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Online Donor Forms and New Fees

Jack Wagner

Hello All,

I received an email from Blackbaud that starting on July 1, 2026, there will be a new 1.5% Online Form Platform Fee assessed on most transactions processed through Online Giving in Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT. There will also be a 2% Form Platform Fee assessed on most transactions processed using Blackbaud Online Express™ forms and Blackbaud NetCommunity™ online forms.

Did anyone else see this? I haven't seen a single comment, but it sounds like Blackbaud is levying a new fee for use of their online tools. Am I reading this right?

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JoAnn Strommen

Yes, received same email. That's what I came away with as well.

Maureen Kelly

It is causing a lot of discussion and anger on the Facebook group for RE Users. It is so very curious to me that blackbaud can sign a contract and then just decide that it wants more money so change the terms of that contract on its own, and we are all stuck without any leverage. Donors are now going to be asked to cover a 5% transaction fee, in addition to the $600 "payment processing fee" that was also just imposed on customers a few years back. This will just continue, drip drip drip, until customers have just had it

Jack Wagner

@JoAnn Strommen, thank you for your response. I was beginning to think that I was the only person that received this email.

@Maureen Kelly, I agree with your statements about how Blackbaud can unilaterally change fees. I will have to look through the contract to see if that is allowed.

I want to create enthusiasm about the Unified View, but the lack of functionality and increasing fees are making that difficult here.

Jennifer Lee

I have been looking for a post about this as well and was wondering if posts about this would be allowed to remain on the site. I cannot see how this can be done under our current contract.

Evan Webb

@Jennifer Lee I believe BB can do this because of this clause in their Payment Services Terms (point 10.2 in linked doc):

"Blackbaud may add or amend Payment Services Fee sat any time in its sole discretion. In the event of such a change, Blackbaud will post a revision to its Fee Schedule and Your continued use of the Payment Services will be subject to such revised Payment Services Fees thirty (30) days after the date they are posted. Your continued use of BBIP or Payment Services after the expiration of such thirty (30)-day window constitutes your acknowledgement and acceptance of the revised Payment Services Fees"

https://www.blackbaud.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/paymentservicesterms.pdf

Amber Salvage

It’s all over the FB user groups, but I am so confused why I didn’t get an email! I’m the primary contact for our account. Checked my junk folder too and nothing.

Ben Regier

Very frustrating. And no mention of it in the Product Update Briefing!

@Amber Salvage, it sounds like Blackbaud decided which Org Admin to notify using info about who had the most support tickets, webinar attendance, and other engagement metrics - most likely using AI.

Joe Moretti

Blackbaud has been totally frustrating with nickel and diming non-profits, a mediocre product such as RE NXT and on top of it they charge a fortune. Glad I am close to retirement.

Jennifer Lee

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/313915#Comment_313915

Thanks, Evan,

Their email to us seems to not characterize this as a payment processing fee and instead is characterizing this as a "platform fee" for use of the RE-NXT online forms. This might be because of the state-restrictions on those types of fees. "Third-party processors and merchants can add a percentage fee (often called a surcharge) on credit card transactions, but it is highly regulated. Whether it is legal and permissible depends heavily on state laws, credit card network rules, and how the fee is applied." They may be trying to get away from these state laws and cc network rules by saying it's a platform fee for using their online forms. My BB rep used the analogy that our subscription is for the "building" and these new charges are like "paying for electricity". I don't see how if you have a lease for a building where electricity is included, the landlord can unilaterally start charging for electricity without violating the terms of the lease.

Amber Salvage

@Ben Regier Then I have no idea who could have possibly received it because I am the primary invoicing contact, I manage our contract, I'm the only one with access to merchant services, I have the most support tickets because I'm the one that submits them, and I attend pretty much every webinar I can. 🤯 That's the craziest part, the PUBs were a few weeks ago and zero mention of a HUGE change!

I reached out to our account rep, so I'll hopefully figure out why I didn't receive an email because I've received emails like this in the past.

Blackbaud - I hope you are listening to us!
I don't want us to have to move to another platform because we get priced out. I love my Raiser's Edge and I'm looking forward to all the improvements, but we are all nonprofits here with limited budgets and may not be able to handle a new fee that we only have 43 days to figure it out. Also many of our budgets are already set for FY27, having a big change like this so close to the beginning of the new fiscal year is very disheartening.

We don't want our donors to worry about paying any fees so we absorb this cost. So I calculated out what it could possibly cost us based on past transactions, were looking at ~$5,000 for online express forms and ~$4,000 for NXT forms. Thats a HUGE increase, especially since have have been pushing our donors to donate online vs mail ins.

Julie Horvath

@Jack Wagner Exactly my response to the email. Where did this come from? First I ever heard of it. July 1 is less than 2 months out to charge a new fee.

I know BB is trying to get everyone to use Donor Cover or Complete Cover, but I think they could have given us more time. I also found it odd that I seemed to be the only one who received the email and I am not the main contact.

In the email, there are a lot of resources listed in the email and steps to take to help minimize the fee, but it would be helpful if BB should provide a few information sessions to help us wrap ourselves around the changes and figure out our next steps to take.

Fees will be also be charged for OLX Event Reg forms. There is no mention of increases in School website > Event Registration forms, School forms, or Tap to Pay fees.

I get increases in fees, but I would appreciate more than a 45 day notice and answers to questions.

Devan Bessinger

I'm with you @Amber Salvage - I didn't get the email either. I'm the Org admin, primary contact, 99% of the tickets come from me, I'm one of only 2 people who attend webinars, etc. No idea where that email went (no one in our org has forwarded it to me, which they typically would). I'm guessing our org just didn't receive a copy, but not sure why.

As for the change itself, this is pretty unfortunate. I understand Blackbaud's needs to fund the continued development of their products and ensuring their security (plus… making profit, let's be real). However, this puts the fee amount for BBMS transactions into a more expensive range than ever before. I remember the days of BBMS One-Rate where everything was 2.598%+$0.26, regardless of card type. This made BBMS a really cost-effective, attractive option. Now, Blackbaud aren't really separating themselves from the herd of other providers out there. This amount of an increase with this short of notice is not very customer-focused. A planned, year-over-year scaled increase would have been a preferable strategy (0.5% increase each year for the next few years) to reaching their revenue goals while not alienating clients. Furthermore, it really appears that they want to push clients toward the use of Donor Cover and just have our donors foot the bill for this platform fee. However, that's never going to happen at our organization. Our org will never utilize the Blackbaud version of Donor Cover because of the actual way it functions (there is zero chance of us using it based on the current functionality).

All of this to say - this isn't a very "Best-in-Class" approach. 👎️😞

Kyle Tiney

It's definitely a break in the contracts. Online Forms is a component of the standard RE NXT service and they're introducing a new mandatory platform fee to utilize that service. There is nothing in the Blackbaud Solutions Agreement or our contract that permits this new fee.

I've strongly worded an email to our Account Manager instructing them not to implement this fee until our next contract term on March 1, 2028.

Meredith Friedman

Anyone else feel this new fee is unethical? I do not understand how a company whose mission is to drive positive change in the world could, with 6 weeks notice, take such an enormous chunk of income directly out of their client's pockets.

I've dome some preliminary math based on the volume of our current year's transactions and our $10K/year annual contract next year will cost us between $60K and $70K. Does Blackbaud have any ideas where we are supposed to source that lost income next year?

I truly hope that people from Blackbaud will see this. And I hope the community will flood these boards and tell them what we think of this.

This fee materially changes the economics of our contract. We should ALL object to new mandatory fees being added during an active contract term.

Meredith Friedman

@Maureen Kelly, this new fee CANNOT be passed onto the donor. Our organizations are going to eat it, full stop. It's only the credit card processing fees that are covered by either Donor Cover or Complete Cover.

Meredith Friedman

@Evan Webb - I don't think that would apply here because it's not a payment processing fee. It's a fee being assessed for use of the form.

Karen Diener

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/313961#Comment_313961

Why do you say that it cannot be passed on to the donor? If you use donor cover, that is exactly what happens.

I do wonder if donors will begin to stop covering fees as of July 1 because they will be higher.

Ben Regier

If I bring in $1,000,000 per year in online donations, this means that Blackbaud is now asking for an additional $15,000 from me, and that money has to come from somewhere. Either we eat it, or ask our donors to eat it. We don't have an extra $15,000 lying around and I'm confident saying that our donors don't, either.

It also changes the value of the platform. Raiser's Edge might be worth it to our org at the rates we currently pay, but is it still a good value if it costs an extra $15,000/year? Is that good stewardship of our donor's funds?

Amber Salvage

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/313980#Comment_313980

We don’t believe extra costs should be passed along to our donors for supporting us, so we absorb extra fees. Also I’ve read about other user’s experiences with donor cover and I don’t need another headache to deal with.

James Belich

Agree with all of the above - I can't believe that Blackbaud didn't at least give us more warning. Very disappointing. It's also very unclear what this new few will go towards. The KB article says this will "support continued investment in modern online giving experiences throughout the digital fundraising market" but doesn't give any specifics as to what that means. Like others, my understanding was that the online giving forms were covered by the annual license fees for RE.

Rachel Cavalier

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/313918#Comment_313918

It might not even be Org Admins since I received the email and I'm not one but I sure do put in a lot of support tickets, attend webinars, do trainings etc

Tiffany Schiller

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/313926#Comment_313926

I also think even if it's in the contract, can't the contract be determined to be a bad business practice?

Meredith Friedman

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/313980#Comment_313980

I stand corrected. I have a meeting scheduled with our customer success rep and a few other people he's looped in tomorrow and I asked the question directly. You are correct that Complete Cover will include this fee, and they are recalculating the Donor Cover algorithm now to include the new added fee. I cannot believe donors are going to be willing to pay a 4-5% fee to use a credit card. I expect fewer will cover the fee at all.

For anyone else following, if you use Smart Thing for donor cover in your OLX fees, you can actually change the calculation yourself and increase the fee. It doesn't feel ethical to me, but it can be done.

Meredith Friedman

@Maureen Kelly and @Evan Webb I wanted to be sure you saw my update. I was incorrect. Blackbaud IS planning to roll this added fee into the Donor Cover algorithm. And for Complete Cover up to $3000.

Tioga Anderson

I liked the upgrades I saw coming on the PUB, should have known they wouldn't come free lol. Gotta pay for all the AI nonsense somehow, I guess.

Tiffany Franzluebbers

This is what I sent to our rep… no response yet.

This is where we are hung up, the fee is being categorized as an "Online Form Platform Fee" that isn't a Payment Services Fee. In the KB site it says "The Online Form Platform Fee supports continued investment in secure, reliable online giving infrastructure and enhancements across Blackbaud’s online forms ecosystem, helping reinforce donor privacy, long‑term performance, and stability."

If this is considered Payment Service Fees and this is passed to the donor through donor cover, this puts the fee for the donor at 5% +.30 (for CC one-time or initial recurring). According to this website this isn't legal, the Federal max is 4%. https://merchantcostconsulting.com/lower-credit-card-processing-fees/colorado-surcharge-laws/

If this is considered an Online Form Platform Fee then 10.2 Payment Service Fees doesn't apply and should not be passed on to us.

052926 UPDATE: Our rep has sent this to their legal team, we are still waiting for a response.

060426 UPDATE: From our BB rep (legal department)
Thank you for your patience as I got an answer to this question from our legal department. Here is the response:

How can Blackbaud impose a platform fee in states that have laws that limit credit card surcharges? 

Many states regulate credit card surcharges, which are generally fees charged to a cardholder for the use of a credit card as a form of payment. Blackbaud’s platform fee charged to its customers is not a credit card surcharge.  

In addition, Donor Cover is a fee coverage model that gives donors the option to cover processing fees for eligible transactions, so 100% of their payment goes directly to the organization. Donor Cover is structured to avoid being treated as a prohibited card surcharge. 

Amber Salvage

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/314011#Comment_314011

@Tioga Anderson Most of the new AI tools are for the premium subscription though!

Tioga Anderson

@Tiffany Franzluebbers I'd be curious to hear their response. I assume they have a team of highly paid lawyers who made sure they are within their rights here.

@Amber Salvage yep and this is the way to make us all pay for it even if we don't get access to it.

Amber Salvage

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/313915#Comment_313915

@Evan Webb I was just reading through the payment services terms and looked at the processing fees site. According to the website, the new fee is listed separately as an "Online Forms Platform Fee", which sounds like a use fee of the platform not a payment fee. Also the fee doesn't apply to all transactions so it's not a true payment processing fee. Also I don't see a post about this or a revision to the website, nowhere does it have a revision date or a implementation by date. And I'm still waiting for an email about this….how can they impose a new fee without the organization knowing. If I wasn't active on here and in the FB groups, I would have never known.

Crystal Bruce

We appreciate everyone sharing their feedback and want to make sure you get the most accurate information for your organization.

Please connect with Support or your account representative so we can walk through your specific situation.