Is Givebutter free to use? 🤑
Yep! Completely free. No contracts, no subscriptions, and no hidden fees — ever. Givebutter is free to use thanks to the 100% optional tips we receive from donors. If you'd prefer to hide tips from donors, a low, flat-rate platform fee applies instead.
Regardless of tips or platform fees, a standard processing fee always applies to each donation. The processing fee can be required or optionally covered by your donors. We've found that around 95% of donors choose to cover fees when given the option!
What are the fees? How does your pricing work? 💵
Optional Tips
We operate entirely on optional tips given as a thank you from donors for providing our platform for free. Optional tips are sent to Givebutter directly, and never come out of the amount donated to your organization. They can be edited or removed by donors during the checkout process. If you’d prefer to disable the option for donors to leave an optional tip for Givebutter, a low, flat-rate platform fee applies instead.
Platform Fees
If (and only if) you decide to disable tips, a small platform fee will apply to each transaction based on the campaign type you’re using:
Form - 1%
Page - 3%
Event - 5%
The platform fee is in addition to the standard processing fee. There are no platform fees involved if you leave optional tips enabled.
Processing Fees
A standard processing fee is applied to all online transactions on Givebutter. This fee is charged by our payment processor and allows your funds to be securely deposited into your account, regardless of the payment method your donors choose. These fees are charged per transaction:
2.9% + 30¢ - Credit Cards & Digital Wallets (Venmo, Apple Pay, PayPal etc.)
1.9% + 30¢ - ACH (for verified nonprofits only)
More than 95% of donors on Givebutter cover fees when asked, resulting in an average campaign fee of less than 1%.
You can also configure your campaign settings to require donors to cover these fees as part of their donation.
Fee calculations 🧮
You may see these percentages and wonder: how is all this actually calculated? Since credit card companies take their fees after platform fees are applied, it can be a little complicated. Here's the basic formula with tips disabled:
((Transaction amount + 30¢ credit card fee) / (1 - processing fee)) + (Transaction amount x platform fee)
Example Scenario: A $100 donation on a Form campaign with tips disabled (therefore has a 1% platform fee)
((100 + 0.30) / (1 - 0.029)) + ( 100 x .01) = $104.30
What are the fees to users? 💻
The average fee to users (organizations) across all campaigns on Givebutter is only 0.5%. Every time someone donates to a campaign, they are given the option to cover the entire fee on their donation.
Our 0.5% average fee to organizations is made possible because more than 95% of donors on Givebutter choose to cover fees.
If a donor chooses not to cover fees, this is deducted from the total amount they donated. The organization then receives the remaining donation amount, without paying anything out of pocket.
Example Scenario: You receive 100 donations of $100 each ($10,000 total) with optional tips disabled. Based on our metrics, let's assume 90 of your 100 donors covered the fees associated with their donation. That means 10 donors chose not to cover the $4.30 processing and platform fees for their donation. As a result, these 10 donors are actually donating $95.70 each, instead of the full $100.
Therefore, when you withdraw your funds, you will receive $10,000 minus $43 in fees not covered ($4.30 x 10 donors). The final amount is $9,957. What is this in percentage terms?
(1 - (9,957 ÷ 10,000)) x 100 = 0.43% overall fee
Did you know that most similar platforms take 3-10% and don't tell donors?
All online giving has a cost – credit card fees, web hosting, support, and maintenance are all costly expenses. A platform like Givebutter absorbs and consolidates these costs for you, simplifying the process, and helping you raise more funds.
Configuring your campaign fee settings ⚙️
You'll find all fee and tip-related settings under the Settings tab on any campaign. Givebutter allows you to customize the fee settings on individual campaigns, so you can choose the options that work best for your organization.
Enabling or disabling tips
To enable or disable tips on your campaign, go to the campaign's Settings tab, then scroll down to the section called Fees & Tips. Toggle the option to turn tips on or off.
Disable tips (off) – Optional tips are enabled, and no platform fees will be charged.
Disable tips (on) – Optional tips are disabled, and a platform fee will apply instead.
Requiring fees
To require donors to pay the processing fees on donations submitted (so the fees are not deducted from the donated amount), go to the campaign's Settings tab, then scroll down to the section called Fees & Tips. Toggle the option to require fees on or off.
Require fees (off) – Donors are given the option to cover processing fees, and can opt out. If they opt out, the processing fee will be taken from the donated amount.
Require fees (on) – Donors are required to cover processing fees on your behalf, and the fee is added to the total amount processed at the time of donation.
Hiding fees
To hide (remove) displayed fees on your campaign, go to the campaign's Settings tab, then scroll down to the section called Fees & Tips. Toggle the option to hide fees on or off.
Hide fees (off) – Fees will be shown to donors.
Hide fees (on) – Fees will be hidden from donors, and they will not be given an option to cover them on your behalf. All fees will be deducted from the amount donated.
Hiding fees does not remove the fees from the checkout flow entirely – they must still be paid by either the donor or the organization. If fees are hidden, all fees are paid by the organization.