Donor Fee Cover

This feature is available on the Plus plan

To help you maximise your donation income and raise more for your cause, GiveTap has an option that enables donors to increase their donation amount to cover the platform fee and payment processing fees charged by Stripe & Square.

Industry data shows that most donors are happy to cover platform fees in order to ensure that all of the donation goes to the cause so it’s a worthwhile option to consider.

How to set it up

This feature works on all online donation flows on the platform:

QR - fast donate
Mobile apps
Community
Silent Auction

The feature is turned off by default but can be enabled by visiting the campaign create/edit process in the following locations:

QR + Card Reader: Under the ‘Donation’ tab with the label ‘Donor Fee Cover’

Community: Under ‘Campaign Details’ with the label ‘Donor Fee Cover’

Silent Auction: Under ‘Details’ with the label ‘Donor Fee Cover’

How it works

When the feature is enabled the checkbox is checked by default on the donation flows and donors can simply untick to opt out. When the checkbox is ticked a summary of the fees will appear below the checkbox giving the donor a full breakdown. There is also a tooltip on the checkbox area that brings up a message with the following text:

Would you like to cover the transaction fee so that [charity name] receives 100% of your donation?

How the amount is calculated

The amount the donor covers is made up of two fees:

GiveTap's platform fee: 3% (2.5% + VAT).
The payment processing fee for a standard UK credit or debit card on your payment gateway (Stripe or Square).

We always use the standard UK card rate because, when the donor ticks the box, the platform doesn't yet know what type of card they'll use or where it's from. The standard UK rates are on our pricing page:

Stripe: 1.5% + 20p
Square: 1.4% + 25p

In-person donations (card reader or the GiveTap Payments app) use the in-person card rate instead. This is 1.4% + 10p for Stripe and 1.75% for Square.

For most donations you'll receive 100% of the original amount. If the donor pays with a foreign or premium card, such as Amex, the processing fee is higher, so you may receive 98–100%.

Worked example (Stripe)

On a £10 donation with a standard UK card, the fees are:

Stripe (1.5% + 20p): 35p
GiveTap (3%): 30p

That's 65p in total, so you'd receive £9.35. Adding 65p to the donation isn't enough, because fees are also charged on the extra 65p. Instead, we work out the total from the amount you want to receive:

Total to pay = (donation + fixed fee) ÷ (1 − percentage fees)

For Stripe: (£10 + £0.20) ÷ (1 − 0.045) = £10.20 ÷ 0.955 = £10.68. The 0.045 is GiveTap's 3% plus Stripe's 1.5%.

Check: on £10.68, Stripe takes 36p and GiveTap takes 32p. That's 68p, which leaves you with £10.00.

Amounts the donor pays (Stripe):

£10 donation: £10.68
£50 donation: £52.57
£100 donation: £104.92

Worked example (Square)

The formula is the same, using Square's standard UK rate of 1.4% + 25p: (donation + £0.25) ÷ (1 − 0.044). The 0.044 is GiveTap's 3% plus Square's 1.4%.

Amounts the donor pays (Square):

£10 donation: £10.72
£50 donation: £52.57
£100 donation: £104.87

All amounts are rounded to the penny.

Questions

If you have any questions about this feature or you require support in setting it up please email support@givetap.co.uk.