Fee coverage explained

When donors choose to cover processing fees, your nonprofit receives close to the full intended amount — but the net you actually receive can come in slightly above or below the donation amount the donor entered. This is normal, and this article explains why.

The fees are set by Stripe and PayPal, not GiveForms

GiveForms doesn't charge fees on individual donations. Every cent that comes out of a gift goes to Stripe or PayPal as their processing fee. After each donation completes, GiveForms records the exact fee the processor charged — we don't estimate or calculate it ourselves.

Why processor fees vary transaction to transaction

The fee Stripe or PayPal charges isn't a single fixed percentage. It depends on the specifics of the donor's payment:

• Card type. Debit cards, standard credit cards, and premium rewards cards are each charged at different rates. A donor using a premium travel rewards card pays a higher processor fee than a donor using a basic debit card.
• International cards. Donors using cards issued outside the US incur an additional cross-border fee.
• Currency conversion. If a donor's card is billed in a foreign currency, the exchange rate at the moment of the transaction affects the final settled amount.
• Payment method. Stripe and PayPal have different fee structures, so the same donation processed through each yields a different net.

Stripe and PayPal don't expose the exact fee for a given card before the transaction runs. The fee is finalized at the moment the donation processes.

How cover-the-fees handles this

When a donor opts to cover fees, GiveForms adds an estimated amount to their donation at checkout. The estimate is based on Stripe's standard published rate of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction — a reasonable approximation for most US-issued credit and debit cards.

Once the transaction completes, GiveForms records the actual fee charged. Three things can happen:

• The actual fee matches the estimate. Net donation lands at the donor's intended amount.
• The actual fee is lower than the estimate — typical for debit cards. Net donation comes in slightly above the donor's intended amount.
• The actual fee is higher than the estimate — typical for premium rewards cards or international cards. Net donation comes in slightly below the donor's intended amount.

Across a campaign, these variances tend to average out. The average net donation, with cover-the-fees enabled, lands very close to the donation amounts donors entered.

What this means in practice

The variance you see in your dashboard is a normal feature of how payment processing works, not a billing inaccuracy on GiveForms' side. Each donation's net amount reflects the actual fee Stripe or PayPal charged for that specific transaction — based on the donor's specific card, location, and currency.

To configure whether your forms ask donors to cover fees, see Fee coverage.