What is a donor tip at checkout, and who pays it?

On some fundraising sites with no platform fee, such as GoFundMe, Givebutter, 99Pledges and RallyUp’s Free plan, the checkout has one more line: a tip for the site itself. Those sites say the tips fund the platform, so they charge the team no platform fee, though card or transaction fees can still come out of the gift. The tip is separate from the gift, and the donor chooses how much, if anything, to add.

A tip is not the same as covering the fee. Covering the fee means the donor pays the card or transaction fee. On some sites that leaves more of the gift for the team; on others the site keeps it. A tip pays the platform.

The donor pays it, on top of the gift. Here is what each company’s own page says about where it goes, read November 8, 2026.

Every company here that asks for a tip says it is optional. GoFundMe says the tip amount “can be changed to 0,” and RallyUp says donors “can accept, decrease, or remove” its suggested amount.

None of these companies publishes its default tip on its pricing page, so the rates below are only examples. The team keeps the same amount in every row, because the tip goes to the platform. The team-keeps column uses GoFundMe’s own example: a $50 donation leaves $48.25 after 2.9% + 30¢.

Givebutter’s help center shows the same idea with its own numbers: a $100 donation, a $3.30 processing fee the donor covers and a 10% tip of $10 add up to $113.30. Its pricing page says that with tips on, the nonprofit “still receives the full donation amount.”

Not by itself. A tip lets a site skip the platform fee: on GoFundMe, 99Pledges and RallyUp’s Free plan only a transaction or processing fee comes out of the gift, and on Givebutter with tips on, its pricing page says the nonprofit keeps the full gift even when donors don’t cover the fees. What a coach should know is that supporters see the tip line, and some will add it. Two things are worth checking before you pick a site:

• What the checkout shows. Start a gift on your own page before you share it, and see the tip line your supporters will see. Stop before any payment field.
• Who keeps fee coverage. On Givebutter with tips off, a 3% platform fee applies, and any fees donors don’t cover come out of the gift. Vertical Raise’s terms say that when donors cover transaction fees or tip, it keeps 100% of those amounts.

If you would rather your supporters never see a tip line, pick a site that charges the team a fee instead. Our fee comparison shows what each one keeps from a $25, $50 and $100 gift.

Supporters may wonder whether the tip helps the team. On the sites above, it does not: the tip pays the platform, and the team’s share stays the same. A short line in your team’s message saves the question:

• Say where the tip goes. “The checkout may ask for a tip to the site. That is optional and does not go to the team.”
• Say it can be zero. Every company above that asks for a tip calls it optional, and GoFundMe and RallyUp say how to lower or remove it.
• Point to what helps. If supporters want more to reach the team, a bigger gift does that, and so does covering the card fee on a site where the team keeps that money.

• Free to start. No setup or monthly fee.
• Fees. 10% platform fee plus 5% payment processing on each gift. A team keeps $85 of a $100 gift.
• No tip. Supporters are never asked for a tip.
• Gifts. Supporters give $5 to $25,000 by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Cash App Pay, and by PayPal or Venmo on one-time gifts once the team links its bank.
• Merch. Gifts at merch levels come with gear printed with the team’s logo and shipped to the supporter. Its cost comes out of the gift that earned it, so the team never pays upfront.
• Payouts. Through Stripe to the bank account the team links.
• Players. Every player gets their own link to the team goal, with first name and last initial on public pages.

A FundMyClub team keeps less per gift than a team on a tip-funded site. See the numbers for any gift on the pricing calculator, or read what percentage fundraising companies take.