Donation platform fee calculator
Every donation platform takes a cut, and the headline rate is rarely the whole story. Put your giving numbers in and see what leaves your account in a year, and how much of it is avoidable.
Every year
$0
- Total taken from your donations
- $0
- Card processing, which nobody avoids
- $0
- What a page of your own would keep
- $0
Free consultation, then one fixed quote.
How the math works
Two different charges come out of every gift. Card processing is the unavoidable one, roughly 2.9 percent and 30 cents, and you pay it wherever your donation form lives. The platform fee sits on top of that and is the part worth questioning.
The average gift matters more than people expect. At a $25 average gift, the 30 cent transaction fee alone is over one percent of everything you raise, which is why campaigns built on small recurring gifts feel the fees hardest.
Monthly giving times your platform fee, plus 2.9 percent and 30 cents on every gift, times twelve. The avoidable line is the platform fee on its own.
What the platforms charge
| Platform | What it takes | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Givebutter | 3 percent when donor tips are switched off, plus processing | Free to use if you leave the tip prompt on, which asks your donors to cover it instead. |
| Donorbox | 2.95 percent on the standard plan, plus processing | Drops to 1.75 percent on a plan that runs about $150 a month. |
| GoFundMe | 2.9 percent and 30 cents per gift | Verified charities pay 2.2 percent and 30 cents. |
| Zeffy | No platform fee | Paid for by a tip prompt shown to your donors, defaulted at 15 to 17 percent of their gift. |
| Classy, now GoFundMe Pro | Around 5 percent plus processing | Annual licenses commonly run past $3,000 before a single donation clears. |
| Your own donation page | Card processing only, about 2.2 to 2.9 percent and 30 cents | No platform fee, and no tip prompt standing between your donor and your cause. |
Rates are drawn from each platform published pricing pages.
The tip prompt is not free
A platform that charges you nothing is charging your donors instead. The tip prompt at checkout is preset, often at 15 percent or higher, and most donors accept whatever the default is. That money leaves your supporters, not your budget, but it leaves the giving relationship all the same.
It also affects what people give. A donor who intended to give $100 and watches $115 leave their account is less likely to set up a monthly gift. Boards rarely see that in a report, because it never shows up as a fee.
None of this means a platform is the wrong answer. Below a certain size, a hosted tool is genuinely cheaper than building anything, and we will tell you when you are there. The calculator is here so the decision is made on numbers instead of a sales page.
Questions people ask
What is a normal donation platform fee?
Most hosted platforms take somewhere between 1.75 and 5 percent on top of card processing. Card processing itself is around 2.9 percent and 30 cents per gift, or 2.2 percent for verified charities on some platforms. Anything above about 5 percent all in is worth a hard look.
Are zero fee platforms really free?
They are free to you and not to your donors. Those platforms show a preset tip prompt at checkout, usually starting around 15 percent of the gift, and enough donors accept the default to fund the whole company. Whether that trade is right for your organization is a values question as much as a financial one.
Can we avoid card processing fees entirely?
Not for card gifts. You can lower them by adding bank transfer as an option, which is typically under one percent, and by encouraging fewer larger gifts rather than many small ones. Anyone promising zero processing is either absorbing it or passing it to your donors.
When does a custom donation page make sense?
When the platform fee alone would pay for the build inside a couple of years, or when you need something the platform will not do: fund designation, campaign specific pages, recurring gifts in another language, or your donor records living in your own system.
What does a donation page cost to build?
It depends on whether you need recurring giving, fund designation, receipts, and a dashboard for your team. You get one fixed itemized quote after a free consultation, so there are no surprises and you can set it against what the calculator showed you.
Keep more of what your donors give
Tell us how your organization takes donations today and what you wish it did instead. We will give you an honest read on whether building your own is worth it, and a fixed quote if it is.