administrative costs of running their donation pages. They’re required to by law.

The giving machines are not “by far the best way to give money”. They’re not even close to that. Many employers offer matching for charitable donations. My employer matches 100% of donations made through its giving portal which has over 7,000 eligible charities to pick from. Donations are automatically taken out of my paycheck and taxes are reported automatically. So in that one example I’ve demonstrated an alternative with a bigger selection, bigger match, and automatic tax reporting. And by the way, my employer reports the sum of all employee donations as just that, employee donations, it never takes credit for the donation.

You’re not even giving what you’re choosing with the giving machines. There’s an asterisk right there on the church website saying it’s up to the discretion of the charity how donations will be dished out. Your soccer ball might end up being a parking validation for one of the charity’s employees.