The effective fee rate means ‘The total fees for the average payment.’
What is the effective fee rate? #
Simply put, it is the rate per transaction you pay in fees total (as in both ConnectionPoint’s—if applicable—and your payment processors’).
Whether you even need to care about this number is dependent on which pricing model your campaign is running in:
Keep the Most –
This model is designed to help you keep the most from each contribution. We encourage supporters to cover the payment processing fees (like Stripe or PayPal) and optionally leave a tip to support ConnectionPoint. Most supporters do — and when they don’t, you only pay the payment processing fee. That’s it. We never charge a platform fee for your donations.
Optional Tipping –
This number will stay put at whatever your payment processor rate(s) are. Since Stripe and PayPal’s rates include a “plus X amount of cents”, this number is approximate. For example, most Stripe rates are 2.9% + 0.30 in North America, so your effective fee will remain around 3.5%. So if your campaign uses this model, you don’t need to worry about the effective fee rate.
Flat Rate –
This number will remain stagnant but higher because ConnectionPoint’s 5% platform fee is included. In the same example above, it will remain at 8.5%. If your campaign uses this model, you also don’t need to care about an effective fee rate.
Fee Recovery –
NOW you care about this number. The payment processor and ConnectionPoint’s fees are still being charged, but we’re asking your supporter if they will cover the fees for you so your campaign can receive the full intended contribution. This number considers that some (hopefully, most) of your fees are being covered, so it averages the fees that are NOT covered over each contribution you’ve received.
The point is to check to see if using this ‘Fee Recovery’ model saves more money per contribution than the ‘Optional Tip’ model, where ConnectionPoint charges nothing, but you still have to pay Stripe or their fees.
If your effective fee rate is lower than your payment processor rates, you are doing better than on the Optional Tip model! Congratulations! You’re winning!
If your effective fee rate is higher than your payment processor rates, you are paying more than you would be on the Optional Tip model. You can switch pricing models to lower the cost of your digital fundraising by removing ConnectionPoint’s fees.
How to find a campaign’s effective fundraising fee #
STEP 1 – Under ‘Report,’ click ‘Analytics.’
STEP 2 – Scroll down to ‘Payments KPI,’ and your effective fundraising fee is the last column.
