Is Givebutter Really Free? Tipping Models vs. Flat-Fee Fundraising Pricing

Every nonprofit wants to limit fees and other expenses so the money they raise can be used to move their actual mission forward. So when a platform has a pitch that says they have zero subscription fees and zero platform fees, most charities take notice, and for good reason! 

But is this really what you pay at the end of the day?

Key Takeaways

• Tip-Supported Model: Givebutter is free for non-profits when optional donor tipping is enabled. Donors are presented with a voluntary tip prompt at checkout, which goes directly to Givebutter to fund platform operations.
• The Givebutter Guarantee: When tips are enabled, Givebutter absorbs any transaction processing fees that donors choose not to cover, ensuring the non-profit retains 100% of its raised funds.
• Standard Pricing (Tips Off): If a non-profit turns off tipping, Givebutter charges a standard 3% flat platform fee across all campaign types (forms, pages, events and auctions) for accounts created on or after September 9, 2025.
• Legacy Tipping-Off Tiers: Accounts established prior to September 9, 2025, retain legacy pricing of 1% for donation forms, 3% for fundraising pages and 5% for events/auctions when tips are disabled.
• PayBee Model: PayBee utilizes a traditional software pricing structure featuring a 2% flat platform fee, lower baseline processing rates, and configurable fee-coverage options without donor tipping prompts.

While Givebutter can indeed offer zero out of pocket costs for your organization, to achieve this you’ll need to understand that their cost structure depends heavily on whether you rely on donor tips or traditional processing models. And yes, there’s a big difference. 

Understanding how tip-based pricing can directly impacts your donors and then comparing it to flat-fee platform like Paybee is important when it comes to protecting donor retention and deciding which platform will be your best option long term. Once you start with one platform, you don’t want to change to a different one later! 

How Givebutter's Pricing Structures Work

In order to cover Givebutter’s platform costs, you have two different options and they both have to do with their ‘tips’ structure. Either you pay to use the platform through a flat fee structure with ‘tips’ turned off, or you can push the costs onto your supporters by turning their ‘tips’ option on. Either way, someone is covering their fees, it’s just who you decide.

‘Tips’ are actually the fees that Givebutter would normally charge you if you decided not to use this option. When it is on, your donors will go to a checkout page with the tips included in addition to their original donation. We give a real life scenario below as it can be a bit confusing. 

Option 1: Optional Tips Enabled (The Tip-Supported Model)

When optional donor tips are turned on:

• Platform Fee: $0% charged to the nonprofit.
• Donor Experience: Donors see an optional tipping prompt during checkout asking them to approve this fee to support Givebutter's software. Donors are offered the option to adjust the tip amount, choose a custom tip or remove the tip entirely before they checkout. Which ever amount your supporters decide to give, all tips go directly to Givebutter and are never deducted from the nonprofit's donation.
• Processing Fee Handling (The Givebutter Guarantee): The actual fees donors are asked to cover are $2.9% + $0.30 for credit cards and $1.9% + $0.30 for verified nonprofit ACH. 
• If a donor declines to cover processing fees and you have tips turned on, Givebutter covers the cost under the Givebutter Guarantee so you can still capture 100% of the donation. 

Option 2: Optional Tips Disabled (The Platform Fee Model)

If you decide you do not want to ask your donors to cover Givebutter’s fees, then you assume the fees just like any other platform. The pricing structure then depends on when your account was created:

• Standard Accounts (Created on/after Sept 9, 2025): A flat 3% platform fee applies across all campaign types including forms, pages, events and auctions.
• Legacy Accounts (Created before Sept 9, 2025): Accounts operate on legacy tiers: 1% for Donation Forms, 3% for Fundraising Pages and 5% for Events/Auctions.

So when tips are disabled, standard processing fees of 2.9% + $0.30 for credit cards and 1.9% + $0.30 ACH fees must be paid by your organization.

Either way Givebutter is not free, it is just who the nonprofit decides to pay the fees. They can either choose to make fee coverage optional for donors, require donors to cover fees or they can decide to absorb the fees themselves.

Hypothetical Checkout Scenario

This is where pricing can get a bit tricky or complicated since total checkout costs vary based on campaign configurations and donor choices, which in turn means there is no single fixed transaction cost. This can make it extremely difficult when trying to compare Givebutter’s costs against other platforms like Paybee. 

So to make things clear, let’s take a hypothetical example of a $100 credit card contribution under the different campaign settings to see what charges will actually be paid by someone.

• Scenario A (Tips On, Donor Accepts All Defaults): If a campaign has tips enabled and a donor opts to leave a default $15.00 ‘tip’ while also agreeing to cover the processing fees which would come to $3.20, the total checkout amount would be $118.20. Your nonprofit would receive the entire $100 donation while Givebutter receives the $15.00 tip and the $3.20 goes to payment processing.
• Scenario B (Tips On, Donor Removes Tip & Processing Cover): If a donor modifies their selection to a $0 tip and also opts out of covering the processing fees, the donor pays only $100.00 in total. But now under the Givebutter Guarantee, your nonprofit still receives the full $100 and Givebutter eats the cost.
• Scenario C (Tips Off, Standard $3\%$ Platform Fee, Non-Profit Absorbs Costs): If tips are disabled and the organization chooses to absorb all transaction costs on a $100.00 credit card contribution, the donor pays $100.00. Givebutter deducts the 3% platform fee ($3.00) alongside standard credit card processing ($3.29), leaving your non-profit with a net total of $93.71.

Givebutter vs. PayBee: Comparing Platform Approaches

Rather than one platform being strictly higher or lower in cost, Givebutter and PayBee represent two fundamentally different philosophy models in fundraising software.

Tipping vs. Voluntary Fee Cover: Impact on Donor Experience

A very important difference between Givebutter and Paybee is not just their numbers, but how they represent those numbers to your supporters.

1. Givebutter's Tipping Prompt: Asks donors to leave an extra tip to support Givebutter's operating costs creating an unknown third party on your checkout page. 
2. Paybee's Voluntary Fee Cover: Asks donors if they would like to add a small amount  of 3.5% to directly cover your nonprofit's administrative and processing costs. Your donors see it as going towards helping your nonprofit and not to a software company. 

There’s plenty of data out there that shows donors are willing to cover some of your operational costs as an added bonus to their gifts if they see it all going to your organization’s mission rather than a third party software company. And while this may all be synamtics, it does matter!

We have found here on Paybee that around 90% of donors voluntarily choose to cover the transaction fees when asked. This can help reduce your final costs to less than 1% overall without even requiring ‘tipping’ prompts.

Furthermore, we also offer significantly lower underlying transaction rates:

• Lower Credit Card Processing: 2.7% + $0.30 vs. Givebutter’s 2.9% + $0.30.
• Cheaper ACH / Bank Transfers: A flat 1.3% vs. Givebutter’s 1.9% + $0.30, which does matter, especially for major gifts.

Summary: Which Platform Should You Choose?

• Givebutter is best suited for: Early stage non-profits, small grassroots groups or tight budget campaigns that need $0 software overhead and don't mind presenting a tipping prompt during checkout.
• Paybee is best suited for: Established nonprofits that need to offer their supporters galas, hybrid auctions and major donor campaigns that prioritize a clean donor experience, lower ACH/credit card processing rates and transparent, predictable flat fees.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: Is Givebutter free for non-profits?
  
  • A: It depends. If Givebutter’s optional donor tipping is enabled, whether a donor does or does not tip, the platform is still free for the nonprofit, even if donors opt out of covering processing fees. However, your nonprofit can opt out of the tipping scenario and just decide to cover the fees, but in this situation Givebutter is not ‘free.’
• Q: What platform fee does Givebutter charge if tips are turned off?
  
  • A: For accounts created on or after September 9, 2025, Givebutter charges a flat 3% platform fee across all campaign types when tipping is disabled. Legacy accounts created before that date pay 1% for donation forms, 3% for fundraising pages or 5% for events and auctions.
• Q: Are donors required to leave a tip on Givebutter?
  
  • A: No. Tips are entirely optional. Donors can even change the tip amount or even set it to zero. If they do leave a ‘tip,’ whatever the amount, including above the actual fees, Givebutter keeps. 
• Q: Does Givebutter offer discounted ACH processing?
  
  • A: Yes. Givebutter charges a reduced ACH processing fee of 1.9% + $0.30 for verified nonprofits that can show documentation of their IRS 501c status.

Conclusion

Pricing is always a top priority for any nonprofit organization, especially Is you’re just starting your charity. So when you see ‘free’ in a platform’s advertising, it should definitely be one to check out. But one thing to always remember, software platforms have costs, there are coders, servers, support staff among a thousand other expenses, and unless someone covers all of them, the company will cease to exist.

And yes, Givebutter has a way to make their platform free for the nonprofit founder, but it is still your donors that are absorbing the cost. If this doesn’t matter to your organization, then they are a strong contender. But if you don’t want to strap your supporters with additional fees while they’re making a contribution, or making tipping requests to fund a third party software provider, it may be much easier and beneficial to just go with a standard flat fee cost solution like Paybee. 

If you’d like to sign up for our free demo, we can walk your through our system so you can see exactly what your donors see at checkout, how fee coverage options are presented and how processing costs scale so you can make a very informed decision when it comes to your own long term fundraising growth. Sign up here now, it only takes a minute!