Our Charges and Fees

At GiveMN we believe in being transparent about the cost of fundraising. And it’s important to us that you know exactly why we have fees, what they mean for you and how they’re used to support our reason for being: Supporting Minnesota’s nonprofit community.


Why

To ensure we can provide organizations and donors a world-class giving platform and game-changing resources at no or low cost, we charge 

    • an annual service charge for our platform
    • a processing fee of 6.9% and a $.30/transaction fee on every donation made using GiveMN.org

Together with philanthropic support from our funders, these fees help provide the revenue needed to power the programs Minnesota nonprofits and donors depend on. 

Fees help us maintain our fundraising platform and process credit card donations, provide no-cost resources and training opportunities, and award more than $179,000 in grants each year.

What

Fees and charges on GiveMN.org support nonprofit programming like the GiveMN.org fundraising platform, Give to the Max Day, and RaiseMN nonprofit coaching.

We are proud to provide our two core programs, Give to the Max and the Campaign Institute, at no cost to participants. We charge fees for others to ensure these essential services remain accessible to all.

Last year 93% of donors went the extra mile to cover processing fees for their favorite causes, meaning 100% of their donations went to their chosen nonprofit. On behalf of these organizations across Minnesota and beyond, we’re grateful for this extra gesture of generosity and support for nonprofits and schools.

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How

Organizations: Service Charge

To help us provide best-in-class fundraising tools, support, and resources amidst increased costs and demand for our services, we’re implementing a nominal, tiered annual service charge on GiveMN.org.

To honor our Equity in Action value and ensure the GiveMN.org platform remains accessible to all,  we’ve tiered this charge to meet organizations where they’re at.

The annual service charge is based on two factors: 

    1. The size of an organization's annual budget as indicated in the organization's most recent GTMD registration, subject to IRS master file verification.
    2. The amount of money they raise on GiveMN.org. This year the service charge will reflect the period between October 1 and November 30, 2024. Moving forward, it will reflect the period between December 1 and November 30.

Annual service charges range from $0 to $800 annually and are tiered to reflect our Equity in Action value. See how that breaks down below

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The service charge will be deducted annually from the December disbursement.

Donors: Processing and Transaction Fees

A processing fee of 6.9% is charged on every donation made using our platform. And we encourage donors to cover this cost on behalf of their favorite causes.

Last year, 93% of donors covered this fee along with their donations—and we’re grateful for this extra act of generosity for our nonprofit partners!

The 6.9% fee is broken down as follows:

    • 4.9%: Used directly to pay processing fees charged by credit card companies and to help cover the cost of maintaining and keeping our fundraising platform affordable for all Minnesota organizations with our partners at Mightycause. 
    • 2.0%: Invested directly back into Minnesota nonprofits and schools through GiveMN’s mission and programming

All donations made on GiveMN.org are also subject to a $.30/transaction fee. This fee is a standard across many online fundraising platforms and donation processors to cover rising credit card processing costs. 

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Effective Fee

Most organizations pay less than 1% in processing fees for gifts made on GiveMN.org 

Most organizations raised money on GiveMN.org for far less than the stated 6.9% processing fee, thanks to the generosity of donors!

Across all of the 100,000+ gifts made during Give to the Max Day 2023, more than 93% of donors covered the fee associated with their gift. When we crunched the numbers, we found the average processing fee paid by organizations was 0.8%. 

Anyone with administrative access to a GiveMN.org page can see their effective fee with just a few clicks! Simply log into the GiveMN.org Administrative Area, look for the tile that says Effective Fee, and you’ll be able to see the percentage paid by that organization over the past 1 month, 3 months, or 12 months.

Cover the Processing Fee for Your Favorite Cause

When donors make a donation using GiveMN.org, donors can—and are encouraged to—cover the 6.9% fee on behalf of your chosen organization, ensuring that 100% of the donation goes directly to their favorite cause. 

Last year 93% of donors covered the fee for their cause—thank you!

How does this work? 

During the donation process, donors are asked if they’d like to cover this fee for their chosen organization. If they select yes, 6.9% will be added to their total. The entire contribution amount is tax deductible, including the processing fee.

If a donor does not choose to cover the fee, the 6.9% processing fee will be deducted from the donation before it is disbursed to their favorite cause, as is standard across most major fundraising platforms.

Why should I cover the fee?

By supporting their favorite organization and covering the fee, donors are helping to build brighter, more equitable communities across Minnesota and beyond, ensuring their favorite causes can continue to deliver the solutions that make our state a great place to live, work, and give.

Reduced processing fee available for some gifts when using a bank account

Donors may give directly from their bank account for donations or donation cart amounts above $100 using GiveMN.org.

To use a bank account during checkout, simply select “Bank Account” from the “Payment Method” menu and follow the prompts to securely log in to your bank account. More than 11,000 banks are a part of the Plaid payment system.

For donation checkouts under $100, the cost of using a bank account to process a gift is higher than the existing 6.9% fee for credit and debit card use. Since the cost to process gifts of $100 or more with a bank account is lower, we think it’s important to share that cost-savings with organizations and donors.

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*If a donor has already set up their bank account for a checkout of $100 or more and chooses to save that account to their user profile for future gifts, subsequent gifts under $100 may be made using the saved bank account at a rate of 6.9%.

GiveMN is grateful to be your partner in generosity, and we take our commitment to you seriously. That’s why we’ll never sell or share your donation information with third parties.

How can we help?