Blackbaud Payment Processing Fees

Blackbaud is committed to delivering the most innovative, secure, and reliable payment-enabled solutions. There are costs associated to maintaining and improving payment services:

Tip: To bring more revenue to your mission, configure Blackbaud eTapestry and Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT forms so your donor or Blackbaud covers the online transaction fees.

Donor cover lets donors pay the processing fee for their transaction. When donor cover is enabled, Blackbaud Merchant Services automatically calculates the fee based on the payment method and adds it to the gift amount. Donor cover participation is optional.

For example, if a donor chooses to cover the fee, you receive the gross amount and pay no fees. If the donor doesn’t cover the fee, you only receive the net amount. Donors may cover up to $5 in fees for USD direct debits or all of the fees for alternative payment methods. The charged amount is tax-deductible for your donor and listed on both the gift record and the donor's confirmation email. For more information on how the fees are calculated, see this Knowledgebase article.

Note: Blackbaud eTapestry Cart orders and DIY forms enabled with donor cover process one-time transactions via credit cards and Apple Pay. USD direct debits are also accepted and donors can cover up to $5 in fees.

When Complete Cover™ is enabled, Blackbaud Merchant Services waives the processing fees for online transactions up to $3,000. In exchange, we ask supporters to give toward Blackbaud's service, Complete Cover. Your organization is responsible for paying the fee for each transaction equal to or greater than $3,000 through a Complete Cover-enabled form.

For example, if an event registrant purchases a $10 ticket and declines to give extra towards Blackbaud, you receive the full registration amount of $10 and Blackbaud pays your processing fees. Participation is optional; supporters are not required to give to Blackbaud.

Note: Complete Cover-enabled forms process one-time transactions via credit cards and Apple Pay. USD direct debits are also accepted.

To assume responsibility for all related fees and hide the option for supporters to contribute toward operating costs, choose My organization pays on your forms. For more information about the related fees, see Blackbaud Merchant Services Processing Fees.

Tip: Complete Cover and donor cover require Blackbaud Merchant Services.

Warning: You assume responsibility for fees on any forms where you disable Complete Cover.

When you select Blackbaud Merchant Services as your transaction processor for DIY forms and Cart orders, you can choose how to cover the fees.

  • Go toManagement, DIY Forms. Select to edit an existing form. From Settings, Page Type, choose how to cover the fees. Then, Update and Save to apply your changes. To publish, select Go Live and Yes, Go Live!. Select Replace to replace your existing live form with the new version. For more information, see Create Do It Yourself Forms.

  • For Cart orders, from Management, eStore (Cart), select to edit cart preferences. From Other Options, choose how to cover the fees. To complete your cart setup, click Save and Finish.

    Note: If a donor covers payment fees through donor cover, eTapestry creates a separate segment for that amount. From Transaction Options, you can select the value that will be assigned to the Fund, Campaign, Approach, and Letter fields on each split of the purchase transaction. For more information, see Set Up Funds for eStore Transactions.

You can view fees in the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal.

  • From Transactions, Transaction lists, open a list, then select Columns. Search for and select the desired fee columns, such as Donor covered fees, Blackbaud paid fees, and Fee amount. Select Apply changes to view which option was shown to your supporter and how much you paid in fees.

  • From Reports, Transaction totals, download the Transaction totals report. In the Fee column, view how much was charged for each transaction.

In Blackbaud eTapestry, you can view, report, and query on the transactions with fees covered.

To locate journal entries for transactions with covered fees, you can include a column or field for covered fees in your custom reports and queries.

  • To report on covered fees, under Report Columns from your custom report, choose Journal Fields. Select Donor Covered Fees or Blackbaud Paid Fees or search for the columns by name. Select the columns to display them on the report.

  • To query on covered fees, under Criteria from your query, choose Journal fields in the drop down menu. Select Donor Covered Fees or Blackbaud Paid Fees or search for the fields by name. Mark Yes to return journal entries for transactions that have fees covered by donors or Blackbaud.

For credit card transactions, you can refund the amount toward Blackbaud or the full amount. For credit card transactions where the donor covered the fees, you can refund a partial or full amount. Direct debits are refunded in full.

You will need to refund the transaction through the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal first. Then, reverse the transaction in Blackbaud eTapestry.

  1. In the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal, from Transactions, Transaction lists, open a list and locate the transaction. From the transaction's menu, select Refund and choose the amount to refund.

  2. Log into eTapestry and reverse the transaction after processing the refund. For more information, see Reversing finalized transactions.