Covering admin fees

Dwayne Dipasquale

Hello everyone.  This question is for those who have an online donation platform that allows donors to cover the admin cost of their gift...my question is how are you tracking the additional gift to cover these admin fees in Raiser's Edge.  We allow our online donors to add 3% to their gift to cover the admin fees, however we don't enter this "second" gift of 3% into Raiser's nor is it receipted. Just wondering how others are doing this. I know there is the finance vs stewardship "argument" that goes on.  Thanks everyone for your feedback!

Warren Sherliker

Would be really interested in this. We already have a free addon for Online Express donation forms that, should the donor choose to cover fees, calculates the exact amount the donor will need to donate. This ensures you get the amount they wanted to donate after transaction fees are removed and only that amount. It is usually less than 3% fee but does exactly what it says - gives you the amount they intended to give. The addon is totally free to all - SmartDONORCOVEROLX - just Google it if interested.


Currently though this comes in as a gift for that increased amount so it will be something like $10.78 or similar. At attribute on the gift shows the amount they intended to give i.e. $10. But surely there is a better way - would have thought gift splits but obviously OLX is not well setup for that. We are developing some NXT solutions that will do this but they are not out there yet.


Thoughts would be great though on best ways to record transaction fees - gift splits is definitely top at the moment for us.

Elaine Tucker

We receipt for the entire gift because the donor is not receiving any additional benefit for paying the CC fees - (similar to if they were to donate to a restricted fund).  We then split the gift (gasp! I'm OK with the split) This helps us know which donors are going the "extra mile" to support the organization.  Also, we have giving circles and it's very helpful to report to them which of their members are doing the additional donation. On the posting to the GL - we are integrated with NXT - we code the fees to offset expense, so having a separate fund for the fees is helpful for the accounting side of the house as well.

Elaine Tucker

Warren Sherliker:

Would be really interested in this. We already have a free addon for Online Express donation forms that, should the donor choose to cover fees, calculates the exact amount the donor will need to donate. This ensures you get the amount they wanted to donate after transaction fees are removed and only that amount. It is usually less than 3% fee but does exactly what it says - gives you the amount they intended to give. The addon is totally free to all - SmartDONORCOVEROLX - just Google it if interested.


Currently though this comes in as a gift for that increased amount so it will be something like $10.78 or similar. At attribute on the gift shows the amount they intended to give i.e. $10. But surely there is a better way - would have thought gift splits but obviously OLX is not well setup for that. We are developing some NXT solutions that will do this but they are not out there yet.


Thoughts would be great though on best ways to record transaction fees - gift splits is definitely top at the moment for us.

Warren Sherliker‍ we have custom code in our netcommunity donation forms that allows donors to pay a 3% cc fee and this is split out in the nc donation form and comes to us already split.  The 3% option was already on board when I came, and SJ Consulting did the additional work to break out the fees so they come across in a different fund. 

Warren Sherliker

Thanks Elaine, Split does seem the way to go, with Online Express it is tricky though. Hopefully our new NXT versions of these form types will help there with proper splits.


Cheers


Warren