There are two possible deductions from the donor's credit or debit card charge, depending on where the donation was made and the form of payment.
If the donation was via credit or debit card – which is most of them – processing fees in the amount of 2.9% + $.30 per transaction are deducted before we transfer funds to recipient nonprofits.
When the donation is made from your nonprofit's site or platform, for instance via our "widget" or our text-to-donate service, you agree to pay a 3% technology processing fee – this pays for payment processing and disbursement, including staff, infrastructure, customer support, office space, and more.
There are several cases where there is no technology processing fee, but there is a difference between the gross credit / debit charge to the customer and the gross donation amount. When the donation is made from a third party partner's site, in some cases the partner may pay our technology processing costs. With other partners, the donor may have the option to "cover our costs," which increases the amount of the donor's credit / debit card charge. In some cases, such as Evite donations, the donor has the option to pay an optional and adjustable tip, which usually comes out the gross charge amount – so a $100 charge might end up recorded as a $95 donation and $5 tip. In this case there is no additional technology fee. We display this to the donor before they OK the charge. Because these tips flow immediately to a for-profit service provider, under IRS rules they are not tax deductible to the donor, not reported as part of the donation on the emailed tax receipt, and are not reported as donations on our 990.