About Processing Fees

How to Handle Credit Card Processing Fees in DonorSnap

Credit Card companies charge processing fees; it’s just the way of the world today. However your donors should never be attributed those fees. The donor has no affect over whether you choose PayPal or goEmerchant or Square, and what those companies charge to process cards.

So the question becomes, How do I handle credit card processing fees?

Scenario 1: Donor Covers the Credit Card Fees

A donor gives $100 and opts to cover the fees, making their total payment $103.50
The payment of those fees is part of their donation, meaning they get credit for the total.
In DonorSnap, enter $103.50 as the total donation.

If you are using goEmerchant, the total of $103.50 will be downloaded from your online form to DonorSnap. Do not change this to show solely the $100 amount.

Scenario 2: Donor Does NOT Cover the Fees (with goEmerchant)

A donor gives $100 but does not cover the processing fees.
GoEmerchant will download the total $100 donation amount. This is correct, do not change this in DonorSnap.

$3.50 will be added to your total bill to goEmerchant for the month. Your accounting office will pay your cost of doing business to goEmerchant. The fee does not get attributed to the donor directly.

Scenario 3: Donor does NOT Cover the fees (with PayPal)

PayPal handles “donations” a bit differently in that it removes the credit card fees from the paid amount. This is incorrect for true accounting, because the donor Should Not be faulted for those fees.

A donor gives $100, but PayPal sends you notification that $96.50 was received.

In DonorSnap, enter the full donation amount of $100. This is what the donor receives as their tax credit at the end of the year.

Your accounting team should be adding these fees from PayPal as your cost of doing business, on the accounting side.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add a User Defined field for the Credit Card fees for easy reporting?

Yes, but you need to still attribute the correct donation amount in the Amount field.
For example, do not enter $96.50 in the Amount and then $3.50 in the Credit Card fees field.
Enter $100 in the Amount field, so your Thank you letters, Reports, and Contribution Statements give the donor the full credit they deserve. You can enter $3.50 in the fees field for your records if that’s easier for reporting.

Can I use the Value Received field to show what my organization Actually received?

No.

The Value Received field is something entirely different and should never be used to track neither the credit card fees nor the donation amount less credit card fees.

Last Updated OnMarch 23, 2023