Giving
What Online Giving Actually Costs a Church: A Real Breakdown of the Fee Stack
Online giving costs a church about 2.2% to 2.9% plus 30¢ per card gift in payment processing, and some giving tools add a separate platform fee on top of that. A $100 card donation usually nets the church somewhere between $96.80 and $97.50 once the processor takes its cut, before any platform fee. The fee you feel is the sum of those layers, and most providers stay quiet about how the stack breaks down.
I spent a while staring at our own giving setup trying to answer one question: when someone gives $100, how much reaches the ministry? It was harder to answer than it should be, because three different fees get blurred into one number on most pricing pages. So I pulled them apart. Below is the plain version, with the math shown and every figure sourced.
How much does online giving actually cost a church in fees?
For most churches, online giving runs roughly 2.2%–2.9% + 30¢ on card gifts and a much smaller fee on bank transfers. The exact number depends on the processing rate your provider negotiated, whether you qualify for a nonprofit discount, and whether the software adds a platform fee on top. Bank-transfer (ACH) gifts cost far less than card gifts, especially on larger amounts.
The reason the real cost stays slippery is that providers report it differently. Some show only the processing rate and say nothing about a separate software cut. Others fold everything into one blended percentage so you can't see where the money goes. Once you separate the layers, comparing two tools gets simpler, and you can see who is making money off your offering.
What is a platform fee versus a processing fee?
A processing fee is what the payment network charges to move money from a donor's card or bank to the church. A platform fee is an additional markup the software company adds on top of processing. The processing fee is mostly fixed by the card networks. The platform fee is where providers differ, and it's the layer worth scrutinizing.
The three layers stack up like this. The first is the payment processor fee, the real cost of moving money. Stripe's standard U.S. rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per card transaction, and that baseline shows up across most church platforms because it's largely set by Visa, Mastercard, and the banks. No provider can make it disappear.
The second is the platform or software fee. Some giving tools add their own percentage on top, and this is the part that varies most and the part marketing pages tend to bury. A provider can charge 0% here and earn its keep on a flat subscription, or it can take a slice of every gift. The third layer is the donor-covered-fee checkbox at checkout, the "add a little to cover fees?" prompt. When a donor opts in, the fee shifts from the church to the giver. That changes who pays, not what's charged, and I'll come back to whether it's a good idea.
What is the difference between credit card and ACH fees for churches?
Card gifts cost a percentage of every dollar; ACH bank transfers cost a small flat or capped fee. That difference is small on small gifts and large on big ones. On Stripe, ACH runs 0.80% capped at $5, so a $100 ACH gift costs 80¢ while the same gift on a card costs $2.50–$3.20.
This is why nudging recurring and large gifts toward bank transfer is the single biggest lever a church has on fees. The donor barely notices and the math changes a lot. Some platforms make this clean (Planning Center's ACH is 0% + 30¢), others charge 1% + 30¢ on ACH. Worth checking before you assume bank transfer is free.
| Gift method | Typical fee | Cost on a $100 gift | Cost on a $1,000 gift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card, Stripe standard | 2.9% + 30¢ | $3.20 | $29.30 |
| Card, Stripe nonprofit rate | 2.2% + 30¢ | $2.50 | $22.30 |
| ACH, Stripe (0.8%, $5 cap) | 0.8%, max $5 | $0.80 | $5.00 |
| ACH, Planning Center | 0% + 30¢ | $0.30 | $0.30 |
Card and ACH figures from Swipesum's Stripe fee guide and the Stripe nonprofit discount; Planning Center ACH from Planning Center Giving.
A worked example: what reaches the ministry on a $100 gift
On a $100 card gift, the church nets between $96.80 and $97.50 depending on the processing rate, before any platform fee. Switch that same gift to ACH and the church keeps $99.20 to $99.70. The gap between the best and worst case is real money once you multiply it across a year of giving.
The four common cases:
- $100 card, Stripe standard (2.9% + 30¢): fee is $3.20, church receives $96.80.
- $100 card, Stripe nonprofit rate (2.2% + 30¢): fee is $2.50, church receives $97.50.
- $100 ACH, Stripe (0.8%): fee is $0.80, church receives $99.20.
- $100 ACH, Planning Center (0% + 30¢): fee is $0.30, church receives $99.70.
Now add a hypothetical platform fee. If a provider charges 1% on top of the standard card rate, that $100 card gift drops another dollar to about $95.80. A 0% platform fee provider leaves it at $96.80. That one line, present or absent, is the difference most pricing pages won't put in front of you.
Should donors cover the giving fees, and will asking hurt giving?
You can offer donor-covered fees, but treat the claim that it's free money for the church with suspicion. In 2022 the American Cornerstone Institute ran a controlled experiment, later published by Givelify, and the result is worth sitting with: roughly 60% of donors chose to cover the fee, the average gift rose only about 3%, yet the donor-covered group generated 20.5% less revenue overall because the added friction lowered completion. Asking has a cost.
I find that believable, and a little against my instincts. The extra checkbox, the moment of "wait, how much extra?" It's small, but enough to lose some givers at the threshold. If you offer fee-covering, make it optional, pre-unchecked, and unobtrusive. Don't build your budget on the assumption that donors will absorb the stack, and don't guilt anyone into it. The same study found a 38.5% drop in conversion when the fee prompt was shown, and Givelify's write-up has the methodology.
There's a further point underneath this. When a tool adds no platform fee of its own, the only thing left to cover is the processor's cut, which is small on ACH and modest on cards. The donor-covered-fee decision matters less the lower your real fee stack is, because there's simply less to cover.
Can a nonprofit get a discounted processing rate?
Yes. Stripe offers eligible U.S. 501(c)(3) organizations a reduced rate of 2.2% + 30¢ per card transaction, down from the standard 2.9% + 30¢, according to Stripe's nonprofit fee discount documentation. The qualifier most churches meet easily: more than 80% of your payment volume has to come from tax-deductible donations. Ticket sales, memberships, and store items bill at the standard rate.
To get it, you create a standard account and apply with your EIN or IRS determination letter. The 0.7% difference on cards adds up across a year, so it's worth doing. One caveat: American Express still bills higher and non-U.S. cards carry surcharges, so a small slice of gifts won't land at the discounted rate.
A church's whole fee picture is these layers compounding: the processor's rate, the discount you do or don't qualify for, the platform fee on top, and the share of giving you move to ACH. Get the nonprofit rate, push recurring gifts to bank transfer, and choose a tool that doesn't take a platform cut, and you've handled most of what you can control.
This is the layer I cared about most when I built Scout's giving. Scout adds no platform fee of its own, so the church still pays Stripe's processing fees at the nonprofit rate and nothing on top of that goes to Scout, and the giving lands on the person's record alongside their serving, groups, and check-ins. I'd rather earn our money on a flat monthly subscription than take a slice of the offering, because the point is to get as much of every gift as possible into the church's hands. Planning Center also adds no platform fee of its own and is a fair comparison here; the difference is mostly in what each tool does with the record once the gift clears.
Frequently asked questions
Who pays the credit card processing fee on a church donation? By default the church absorbs it. The gift arrives already netted of the fee, so a $100 card gift lands as about $96.80–$97.50 depending on the rate. Some platforms let the donor cover the fee at checkout instead.
What is the difference between a platform fee and a processing fee? A processing fee is what the payment network charges to move the money, usually a percentage plus a per-transaction cent amount. A platform fee is an extra markup the software company adds on top, and it's the part that varies most between providers.
What's the difference between credit card and ACH fees for churches? Card gifts cost a percentage of every dollar, roughly 2.2%–2.9% + 30¢. ACH bank transfers usually cost a small capped or flat fee instead, often 0.8% capped or a flat 30¢, so on large gifts ACH is far cheaper.
Should donors cover the giving fees? You can offer it, but don't assume it's free money. A controlled experiment by the American Cornerstone Institute, published by Givelify, found donor-covered-fee prompts raised the average gift only about 3% while that group generated 20.5% less revenue overall, because the added friction lowered completion. Make it optional and unobtrusive.
Can a nonprofit get a discounted processing rate? Yes. Stripe offers eligible U.S. 501(c)(3)s a reduced rate of 2.2% + 30¢, down from 2.9% + 30¢, provided more than 80% of payment volume is tax-deductible donations. You apply with your EIN or IRS determination letter.
Does Scout charge a platform fee on giving? No. Scout adds no platform fee and takes no cut of the offering, so you still pay only the standard payment-processing fees (Stripe's nonprofit rate). Scout earns its money on a flat monthly subscription, because the point is to get as much of every gift as possible into the church's hands.
I'm Nic, a pastor who got tired of not being able to answer "how much of this gift reaches the ministry?", so I took the fee stack apart and wrote down what I found.