Save Money with Fee Coverage

To reduce the cost of online fundraising, Blackbaud offers two fee-cover models, Complete Cover™ and donor cover. Both models are available across various Blackbaud solutions, with eligibility depending on factors such as form type, gift type, payment method, and transaction amount.

Tip: To process payments with fee coverage, you need a Blackbaud Merchant Services account. If you don't have one, here's how to get started.

Video: Watch an on-demand video that explains the differences between Blackbad's fee-cover models.

Complete Cover

With Complete Cover, Blackbaud pays the fee for eligible transactions up to $3,000, which eliminates your processing fee. In exchange, we ask the donor to optionally give toward Blackbaud’s service. With Complete Cover enabled on a form, even if a donor decides not to give extra, processing is free to your organization. Any extra amount given is not tax-deductible.

Complete Cover is currently supported in:

Note: SKY Payments API doesn't currently support Complete Cover.

Currently, the default settings for Complete Cover can't be changed.

Donor cover

With donor cover, donors can choose to cover the processing fees for eligible transactions so that 100% of their payment goes directly to you. We automatically calculate the fee and add it to the gift amount. The full amount is tax-deductible.

Donor cover is currently supported in:

  • Altru (through Blackbaud Donation Forms)

  • Blackbaud CRM (through Blackbaud Donation Forms)

  • eTapestry

  • Luminate Online

  • Raiser’s Edge NXT

Transactions eligible for fee coverage

A transaction’s eligibility for Complete Cover or donor cover depends on several factors, including form type, gift type (one-time or recurring), payment method, and transaction amount. Learn about transaction eligibility for your product:

Note: You can refund transactions made with Complete Cover through the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal. However, to ensure accurate totals in reports, you should only process refunds through the web portal if your Blackbaud application doesn't support refunds.

View the amount saved on fees

In the web portal, you can create a list that displays transactions with their associated fee amounts and coverage. You can filter the list by fee coverage type or add fee coverage columns.

Note: Complete Cover doesn’t display the amount the donor gives with their transaction. The amount doesn’t appear in any reporting.

Filter a list by fee coverage type

  1. From Transactions, Transaction lists, select an existing list or build a new one.

  2. Select Filter.

  3. Select Fee coverage and your desired option.

    Tip: To filter by transactions that used Complete Cover, select Blackbaud paid.

  4. Select Apply filters.

Add fee coverage columns to an existing list

  1. From Transactions, Transaction lists, select an existing list or build a new one.

  2. Select Columns and then Blackbaud paid fees or Donor covered fees.

  3. Select Apply changes.

Tip: The Transaction totals report displays processing fees for each transaction under the Fees column.

Online Giving (for Blackbaud CRM and Altru)

Under Summary, Saved in process fees, you can view the amount saved across all your forms. For more information, in Online Giving Help, see View Savings from Fee Coverage.

Raiser's Edge NXT

On the gift’s record, you can view the coverage for each one-time and recurring transaction. For more information, in Raiser’s Edge NXT Help, see Fee Coverage or View Savings from Fee Coverage.

eTapestry

You can view, report on, and create queries on transactions with fees covered. For more information, in eTapestry Help, see Blackbaud Payment Processing Fees.

Related resources