Paypal for non-profit donations- any way to waive or reduce paypal fees?

[sageclegg]

HI. I am new to PayPal. I am trying to raise money for a foundation created to honor a friend of mine. I am hoping t figure out a way to set up a paypal button on my web page so people can click on it and donate. I am wondering if there is any way to get around paypal fees if the money being exchanged is for charity. I have a billion other questions about how all of this works, but figured I would start with the basics first.

Thank you!

Sage

[skier]

Unfortunately not, you cannot avoid paying a transaction processing fee regardless of your organization's status.

If are a registered non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, you can qualify for a reduced fee, else, you pay the standard processing fees.  This is all clearly explained on PayPal's main site.   Just use the Search feature and search on "non-profit".

Regards,

skier

[Earthskimmer]

I just discovered that my donation of $500 to a non-profit organization was reduced by PayPal's fee of $15.00. That's pretty steep, seems to me.

Can this be standard procedure?

Surely PayPal should not charge fees on donations to non-profits.

Please reconsider this policy.

Thanks

[skier]

That's standard, i.e., 2.9% plus $.30 per transaction which on $500 is $14.80. 

Here's the catch and folks really need to "read" the policies and understand how things work as PayPal does explain their fee policies very clearly on their web site.   Check out the stuff here  for non-profits.  Note Section 7 and the part about organizations with over $100,000 monthly volume get the discount.

Nonprofit transaction fees are 1.9% + $.30 per transaction for organizations with over $100,000 monthly volume and 2.2% + $.30 per transaction for organizations with less than $100,000 monthly volume. To be eligible, you must have documented 501(c)(3) status or you will not receive the reduced nonprofit transaction fees.

People dive right into PayPal because they think that everything is free or extremely cheap but, what they don't do is take the time to understand the services offered.   Not defending PayPal in any way but, for some folks, PayPal is an excellent system and offers an alternative to processing credit card transactions and sending/receiving money online.  If you look at other Merchant Accounts, none are prefect and most charge a monthly fee just to maintain an account, even if there is no activity, you still pay.   That's why PayPal looks good to a lot of folks.  Perhaps the non-profit you donated to should have done their homework first.  I would be asking them instead of the fourm if they shopped around for the best service for their needs. 

Regards,

skier