Paypal taking fees from donations

DemiDee

Each time someone donates to our charity via Paypal, they take a fee. I just wondered if this was normal, because I'd heard that fees should not be taken on donations?

oldtoolie

Any donation to a charity using a credit or debit card including through PayPal comes with a charge. This is what you pay to make things easy for donors.

Recently PayPal did link up with Oxfam where PayPal waived the fees for a month. I suppose it will be back to business as usual when that is over.

Savvy_Sue

You might find this thread useful, it links to a discussion article, and it might be worth you encouraging other means of donating.

oldtoolie

If someone is motivated to make a charity donation RIGHT NOW, don't discourage them by telling them to go find a chequebook, envelope, stamp and go to the post box. Better to accept their donation with gratitude RIGHT NOW. Even with the transaction costs, the charity will receive more gifts. Electronic gifts save time and money by being easier to record and process as well.

Savvy_Sue

oldtoolie wrote: »

If someone is motivated to make a charity donation RIGHT NOW, don't discourage them by telling them to go find a chequebook, envelope, stamp and go to the post box. Better to accept their donation with gratitude RIGHT NOW. Even with the transaction costs, the charity will receive more gifts. Electronic gifts save time and money by being easyer to record and process as well.

very true. However, investigating the most cost effective ways of accepting online donations is well worthwhile: there used to be few alternatives, but the choice is much wider now and the costs vary substantially!