Fee recovery

The math

On a $100 donation, a typical card fee (2.9% + 30¢) costs you $3.20. Across $50,000 of annual giving that's roughly $1,600 gone - a laptop, a month's food budget for a program, a microgrant. Fee recovery asks the donor a simple question at checkout:

"Add $3.30 to cover processing fees so 100% of my gift goes to [your organization]."

Donors who just decided to give $100 came to help, and this helps a little more.

How Donor Merchant handles it

• Live math on the form. The fee and total update in real time as the donor changes amounts or frequency, so the button always shows the true charge.
• An exact figure, not an estimate. Your processor takes its percentage of the whole charge, including the fee itself, so simply adding 2.9% + 30¢ leaves you a few cents short. Donor Merchant works out the smallest amount that leaves the full gift after the processor's cut: $3.30 on a $100 gift, not $3.20. On that charge Stripe keeps exactly $3.30.
• Configurable rates. Default is 2.9% + 30¢; adjust both numbers in settings to match your processor and country.
• The right fee for bank payments. Bank debit (ACH) costs far less than a card. When a donor switches a one-time gift to their bank account, the fee is recalculated for the bank rate (by default 0.8%, capped at $5.00, Stripe's standard US price) before they confirm, so nobody is asked to cover a card fee they will not incur.
• Recomputed server-side. Like every amount in Donor Merchant, the fee is recalculated on your server at charge time - browser tampering can't change it.
• Reported separately. Donations record the base amount and the fee portion separately, so your books stay clean and exports show both.
• Works with recurring. A monthly donor who covers fees covers them every cycle automatically.

Turning it on

It's enabled by default. Fine-tune it under Donor Merchant → Settings → Payments → Processing fees - toggle it, or adjust the card percentage and fixed fee and the bank (ACH) percentage and cap. That's the whole setup.