This article applies to charitable donations via our Give & Grow product for Shopify merchants, and not to donations via Evite or our other discrete donation forms. For that answer, please go to or search that section of this help site.
Fees Affecting Your Donation
There are two deductions taken from the gross donation amount. The below fees go against the donation only and are not charged to you. There is an in-app option to cover the below fees to ensure 100% of the donation is received by the selected nonprofit/nonprofits.
1) processing costs
You have the choice to process donations via credit card, debit card, or ACH.
a) Credit Card or Debit Card processing has a 2.9% + $.30 per batched transaction. This covers the card processing costs charged to us from our card processor.
b) ACH payment processing cost is only 0.8%, capped at $5. The ACH option will pull donations from your checking account on file.
*We process donations in batches from your selected payment method when donations reach either a $50 threshold or at the end of the month, whichever occurs first.
2) technology fee
There is a 10% technology fee that Pledgeling Foundation pays to its service providers – this pays for payment processing and disbursement, including staff, infrastructure, customer support, office space, and more. This is deducted from the gross donation amount before it is paid to the charitable organization.
Other Fees
At the end of a payment cycle (typically a calendar month), all donations to an organization, from all sources, are aggregated. There may be charges to cover our disbursement processing; this is assessed once, per check or electronic transfer:
a) Per-Check Fees or Electronic Transfer for Disbursements to US Charitable Organizations
At the end of every calendar month, we calculate the amounts received for every charitable organization, net of the fees above, and send US charitable organizations payment for all amounts greater than $20. The nonprofit is charged a $5 processing fee per paper check or ACH payment.
b) Fees for Disbursements to Charitable Organizations Outside the US
For payments to non-US charities not registered as 501c3 organizations with the IRS, we partner with international nonprofits who handle the disbursements to the recipients. They will charge a 5% fee against the amount of the donations that we send to them. They may aggregate payments due to a specific organization across multiple months in order for the disbursements to be economic.