The true cost of fundraising

Use our calculator to see if free really means free

Update 18/04/2020: 0% platform fee for all charities during the remaining period of the government lockdown thanks to our parent company, Virgin Money, offering to cover these.

Some well-known platforms are claiming to be 'free for charities' but still leave charities with no choice but to pay card fees, Gift Aid fees and monthly fees – while donors are asked for 'tips' that go directly to the platform.

We believe fees should be transparent and on 1 September 2019 became the only fundraising platform to let donors cover 100% of fees on behalf of charities.

Since 1 September 2019, we’ve seen generous donors cover your fees on average 80% of the time, with no change to the average amount they give.

See what a difference it makes when, 80% of the time, you get 100% of the donation plus Gift Aid free of charge.

Tell us how much you raise online in a year to calculate your savings

We've crunched the numbers, here's the true cost of fundraising. This is a simple illustration based on averages across all charities, your saving could be more or less than this.

	Virgin Money Giving	JustGiving
How much you pay	-	-
Collectively donors pay	- (to cover your fees)	- (Tips to JustGiving*)

*We have assumed 80% of donors will Tip JustGiving at the default 10% tip

Our not-for-profit site saves you an amazing

00%

That's 0 extra in your pocket and saves your donors 0!

See how these savings are calculated

These calculations are based on the most common outcome we see for charities using our site, where 80% of the time they receive 100% of the donation plus Gift Aid free of charge.

Company	Virgin Money Giving	JustGiving
Total raised online per year	-	-
Gift Aid added	-	-
Total plus Gift Aid	-	-
Annual equivalent of monthly fee	-	-
Platform fees	-	-
Payment processing fee	-	-
Gift Aid Charge	-	-
Total deductions (to the nearest £)	-	-
Net donations received by charity	-	-
Average cost to charity	-	-

To calculate the true cost of fundraising, we have assumed the following:

On average donors will cover Virgin Money Giving's fees 80% of the time
On average donors will tip JustGiving 80% of the time giving the default 10% tip
Gift Aid is claimed on 80% of donations
Gift Aid processing is handled by the platform on behalf of the charity
The average donation is £40 (this is used to calculate JustGiving’s card fees)

The platform fees used to calculate how much you will pay are below:

What are the fees	Virgin Money Giving	JustGiving
Platform fee	2%	No platform fee
Payment processing fee	2.5%	1.9% + 20p charged on each donation
Gift Aid charge	No charge – free processing	Optional processing charged at 5% on the Gift Aid amount
Monthly fees	None	£15+VAT up to £15,000pa raised. £39+VAT over £15,000pa raised. JustGiving also offer fee free option for smaller charities, with limited functionality.