If you’re running online donation forms and not offering donors the option to cover credit card processing fees, you’re leaving real money on the table — money that comes at no cost to donor experience and no risk to conversion. Donor fee coverage (also called transaction fee opt-in) is one of the highest-return, lowest-lift features you can add to a donation form. It’s transparent, donor-friendly, and it works. Here’s what the data shows, and how to implement it well.

What Is Donor Fee Coverage?

When a donor gives online, the nonprofit typically absorbs a credit card processing fee — usually 2–3% of the transaction. With donor fee coverage, you give donors the option to add that small amount to their gift so the full intended contribution reaches the cause.

Done right, it’s not a surcharge, it’s a choice. And donors respond to it well.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The most common objection we hear is: “Will it hurt conversion?” The short answer is no. Industry data consistently shows that offering fee coverage doesn’t deter donors from completing a gift. In many cases, it increases perceived impact because donors feel like they’re going a step further.

We recently pulled six months of data from a healthcare foundation client running eight Blackbaud Luminate Online® donation forms across a mix of campaigns (year-end giving, a grateful patient program, and several community-focused drives). Here’s what we found:

• 73% of donors opted to cover fees
• Nearly $2,000 in additional revenue generated — money that would otherwise have been deducted from the charitable contribution itself
• Average fee covered per donor: $3.00

Nearly three in four donors voluntarily chose to absorb the cost of processing their own gift. That’s a strong signal that when the ask is framed well, donors respond.

A Few Best Practices Worth Noting

Frame it around impact, not cost. Something like: “Help us keep 100% of your gift for patients by covering a small processing fee” performs better than language that emphasizes the transaction mechanics.

Monitor your opt-in rate. A healthy rate sits somewhere in the 60–80% range. If you drop below 50%, it’s usually a sign the language needs revisiting or the placement isn’t working.

Pre-check thoughtfully. Pre-checking the box tends to increase opt-in rates, but the form needs to make it easy for donors to opt out. Transparency matters, both for trust and for donor confidence in your organization.

Don’t set it and forget it. Like any form element, fee coverage benefits from occasional review. If you’re running multiple forms across different campaigns, spot-check opt-in rates by form to catch any outliers.

How to Implement It

Built-In Options in Blackbaud Luminate Online

Luminate Online now has native support for fee coverage on donation forms. You can enable it at the form level, customize the label text, and choose whether the checkbox defaults to checked or unchecked. It’s a relatively straightforward configuration with no custom development required for the base implementation.

Custom Implementation

If you want more control over the experience:

• how the fee is calculated
• how it’s displayed
• or how it integrates with a custom form design

There’s room to build something more tailored. At Doing Good Digital, we’ve implemented custom fee coverage logic for clients whose forms sit outside of standard templates or whose brand guidelines call for a more seamless integration. The goal is always the same: surface the option clearly without disrupting the giving flow. If you’re already using Blackbaud Luminate Online® and donor fee coverage isn’t turned on, it could be one of the easiest wins you’re not taking advantage of. And if you’re thinking about form optimization more broadly — whether that’s fee coverage, giving array testing, multi-step form design — we’d love to help you find the highest-impact starting points. Book a call with us: Let’s talk about getting more from your donation forms.