This week, Spark Foundation’s Givealittle announced starting September 1st it is charging a flat 5% fee, inclusive of goods and services tax (GST), on the amount raised by campaigns on its crowdfunding platform. The website declared in an official statement the soul purpose of the fee is to keep the platform running along with support and enable its growth. The fee will cover Givealittle’s payment process, website hosting, and customer service/website development staff.
The Givealittle team revealed:
“We have a duty to keep that growth going so that more New Zealanders can continue to raise funds for the causes that they are passionate about. This comes at a cost – we need to cover the expense of the work we do everyday in keeping the site running, processing payments securely, and improving the customer experience. Many of these costs are 3rd party costs, while we also have awesome staff looking after our customers every day.”
Chief giving officer at Givealittle, Tom Beyer, stated:
“Givealittle’s success has been phenomenal – in the last three years, the amount that individuals, charities and communities have raised through the site has grown from $500K per year to $22M a year. This comes at a cost – so we need to cover the expense of the work we do everyday in keeping the site running, and improving the giving experience.”
Givealittle also noted its current process, which releases campaign’s funds between the 20th and the 25th of the month following the month the funds were raised, will not change. The monthly payments will have the fees dedicated first from the amount raised, and top-up funds added back in. The example reads:
“A fundraiser who has had $1,000 donated in a given month and $30 top-up donations, will the following month incur $50 (incl. GST) in fees and receive $980.”
Click here for more details on the fees.
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