GiveNow is still the lowest cost donations platform for the Australian not-for-profit sector.
To understand how this is possible, especially when other platforms claim to be "free" for your organisation, requires considered analysis. But put simply, other platforms simply don't include in their "free" declaration that:
- your organisation will incur third party processing fees of Stripe, Braintree, PayPal or similar, to process donation transactions.
- donors are asked to pay (surprisingly high) opt-in commission fees instead.
In analysing the GiveNow fees to alternative following players, the GiveNow plans are all on average cheaper for $50 and $100 donations.
* Assumes Visa/Mastercard donation to a DGR organisation, the dominant transaction type for our service.
Fee information used to create this table can be found here: GiveNow, Chuffed, MyCause, Raisely, GoFundraise, FunRaisin. GiveEasy fees are difficult to include in this analysis as they use a sliding fee scale, so the closest information publicly available states a $60 donation attracts a very high $3.63 fee to the organisation.
To understand this analysis, you need to understand how the fees are incurred.
1. Platform fee: On GiveNow the Starter Plan has no platform fee. But even for the Basic and Pro plans, on average we know that donors opt-in to cover the platform fee 80-85% of the time. This means that organisations on average only incur the platform fee 20% of the time (conservatively!). Therefore over a successful campaign, the effective platform fee for each plan is at most:
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- Starter Plan: 0%
- Basic Plan: 2.40% x 20% = 0.48%
- Pro Plan: 3.25% x 20% = 0.65%
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2. Transaction fee: Our transaction fees for Visa and Mastercard are between 10% - 20% of the cost of Stripe, PayPal or Braintree. We have negotiated a fee that is incredibly low, and this makes all the difference!
Below is a table that includes both the platform fee and transaction fee (inc GST) for a number of businesses who provide donation platform services:
Using these fees, the graph above is reflective of the following table:
Moreover, when a donor proceeds through the payment process, there are different "Opt-In" rates that a donor will be offered by default. The GiveNow fee that displays to the donor is markedly lower than other platforms, resulting in a more respectful experience for your donors.
Accurate as at September, 2022 For any comments or updates, please contact us.