Payment Enablement Fee

My irritation with the fee is that for years we the customers have been asking for Blackbaud to enable the ability to allow our donors to cover the cost of credit card processing fees. I understand that at some point they aren't able to absorb the rising cost of the fees from their vendors, but the optics on this is just terrible. There should have been discussion with their customers before this was introduced. Let organizations that are on a razor thin budget know that an extra $600/yr will need to be planned for and perhaps work with those organizations to make sure the fee doesn't start until their new fiscal year begins. But all of that is obvious customer care, which has been proven over the last several years to be the least of Blackbaud's concerns. So no, not surprised. Yes, irritated. Yes, I understand why. No, I don't like it.

It seems like the only option is to end the relationship with Blackbaud, but customers are under contract so that can't be done as easily as Blackbaud seems to be able to add a random $600 fee. I feel very bad for the organizations that are already hurting due to the pandemic, and for smaller organizations that are already stretching to pay for their Blackbaud products. This seems extremely tone-deaf and not in line with Blackbaud's mission and dedication to social good.

I too am sending in a complaint. I have sent this to: customersuccess@blackbaud.com; PaymentEnablementFee@blackbaud.com

Good morning,

My name is Karen Tuecke and I am responsible for eTapestry and BBMS at our organization, Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dubuque, IA. Site ID#39589.

As a social good company, I feel that the notification of payment enablement fee is irresponsible and unacceptable given the environment that not for profits are going through and not socially good to your customers, us. As a very small organization, we do not have the budget or the funds to cover the costs of $50 a month or $600 a year in addition to our other fees by Blackbaud. We also have a three year contract. How can this just change? This notification has brought to our attention that we have done a lot for Blackbaud, such as being a reference for eTapestry products, a champion of sorts and online collaborator, to name a few. We invest not only financially but also our time and talents. I feel as if now Blackbaud is taking advantage of us and unfortunately some months we have as little as $110 in credit card transactions. This is nearly 50% of our transactions in some months. We are disappointed.

With that disappointment brings me to be responsible for my organization and our future with Blackbaud. We will be looking at other products. Obviously our contract means nothing, therefore we may be breaking this, as have you, at our renewal in January.

Thank you for all the years of being a great company and we wish you the best of luck with this payment enablement fee.

Blessings,

Karen

PS: This is absurd for a not for profit to take on, especially during a pandemic. This was in the NY Times yesterday: https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/business/article_68a6c3a3-2f5d-5c87-82b8-947311d42892.html