the refund soon, they are more likely to get their credit card or bank company involved.

To help reduce chargebacks for clients who use the Doubleknot merchant services account, your customers will receive an email six days after each transaction to remind that their statement will show a charge for the purchase from Doubleknot.

REPORTING WEBINAR RESCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3

The reporting webinar previously scheduled for Tuesday, October 27 has been rescheduled to Tuesday, November 3, 2015. If you’ve already registered for the webinar, you don’t need to make any changes to your registration—you’re already registered for the webinar on the new date. And if you haven’t registered for the webinar, please do! The changes and improvements that we’re making are significant, and we strongly recommend that at least one person from your organization attend the webinar.

We’re in the process of updating all of Doubleknot’s reporting features to make it easier for you to quickly find exactly the information you need. Join us on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 at 2 PM Eastern/11 AM Pacific for a fact-filled webinar introducing the upcoming enhancements to our standard reports as well as our custom report writer.

Upcoming Enhancements to Doubleknot Reporting
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Time: 2 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific
Register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2405980301106077954

WEBINAR: Upcoming Enhancements to Doubleknot Reporting

We’re in the process of updating all of Doubleknot’s reporting features to make it easier for you to quickly find exactly the information you need. Join us on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 2 PM Eastern/11 AM Pacific for a fact-filled webinar introducing the upcoming enhancements to our standard reports as well as our custom report writer. The enhancements are significant, and we strongly recommend that at least one person from your organization attend the webinar.

Upcoming Enhancements to Doubleknot Reporting
Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Time: 2 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific
Register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2405980301106077954