If your ministry runs three hundred thousand dollars through a donation page each year at a typical 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, roughly nine thousand dollars disappears into processing fees before it reaches a single mission line. Most of that number is not fixed. When a donation page asks the donor to cover the fee — plainly, and defaulted to yes — the industry data for 2026 is landing consistently between 82 and 87 percent opt-in. For a mid-sized ministry, that is real money. Not the kind you announce in a board meeting, but the kind that quietly funds a summer intern.
The mechanics are simple. When a donor enters one hundred dollars, the page calculates the fee (about $3.20 on a card transaction), shows it on a small line above the total, and offers a checkbox: "I would like to cover the transaction fee so my full gift reaches the ministry." The total updates to $103.20 in real time. Every major giving platform — Tithe.ly, Planning Center Giving, Give Lively, Donorbox — supports this pattern, though a few require you to switch it on in settings.
The wording matters more than the mechanic. Avoid "processing fee" language that sounds transactional; use "so more of your gift reaches the work" or "so the full amount goes to the ministry." The frame is stewardship, not surcharge — and donors respond accordingly.
There is one caveat we raise with clients. If your donation page has a first-time visitor problem — high bounce, low completion — layering a fee ask on top of an already-uncomfortable form can nudge unsure donors out. The gentler pattern is to leave the checkbox unchecked for first-time donors and default it to checked for returning ones. Platforms like Fundraise Up and Virtuous support that natively now. Most smaller ministries do not need that nuance to start; a plainly-worded, default-on checkbox will do most of the work.
The quiet win is on recurring gifts. A donor who covers the fee once on a monthly recurrence typically keeps covering it for the life of that gift — a small compounding effect that stewardship teams tend to overlook.
If your donation page is due for a look and this checkbox is missing, or is worded like a bank statement, it is one of the fastest changes we know of. We would be glad to help.