FirstGiving applies a fee to all donations made through our site.  That fee is a total of 7.5% (5% earned by FirstGiving, and 2.5% charged by the credit card processing company).  Each of your donors has the option to cover that fee for you, by adding on a small amount to their donation.  About 38% of donors, sitewide, choose to do this (individual nonprofits may have a higher or lower rate of donors who pay the fee).

Because many donors pay the fee for you, your effective fee drops - we've made some changes in your report area to show you exactly what you are paying, and what is being paid by your donors.

Under the Reports tab, if you click on Payment Summary, you'll see the list of all the checks or EFTs we've sent you.  Above that list on the right will be a box containing a breakdown of the gross amount donated, then the fee amount that is being paid by your organization, along with the percentage that works out to be for your organization, and then the net amount you'll have received.  Clicking on the green dollar sign icon to view the Payment Details report for any given payment will show you the same breakdown for that individual check or EFT.  In that detailed report, you can see each individual donation that went into that payment, and if you scroll all the way over to the right, you'll see the exact amount the donor's credit card was charged, the amount that was deducted in fees, and the amount we sent on to you.

Elsewhere in your account, we display the intended donation amounts - so, if a donor gives $50, totals will be calculated with that amount in mind, regardless of whether they chose to pay the fee on that $50 or not.  This may cause some of your totals to go down at first, since they were previously calculated based on whatever the donor's card was charged.  However, the amount you receive has not changed - only the way your totals are being displayed in your account and on the public site.