Quick jump links in this support article
One of the best ways to pay for your platform fees is to get your donors to cover the costs!
Donation tipping allows you to do this by giving your donors an option to add a percentage to their donation to help cover the costs of the CauseVox and payment processing fees charged upon each transaction. Across CauseVox, 85% of donors opt-in to cover your fees.
Donation tipping is an optional feature. You can enable it as an option for your donors on your donation form.
Note: Donation tips are not included in the donation counter on your campaign site, but will be displayed in your CauseVox admin account.
You have a few donation tipping options:
No Tip - Disable tipping on the donation form. Your donors will not be asked to pay an additional fee. Instead you will incur any platform and payment processor fees that apply.
Cover the Fees - Set a custom tip percentage so donors have the option to cover both CauseVox and payment processor fees. Now there will be an additional checkbox to cover the fees on the donation form which will be automatically checked.
Tip CauseVox - When you give your donors the option to Tip CauseVox directly, CauseVox removes its platform fee, dropping it to 0%. Tip CauseVox will default to 15%, but the donor can select another amount, or $0. Even if your donors do not give CauseVox a tip, CauseVox will not deduct any platform fees.
Here's an example of what the tip looks like when donors Cover the Fees:
Here's an example of what the tip looks like with the CauseVox Tip:
Setting up donation tipping
Step 1: Under Campaigns, select the Settings of the campaign you wish to edit.
Step 2: Under Sites & Forms, select your donation form.
Step 3: Select Tipping from the left navigation and the type of tipping you'd like and Save.
That’s it! You’re on your way to get more donations!
Calculating processing fees with donation tipping
We give you the opportunity to cover the CauseVox platform fee and the payment processor fee through donation tipping.
If you are on one of our paid plans (Lite, Standard, Plus or Premium), your donations will be charged a CauseVox platform fee (which is determined by the plan that you have) in addition to the payment processor fee.
Here are a few tipping options and example transactions detailed below.
Donation Example: No Tip
Donor donates either when the No Tip option is enabled, or when Cover the Fees is enabled, but the donor chooses not to leave a tip.
Let's say someone donates $1000. The CauseVox platform fee of $20 (2% of $1000, per customer plan) + the Stripe (est cc fee) of $22.30 will be deducted from the gross charge of $1000, making $957.70 the net received.
$1000 transaction (gross charge)
Total charged to the donor, including donation tips
Amount by donor: $1000
Donation tip by donor: $0
$1000 donation (displayed amount)
Amount shown on campaign pages
$42.3 est fees
$20 CauseVox platform fee
$22.30 Stripe processing fee
$957.70 net received
Donation Example: Cover the Fees
Donor donates when Cover the Fees is enabled and adds a tip to cover the organization's fees.
Let's say someone donates $100 and agreed to leave $5 tip to the organization to cover platform and payment processing fees. The CauseVox platform fee of $4.46 (4.25% of $105, per customer plan) + the Stripe (est cc fee) of $3.35 will be deduced from the gross charge of $105, making $97.19 the net received.
$105 transaction (gross charge)
Total charged to the donor, including donation tips
Amount by donor: $100
Donation tip by donor: $5
$100 donation (displayed amount)
Amount shown on campaign pages
$7.81 est fees
$4.46 CauseVox platform fee
$3.35 Stripe processing fee
$97.19 net received
Donation Example: Tip CauseVox
Donor donates when Tip CauseVox is enabled. This tipping option is automatically applied to all Basic plan transactions and cannot be changed when using the free Basic plan. Learn more about the Basic plan and pricing.
Let's say someone donates $200 and decides to give CauseVox a $50 tip. The optional tip listed as the CauseVox platform fee of $48.55 + the Stripe (est cc fee) of $5.80 will be deduced from the gross charge of $250, making $195.65 the net received.
$250 transaction (gross charge)
Total charged to the donor, including donation tips
Amount by donor: $200
Donation tip by donor: $250
$200 donation (displayed amount)
Amount shown on campaign pages
$54.35 est fees
$48.55 CauseVox platform fee
$5.80 Stripe processing fee
$195.65 net received
Recommended "Cover the Fees" percentages
Lite Plan
4.5% CauseVox platform fee for campaigns OR
2% CauseVox platform fee for donation pages
2.9% + $0.30 cents fee for Stripe processing (2.2% + $0.30 cents for nonprofits)
Recommended Tip: 7% for campaigns; 5% for donation pages
Standard Plan
4.25% CauseVox platform fee for campaigns OR
2% CauseVox platform fee for donation pages
2.9% + $0.30 cents fee for Stripe processing (2.2% + $0.30 cents for nonprofits)
Recommended Tip: 7% for campaigns; 5% for donation pages
Plus Plan
3% CauseVox platform fee for campaigns OR
2% CauseVox platform fee for donation pages
2.9% + $0.30 cents fee for Stripe processing (2.2% + $0.30 cents for nonprofits)
Recommended Tip: 6% for campaigns; 5% for Donation Pages.
Premium Plan
2% CauseVox platform fee for campaigns OR
2% CauseVox platform fee for donation pages
2.9% + $0.30 cents fee for Stripe processing (2.2% + $0.30 cents for nonprofits)
Recommended Tip: 5% for campaigns; 5% for donation pages.