This article addresses how processing fees and transaction limits are handled in Payments powered by Legacy Stripe. For information on how processing fees work with Payments powered by Stripe, select this link to go to that article here.
Processing Fees
During the setup process, you will be led through the process of creating a new Strope account to connect with your Virtuous Giving account.
First, Virtuous Giving charges a platform fee of 0.7% per transaction.
This platform fee is applied to the processing rate Stripe charges, which can vary based on the type of credit card processed. For example, Stripe charges a higher rate to process American Express cards vs. Visa or Mastercard.
Nonprofit Rates
Stripe offers special, discounted rates for nonprofit organizations. Once you have finished setting up your Payments powered by Stripe account, we recommend reaching out to the Stripe team by sending an email to nonprofit@stripe.com to ensure you can secure the lowest possible rates. You will need to provide the Stripe team with:
- Your EIN, or a letter from the IRS confirming your 501(c)(3) status
- Confirmation of the primary email address associated with your Stripe account
- Confirmation that greater than 80% of your payment volume will be tax-deductible donations
- Some examples of non-eligible donations, according to Stripe: are membership fees, tuition payments, ticket sales, registration fees, and auction payments.
Stripe fees at their lowest nonprofit rate (excluding the 0.7% Virtuous platform fee) are currently:
- Domestic (US) Visa/Mastercard: 2.2% + $0.30
- International Visa/Mastercard: 3.2% + $0.30
- Domestic (US) American Express: 3.5% + $0.00
- International American Express: 4.5% + $0.00
*In addition, reach out to the Virtuous Tech Support team to notify us of your nonprofit rates.*
Transaction Minimum Amount and Limits
Credit Card and ACH transactions have a $5 minimum amount requirement.
Stripe may also set transaction limits on ACH transactions. These limits can cause problems if a donor wishes to make a large ACH gift.
Part of Stripe's policies require documented evidence and requests for certain limits to be set for each nonprofit customer with a Standard Stripe account (this is the type of account you will create when you sign up as part of the Virtuous Giving setup). Threshold limits may need to be increased for year-end especially, when average gift amounts are expected to be higher.
Your Stripe account owner can send an email to support@stripe.com to determine your limits and increase your specific processing thresholds as needed. Stripe will require additional information to ensure your limits are set appropriately, including:
- Desired per transaction and per week limits
- Business reason for needing higher limits
- What is your organization's experience with ACH?
- How does your organization handle returned/disputed payments?
- 1-year ACH return/dispute rate