Guide for small nonprofits
The short answer
Some donation platforms really are $0 to your nonprofit. Those platforms are funded by an optional ask on your donor's checkout instead, so the cost moves to your supporters rather than disappearing. Others are free to install and sell the fundraising pieces as a paid annual plan. If you would rather your donors' checkout stayed about the mission, a flat platform fee you pay, and can see in your own dashboard, is the option you can predict. DonatoTomato takes that approach: a free account, a flat 1% platform fee per donation plus Stripe processing fees, and no tipping, so your donors never see a tip prompt, a suggested tip, or a tip screen. Seven platforms are priced below from their own published pages, with the date beside every figure.
Search "free donation platform for a small nonprofit" and you will find a dozen tools all calling themselves free. They are not lying, but "free" hides three very different business models, and which one you pick decides who actually pays. Below are six other platforms priced from their own published pages, with the date each figure was read beside it. Where one of them is the better answer for you, this page says so.
Written by Daniil Demidov, who builds DonatoTomato at Dev1 Consulting LLC, his Texas software company. DonatoTomato is one of the platforms on this page.
About this comparison. We make one of the products on this page, so read it that way. We chose the platforms and the questions; these are the platforms whose pricing pages we read and kept, with the date. Every figure comes from the named provider's own published pricing, with the date we read it beside it. We did not test, score or rank anything. We do not compare events, auctions, peer-to-peer fundraising, CRM depth or support, and some of the platforms here do things we do not, which we name where we know it. Check each provider's current pricing before you decide, and where one of them is the better answer for you, we say so on the page.
Updated October 1, 2026.
Every figure below was read from the named provider's own published pricing page on the date shown beside it. The rows are in alphabetical order, and DonatoTomato sits among them on the same four questions as everyone else.
Five columns. On a phone, scroll the table sideways.
| Platform | Who pays the platform | What it costs | Where the money lands | What the donor sees at checkout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anedot | Your organization, out of each donation. | No monthly fee and no setup fee, and one all-in rate with processing included: 3.3% + $0.30 per card donation for 501(c)(3)s, and 0.3% + $0.30 for ACH (Anedot's pricing page, September 2026). | Anedot says it is "both processor and platform" and "controls the financial stack end-to-end", in Anedot's own words on its home page (September 2026). | If your organization turns on Donor Covers Fees, donors can choose to cover your processing percentage and your organization pays only the $0.30. Anedot recommends sharing its hosted Action Page and also offers an iFrame embed; its documentation says PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay are unavailable on embedded pages (Anedot's pricing page and documentation, September 2026). |
| DonatoTomato | Your organization, out of each donation. Nothing is added to your donor's total to fund us. | A flat 1% platform fee per donation, plus your own Stripe card processing for a card gift: 2.9% + $0.30 at Stripe's standard rate, or 2.2% + $0.30 if Stripe approves your organization for its nonprofit rate (Stripe's published standard rate; the nonprofit rate as Stripe confirmed it in writing to a DonatoTomato customer, as of August 2026). DonatoTomato charges no monthly fee or setup fee, and there is no long-term commitment. A monthly gift also carries Stripe's own fee for running the repeating charge, billed to your Stripe account. DonatoTomato also supports US bank account (ACH) gifts, both one-time and new monthly gifts. Bank processing rates differ from these card rates; contact us to enable bank gifts. | Straight into your own Stripe account. You are the merchant of record, payouts run on Stripe's normal schedule, and we never hold your money. | One optional box, never pre-selected, or a Yes/No question if your organization prefers, offering to add an estimated processing contribution. No tip, no suggested tip, no tip screen. |
| Donorbox | Your organization, out of each donation. | The free Standard plan charges fees between 2.95% and 3.95%. Donorbox's fee breakdown splits that into a platform fee of 2.95% for donation forms, fundraising pages, QuickDonate, peer-to-peer organization pages and crowdfunding pages, or 3.95% for event ticketing, memberships and peer-to-peer supporter pages, charged on top of payment processing, which the same breakdown lists at 2.2% + $0.30 for Stripe card payments from registered nonprofits and 1.99% + $0.49 for PayPal. Paid plans lower the platform fee: Pro is $150 a month at 1.75% to 2%, and Premium is quoted (Donorbox's pricing page and its fee breakdown, September 2026). | Through Stripe or PayPal, which Donorbox's pricing page names as its payment processors (September 2026). | Donorbox's pricing page says you can give donors the option to cover processing fees at checkout. Its published pages we read do not say what else the donor is shown (September 2026). |
| Givebutter | Your donors, through an optional tip, while tips are on. Your organization, through a platform fee, when tips are off. | Two plans. On Standard pricing, for accounts created on or after September 9, 2025: with optional tips on, $0 to your organization, platform and processing both 0% on Givebutter's published pricing; with tips off, a 3% platform fee plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing. Accounts created before September 9, 2025 stay on Legacy pricing by default and can switch at any time: $0 with tips on, or with tips off 1% on donation forms and more on pages, events and auctions, plus processing (Givebutter's pricing page and help articles, September 2026). | Givebutter's pricing page says Givebutter partners with Stripe Payments Company for money transmission services (September 2026). | With optional tips on, an optional tip the donor can edit or remove during checkout, and the processing fee shown to the donor but always optional. With tips off, your organization chooses whether donors are asked to cover fees, required to cover them, or shown nothing (Givebutter's Standard pricing article, September 2026). |
| GiveWP | Your organization, through an annual licence if you buy one. The plugin runs on your own WordPress site with a payment gateway you connect. | Free core plugin; paid annual plans (Essentials $199, Pro $399, Elite $599 a year) add recurring giving and fee recovery. We do not publish a per-gift figure for GiveWP here (GiveWP's pricing page and its WordPress.org listing, September 2026). | In whichever payment gateway you connect on your own WordPress site. GiveWP's documentation says gateway fees are deducted before funds are deposited into your account (September 2026). | Whatever the site owner builds, because the form runs on your own WordPress site. GiveWP sells Fee Recovery, a paid add-on that lets donors choose to cover the payment gateway's fees (GiveWP's documentation, September 2026). |
| PayPal | Your organization, out of each donation. | One all-in rate with processing included. Receiving domestic donations through the Donate Button or PayPal Checkout for Donations is 2.89% plus a fixed fee, $0.49 in US dollars. Charity transaction rates are 1.99% plus the same fixed fee and are subject to eligibility, application and pre-approval by PayPal as a Confirmed Charity. International donations add 1.50% (PayPal's merchant fee page, September 2026). | Your PayPal balance, on PayPal's terms. | PayPal's donate-buttons page describes a hosted donation page, an embeddable campaign, and a button with a pop-up option that keeps donors on your site. Its published pages we read do not say what else the donor is shown (September 2026). |
| Zeffy | Your donors, through an optional contribution at checkout. Zeffy's help documentation says that contribution is its only source of revenue (September 2026). | $0 to your nonprofit. Zeffy's pricing page says every feature it offers is free and that Zeffy covers all transaction and credit card fees (September 2026). | Into a Stripe account created for your organization through Zeffy's Stripe Custom Connect integration, which Zeffy's help documentation says is what lets Zeffy cover those fees on your behalf (September 2026). | An optional contribution to Zeffy, shown separately from your donation. Zeffy's help article says a donor can change it with a dropdown before paying, including down to $0 (September 2026). |
Where a cell says "its published pages we read do not say", we could not find the answer in that provider's own published documentation on the date shown. It does not mean the platform lacks the feature.
Here is the arithmetic once, on a single one-time $100 card gift. On DonatoTomato that is a $1.00 platform fee plus your own Stripe processing: $3.20 at Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30, or $2.50 if Stripe approves your organization for its nonprofit rate of 2.2% + $0.30 (as of August 2026). So $4.20 in all, or $3.50 at the approved rate.
On the same $100 gift, from each provider's own published pricing on the dates in the table above: Zeffy charges your nonprofit nothing and asks your donor for an optional contribution instead. Givebutter with optional tips on charges your nonprofit nothing on its published pricing, and with tips off it is $6.20, a 3% platform fee plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing. Anedot is $3.60 all in for 501(c)(3)s, processing included. PayPal is $3.38 at its standard donation rate, and $2.48 where PayPal has approved your organization as a Confirmed Charity. Donorbox on a donation form is $5.45: a 2.95% platform fee on top of Stripe card processing, which Donorbox's own fee breakdown lists at 2.2% + $0.30 for registered nonprofits, the same Stripe nonprofit rate we quote for ourselves. At that same rate our total is $3.50, against Donorbox's $5.45.
One platform is missing from that list on purpose. GiveWP's core runs on your own WordPress site with a gateway you connect, and that gateway sets its own fee, so a per-gift total there would be one we assembled rather than one anyone published. We print a total only where the provider publishes every part of it.
Now do the subtraction. On a one-time $100 card gift, PayPal's published rates come to less than ours, $3.38 at its standard donation rate and $2.48 as an approved Confirmed Charity, against our $4.20, or $3.50 if Stripe has approved your nonprofit rate. Anedot's $3.60 sits below our standard number and above our approved one. We would rather you read that here than find it at reconciliation. What the difference buys is the donor record, the receipts, the year-end statements, and a Stripe account that stays yours if you ever leave, and the section below says where that is not enough.
When a donation platform is advertised as free, the cost has usually moved somewhere rather than vanished. There are three common shapes. Tip-based platforms are free to your nonprofit because they ask your donors to add an optional tip at checkout, and that tip funds the platform. Freemium platforms give you a free core and charge for features like recurring giving and fee recovery. Percentage-fee platforms charge your organization a transparent cut of each donation instead.
None of these is wrong, but they answer "who pays" very differently. The table below maps each model to its real cost and who carries it, using the same descriptions we use on our comparison pages.
| Model | How it is funded | Who bears the cost |
|---|---|---|
| Tip-based ($0 platform fee) | An optional tip added to your donors' checkout that funds the platform | Your donors, through the checkout tip |
| Freemium core, paid add-ons | Free core software with paid bundles for features like recurring giving and fee recovery | Your organization, once you need the paid features |
| Flat percentage fee | A transparent platform fee on each donation that you see in your own dashboard | Your organization, visibly and predictably |
Sometimes one of the platforms above is the right answer and we are not. These are the cases we know of, from the same published pages.
If a $0 platform fee matters more to you than keeping the platform's own ask off your donors' checkout, Zeffy is a fair choice. It charges your nonprofit nothing, and its help documentation says the optional contribution shown to your donor is completely optional and can be set to $0 in a dropdown before payment.
The same goes for Givebutter while its optional tips are on. On its published pricing your organization pays no platform fee and no processing fee in that setting, and the ask sits on your donor's checkout instead.
If your gifts are mostly one-time, your donors already use PayPal, and PayPal has approved your organization as a Confirmed Charity, PayPal costs your organization less per gift than we do, and you should take the cheaper rate. The written acknowledgment for gifts of $250 or more has to come from your organization either way. DonatoTomato sends receipts after gifts complete, with tax acknowledgment for eligible gifts and organizations; check how PayPal handles that before you decide.
If you run a political campaign or committee, use Anedot rather than us. DonatoTomato is built for nonprofits and churches, and we do not offer the compliance tooling, such as FEC reporting, that political committees need.
If you want event ticketing, crowdfunding or peer-to-peer campaigns in the same tool as your donation form, Donorbox lists all three on its free Standard plan and we do not offer them.
And if you want the donation form to be part of your WordPress site rather than a hosted widget, and you are content to install it, update it and keep it secure yourself, GiveWP is a WordPress-native answer and we are not. Our own plugin drops our hosted form into any page or post on your site, but the form itself runs on our servers, so we update it and no payment code runs on your own site.
This page compares one thing: the cost of taking an online card donation, who carries that cost, where the money lands, and what your donor sees while giving. It does not compare events, auctions, peer-to-peer fundraising, CRM depth or support quality, and it prices one $100 card gift rather than your real mix of gift sizes, ACH, international cards and recurring plans. Run your own numbers before you decide.
We are aware of others, including WP Charitable, Donately, Fundraise Up, Flexible Donations for Stripe, AidWP and WP Smart Pay. We have not read and dated their pricing pages, so we do not price them or describe them here.
Any provider can change its pricing the day after we read it. Check each one's current pricing page before you decide.
The platform includes donor management, donation accounting and annual giving statements alongside the giving form. Your organization pays DonatoTomato a 1% platform fee, with no monthly fee; Stripe's own fees are separate.
DonatoTomato is built for the nonprofit that wants a fee it can see. The account is free to create, with no monthly fee and no setup fee. You pay a flat 1% platform fee per donation. Stripe processing fees are separate; Stripe takes them out of the same charge at your own rate. A monthly gift also carries Stripe's own fee for running the repeating charge, billed to your Stripe account.
Monthly giving, receipts after gifts complete, donor management, and an optional, clearly labeled processing contribution are included in the platform fee. No separate tip is taken from your donors. Donations land directly in your own Stripe account, so you are the merchant of record.
The same account carries a record for every donor with lifetime giving, full gift history, and who gives monthly and who has not given in over a year, all exportable to CSV, so there is no separate donor CRM subscription to buy. DonatoTomato also produces your donors' year-end giving statements from the same records and sends them in one run, so January is not a spreadsheet exercise. For eligible gifts and organizations, a statement carries your EIN and the written acknowledgment the IRS asks for.
If your site runs on WordPress, our plugin is free to install from WordPress.org and drops the donation form into any page or post, connected to the same account.
We made that trade on purpose: the fee is ours to charge and yours to see, and your donors are never asked to fund us.
Yes. DonatoTomato supports US bank account gifts (ACH), both one-time and new monthly gifts. Email hello@donatotomato.com to enable bank gifts for your organization. We will help you confirm the required Stripe bank-email setting before switching them on. Existing recurring gifts are not automatically moved to a bank account.
Yes. Zeffy charges your nonprofit $0 and is funded by an optional contribution shown to your donor at checkout, and Givebutter's published pricing charges your nonprofit $0 while its optional donor tip is on (as of September 2026). That is a real $0 platform fee, but the cost is carried by your donors rather than removed. A flat fee you pay and can see keeps the platform's ask off your donors instead.
On DonatoTomato, $4.20 for a one-time gift: a $1.00 platform fee plus Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30, or $3.50 if Stripe approves your organization for its nonprofit rate of 2.2% + $0.30 (as of August 2026). From each provider's own published pricing (as of September 2026): Zeffy charges your nonprofit nothing and asks your donor for an optional contribution; Givebutter charges nothing while optional tips are on and $6.20 with tips off; Anedot is $3.60 all in for 501(c)(3)s; PayPal is $3.38 at its standard donation rate and $2.48 where it has approved your organization as a Confirmed Charity; Donorbox on a donation form is $5.45, a 2.95% platform fee plus the 2.2% + $0.30 Stripe nonprofit rate its own fee breakdown lists. GiveWP's core runs on your own site with your own gateway, so we do not print a per-gift total for it.
The account is free to create, and DonatoTomato charges no monthly fee or setup fee. DonatoTomato itself is not free as a product: your organization pays a 1% platform fee per donation, and Stripe processing fees are additional. Monthly giving, receipts, donor management and donation accounting are included in that 1%. A monthly gift also carries Stripe's own fee for running the repeating charge, billed to your Stripe account. We say "free to start" rather than "free" because the 1% is real and we would rather be plain about it.
Because a flat 1% platform fee you pay and can see keeps your donors' checkout focused on the cause, with no separate prompt asking them to fund the platform. If that is the trade you want, the number is the same on every gift and it sits in your own dashboard where you can check it. Where a platform is genuinely cheaper for you per gift, this page says so.
No tipping. Your donors never see a tip slider, a suggested tip, or a tip screen, and there is no separate ask that funds DonatoTomato. The only optional add-on at checkout lets a donor add an estimated processing contribution. It is never pre-selected, it appears as an unchecked checkbox or, if your organization chooses, as a Yes/No question, and it is never framed as a tip. DonatoTomato is paid by the flat 1% platform fee your organization pays and can see in its dashboard.
Recurring giving, automatic IRS-ready receipts, and donations that land in your own account. DonatoTomato includes those in its flat 1% platform fee, with money going straight into your own Stripe so you stay the merchant of record, and year-end giving statements generated from the same records.
DonatoTomato is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anedot, Donorbox, Givebutter, GiveWP, PayPal, Zeffy, WP Charitable, Donately, Fundraise Up, Flexible Donations for Stripe, AidWP or WP Smart Pay. Product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here only for comparison and identification. Comparisons reflect published information as of September 2026 and may change, please verify current pricing and details on each provider's website.