DipJar ceased all operations at 8:00am ET on February 11, 2025, per its own shutdown notice, stranding 3,500+ organizations. Dashboards went dark on February 27, taking any unexported giving history with them. The notice named Kind Kiosk as the designated successor.
Givebear is worth putting on the replacement shortlist when the need involves in-person giving, donation kiosks, event registration, fund-level routing, or managing online and physical gifts under the same donor record. This page covers what happened, what to preserve from the old system, and how to test replacements without wasting weeks on demos that don't match the real workflow.
Feature Comparison
| Capability | Givebear | DipJar |
|---|---|---|
| Company Status | Active | Ceased operations February 11, 2025 |
| Hardware Donation Kiosks | Devices no longer process gifts | |
| Gift Amounts | Donor chooses on screen | One preset amount per dip |
| Donor Receipts and Records | Dashboards dark since February 27, 2025 | |
| Recurring Giving |
Who this is for
- A nonprofit executive director whose DipJar devices stopped working at the February 2025 shutdown and who needs to restore in-person giving immediately who have hit a specific workflow ceiling with their current setup.
- Teams whose biggest post-campaign cost is reconciling data from separate donation, event, receipt, and reporting systems.
- Organizations that want to reduce platform sprawl without losing donor trust or disrupting active recurring gifts and donation links.
What happened to DipJar
DipJar ceased all operations at 8:00am ET on February 11, 2025, per its own shutdown notice, stranding 3,500+ organizations. Dashboards went dark on February 27, taking any unexported giving history with them. The notice named Kind Kiosk as the designated successor.
When a giving platform shuts down, the urgent work is preservation: export donor records and giving history while the dashboard is still reachable, write down every active recurring gift (donor, amount, fund, billing day), and inventory the public giving links and QR codes that will go dark so each one gets a destination on the replacement platform.
Where Givebear fits in the shortlist
Givebear replaces what DipJar owners actually ran: a purpose-built tap-to-donate kiosk bought once with no monthly software fee, running on Stripe Terminal with the organization's own Stripe account, where every in-person gift gets a receipt and a donor record so an impulse tap can become a recurring donor.
Givebear belongs on the shortlist when the team wants donation pages, lobby kiosks, event registration, fund routing, and donor records to share the same data. That matters most for community organizations where donors may give online, at an event, through a kiosk, and later through a recurring gift, and the treasurer expects one clean view of each donor's history.
If you're still running DipJar today
Nobody can choose DipJar today: the company ceased all operations on February 11, 2025, and the devices stopped processing donations that morning. While it operated, DipJar fit organizations that wanted a countertop jar collecting one preset gift amount per card dip at front desks, gift shops, and event tables.
Hardware from a discontinued vendor keeps working only as long as the payment backend behind it does, and support, security patches, and replacement parts are already gone. Treat the replacement as time-sensitive: every week of delay is in-person giving collected on equipment nobody stands behind.
How to evaluate alternatives without wasting weeks
Pick one complete donor workflow and run it through each platform you're seriously considering. A useful test scenario: a donor gives to a specific restricted fund at a live event using a card, receives an instant receipt, comes back later to set up a monthly gift, and attends a registration event where the platform should recognize them as an existing donor.
Running this scenario in two or three systems takes a day and reveals where each platform creates friction. Comparing feature lists and marketing pages takes weeks and reveals nothing about how the system handles your actual data.
What to preserve when you migrate
There is no DipJar export left to run: dashboards went dark on February 27, 2025, so reconstruct in-person giving volume from bank deposits and accounting records. Decommission the dead jars, choose the replacement kiosk, and place it in the same physical spot donors already walk up to.
Also inventory every location where donors find your giving links: website navigation, email footers, social media bios, printed flyers, QR codes at your location, and partner websites. Each link is a donor touchpoint that needs a redirect plan before the new platform goes live.
What should I do with my DipJar devices?
DipJar devices were never standalone card readers: every dip routed through DipJar's servers, so when the company ceased all operations at 8:00am ET on February 11, 2025, the jars sitting on counters at 3,500+ organizations stopped accepting cards that same morning. There is no published way to point the hardware at another payment processor, and Kind Kiosk, the successor DipJar's shutdown notice directed customers to, sells its own devices rather than reviving old jars. Unplug the unit and send it through an electronics recycling program. The counter spot it occupied is the real asset: donors already walk up to that exact place expecting to give, so the replacement device should go exactly there.
The replacement math, using each vendor's own published pricing: Kind Kiosk devices run $299 to $599 per device, software costs $49/mo on Community ($19/mo for each extra device) or $149/mo on Growth, and each card gift carries a 3% Kind Kiosk platform fee plus Stripe's 2.7% in-person rate, 5.7% combined on cards, per kindkiosk.com/pricing, verified June 2026. A single Community device therefore costs $887 to $1,187 in its first year before per-gift fees, and the meter keeps running every year after. Givebear's kiosk is a one-time purchase at $699 to $899 (wall mount or floor stand) with no recurring software charge; the plan itself is $0/month with a 0% platform fee when donors tip (4.9% when a donor declines, one flat rate online, at kiosks, and on memberships), plus Stripe card processing at cost.
How do you rebuild recurring gifts after DipJar?
A dip was always a one-time gift at one preset amount, which made DipJar good at catching impulse generosity and bad at building donor relationships: most organizations never learned who their repeat dippers were. With dashboards dark since February 27, 2025, any giving history that was not exported is gone, so rebuild from what remains. Bank deposit records show the volume and cadence of in-person giving, and the busiest locations and times tell you where a replacement kiosk earns its keep first. The pattern worth hunting for is the habitual small giver: someone tapping $10 every week is roughly $520 a year, and that person is the easiest recurring convert you have because the habit already exists.
Make recurring the default ask at the new device rather than an afterthought. A kiosk that emails a receipt turns an anonymous tap into a contact record, and a follow-up message can then invite that donor to move the same gift to monthly. On Givebear, the kiosk runs Stripe Terminal, the receipt captures the donor's email, and the gift lands in the same donor records as online giving, so you can see exactly who gives in person repeatedly and invite those specific people to a monthly plan on your donation page. Pair the kiosk with a QR sign pointing at your online giving page so donors who prefer their phones end up in the same system instead of a separate silo.
Practical use cases
Replace DipJar hardware and workflows with a platform that is actively maintained and supported.
Consolidate donation portals, campaign pages, event registrations, kiosk gifts, and receipts into one system.
Recover what you can from the old system (donor exports, recurring gift lists, giving history) before access disappears entirely.
Common questions
What is the best DipJar alternative?
The best alternative depends on which workflow is breaking. Givebear is worth evaluating when you need donation kiosks, fund routing, event registration, and donor records connected in one system. If the problem is purely online donation conversion and you don't need in-person giving, other platforms may fit better. Start by naming the specific operational gap before comparing options.
How long does it take to switch from DipJar to Givebear?
The technical setup for Givebear can be completed in hours. The migration work, including exporting donor records, mapping fund names, transitioning recurring gifts, and redirecting active donation links, typically takes one to three weeks depending on data volume and the number of active campaigns.
Will my donors lose their giving history when I switch from DipJar?
Donor giving history can be imported from a DipJar CSV export. Recurring gift setups need careful handling: donors should be notified before their existing recurring charges stop and the new platform takes over. The Givebear team can advise on the migration sequence to minimize disruption.
Is DipJar still in business?
No. DipJar ceased all operations at 8:00am ET on February 11, 2025, per its own shutdown notice, and its dashboards went dark on February 27. The devices stopped processing donations the morning of the shutdown, and the notice named Kind Kiosk as the designated successor for the 3,500+ organizations left without a working device.
What is the best replacement for a DipJar?
Two realistic paths exist. Kind Kiosk, the successor named in DipJar's shutdown notice, sells devices at $299 to $599 with software at $49/mo on Community or $149/mo on Growth plus a 3% platform fee on each gift, per kindkiosk.com/pricing, verified June 2026. Givebear's tap-to-donate kiosk is a one-time $699 to $899 purchase with no monthly software fee, and the plan is $0/month with a 0% platform fee when donors tip (4.9% when a donor declines, one flat rate online, at kiosks, and on memberships), plus Stripe card processing at cost.