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  • 1.  Credit Card fees and pledge payments

    Posted 30 days ago

    Hello Everyone, 

    We recently enabled the option for donors to cover transaction fees for credit card gifts on all of our online donation forms. A donor with an active pledge made an online contribution and selected the option to cover transaction fees. Should the full contribution amount-including the portion covering transaction fees-be applied to the pledge, or should only the net contribution amount (excluding the fee coverage) be applied toward the pledge?

    Thank you so much for your thoughts on this matter!

    Wendy



    ------------------------------
    Wendy Chinn Peter
    Saint Mary's College of California
    etheldawg@gmail.com
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Credit Card fees and pledge payments

    Posted 30 days ago
    Whatever you decide you must make this clear on the website.

    As to the question, it is rare (I haven't seen it) that the additional gift to cover the fee is applied to the pledge. These are two entirely different transactions.

    Only if in the original pledge document there is a reference to the fee coverage being a part of the pledge would I say otherwise.

    John

    John Taylor Principal, John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC 919.816.5903 Big ideas; small keyboard



    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Credit Card fees and pledge payments

    Posted 30 days ago
    Typically you would not apply the cc fee to the pledge, for several reasons, including that many pledges are for restricted purposes, so money collected against those pledges might not be permitted to be used to pay for cc fees, depending on the nature of the restriction. In general, we've found that though it is a bit more complicated, it is better to treat fee coverage as a separate gift or split gift. 


    Thank you,
    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    Sage70, Inc.
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

    Schedule a 30-minute consultation now:





    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Credit Card fees and pledge payments

    Posted 29 days ago

    Not wanting the card fee to be seen as 'last gift' we have opted to do the extra work of going back to the pledge and adding a split. We add the fee amount paid to a credit card transaction fee fund. This enables us to apply full payment amount as a split gift to the split pledge and not mess with last gift details or other metrics.

     

    While not a great fan of split gifts, it is working for us.

     

    JoAnn Strommen, Database Administrator

     

    South Dakota Mines

    Center for Alumni Relations & Advancement (CARA)

    330 E Kansas City, SD 57701-2935

    605.394.6756

    JoAnn.Strommen@sdmst.edu

     




    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Credit Card fees and pledge payments

    Posted 26 days ago

    Honest question - If they didn't cover the fee, would you do the same for the fee component of that gift? I don't understand how this is anything different. Isn't the donor simply increasing their gift to cover respective amount that would be charged by the credit card processor? 



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    Liz Fay
    Concord Hospital Trust
    efay@crhc.org
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Credit Card fees and pledge payments

    Posted 26 days ago
    If you are talking about a gift assessment fee, that is something donors are told about in advance and are incorporated into some, but not all, contributions. Typically, 100% of their gift goes to their designated fund but then a fee is calculated and either taken from the same fund or a operating account of the department. But 100% of the gift goes toward their designated pledge.

    In this case the credit card fee payment is a separate transaction and not part of the gift.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987





    Original Message


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