GOdonate - Donor Covers the Fee
This knowledge article will walk you through how to allow your donors to cover the fee of their donations on GOdonate.
Things to Know
Your foundation selects the percentage added when a donor elects to cover the processing fees. This is because the fee charged by Stripe varies based on the selected payment method, and the final fee amount is unknown until after the transaction is submitted.
For more information, you can inquire with a Stripe representative about how they calculate credit card fees.
Please note: the fee amount the donor pays is different from the GOdonate vendor fee that is applied to gift payments from GOdonate.
GOdonate Settings
Allowing your donors to cover the fee begins in the GOdonate Settings.
Navigate to the Tools workspace, choose GOdonate Settings, then open the record.
1. Add Fee Percentage
In the GOdonate general settings, you’ll see a field called Additional Donation Percentage For Fees. Add a number to this field to represent the percentage of the donation that will be added to the donation total.
Important: Once this field contains data and the settings record is saved, the option to cover the fee will appear in your GOdonate site. Adding data to this field is essentially “turning on” the feature.
Step 2: Donor Covered Fee Text
Donor Covered Fee Text is an optional free text field where you can specify the language a donor sees next to the opt-in check box. Max. characters for this field is 2,000.
Important: If this field is left blank, the default language will appear that reads “Add [percent specified in Additional Donation Percentage For Fees field] to my donation to cover processing fees”.
Donor Experience
Now, let’s walk through the donation process and see how your donors will encounter it.
At the bottom of the donor information page, they will see a checkbox and next to it your custom text or the default text. To the right, the donor will see the dollar amount that the fee would add.
The donor can opt-in by checking the box. Once opted in, the total donation will increase by the fee amount. An Adjusted Total will appear.
Next, the donor will input their credit card information and complete the checkout process.
On the donation confirmation page, the donor will see their donation plus the fee as the amount on the donation receipt.
The email confirmation that the donor receives will also list the amount plus the fee.
GOdonate Transaction
Let’s look at a GOdonate Transaction after a donor opts to cover the fee.
The Total Amount is the donation amount plus the additional fee as specified by your GOdonate Settings. This is the total amount that was charged to the donor’s credit card.
Amount 1 is the ‘base’ donation amount. This is the amount that the donor input before they opted to cover the fee.
Fee amount is the actual fee charged by Stripe for this transaction. This is the fee calculated by your GOdonate vendor fee.
Gift / Gift Payment
Let’s look at the gift and gift payment after a donor opts to cover the fee.
Gift
The Total Gift and Commitment will list the base donation amount plus the donor-covered fee. This is the amount that was charged to the donor’s credit card.
Gift Payment
The Amount will be the base donation plus the donor covered fee. The Gift Fee will be populated with your GOdonate vendor fee. Fee Amount 1 will be the actual fee charged by Stripe for this transaction.
When the GOdonate Vendor Fee is Paid by the Operating Fund
In the case that your GOdonate vendor fee is paid by the operating fund, an additional gift payment will be created when a donor opts to cover the fee.
Gift
The Total Gift and Commitment will still be the base donation plus the donor-covered fee.
Gift Payments
Two gift payments will have been created. One in the amount of the base donation and one in the amount of the donor-covered fee.
The base donation gift payment will receive the GOdonate vendor fee and will be paid to the fund the donor selected in GOdonate.
The second gift payment will be in the amount of the fee added to their donation. This will be paid to the operating fund as designated by your accounting settings. This payment will have no gift fee attached.