If you just got your 501(c)(3) determination letter, you probably need a way to accept donations online within the next week or two. A board member is asking, or you already have a donor ready to give. This page walks through the realistic options in the order most new orgs actually consider them, with the real numbers for each.
Pick yours in 30 seconds
- If your donors are mostly individuals giving smaller gifts, and a tip prompt at checkout doesn't bother your board → Givebutter, tips on. Realistically $0 in fees.
- If your board wants a plain donate button with no tip prompt shown to donors at all → Donorbox, Standard plan. Free to start, 2.95%–3.95% platform fee. (read why below)
- If you're already processing enough recurring monthly giving that a lower percentage fee would save you more than $150/month → Run the numbers in the fee calculator, then compare Donorbox Pro against Givebutter tips-off.
- If you already know you want donor records, membership tracking, and event management in one system, not just a donate button → Skip this page. Go to Do You Need a CRM Yet? first.
- If keeping literally 100% of every donation matters more to you than controlling the donor checkout experience → Zeffy. $0 platform fee and $0 processing fee, funded by a larger default donor tip prompt.
- If you already have a developer or a form tool you're comfortable with, and don't need donor records yet → Take payments yourself via Stripe or PayPal directly.
Still not sure? The full comparison and the reasoning behind each of these is below.
The comparison table
These are the platform fees only. Every option below also runs your money through a card processor (Stripe, PayPal, etc.), which charges its own fee regardless of which platform you pick. We've included that separately so you're comparing apples to apples.
| Platform | Monthly Fee | Per-Donation Fee | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donorbox (Standard) | $0/mo | 2.95%–3.95% platform fee + 2.9%+$0.30 processing (donor can optionally cover it; drops to 2.2%+$0.30 only if your org has applied to Stripe and been approved for its nonprofit rate) | Orgs that want a traditional, simple donation page with no monthly bill |
| Donorbox (Pro) | $150/mo | 1.75%–2% platform fee + processing | Orgs already doing enough volume that a lower % beats the flat fee |
| Givebutter (tips on, the default) | $0/mo | $0 platform fee. Org keeps 100% of the donation even if a donor skips the tip, backed by Givebutter's own Guarantee | Orgs comfortable with a visible donor-tip prompt at checkout |
| Givebutter (tips off) | $0/mo | Flat 3% platform fee + 2.9%+$0.30 card / 1.9%+$0.30 ACH processing | Orgs that don't want a tip prompt shown to donors at all |
| Zeffy | $0/mo | $0 platform fee, $0 processing fee to your org. Funded entirely by an optional donor tip that defaults to roughly 15%–17% of the gift (donor can adjust or remove it) | Orgs that want to keep literally 100% of every donation and don't mind a more prominent tip prompt |
| Neon One / Neon CRM | $99–$409/mo (Essentials/Impact/Empower) + add-on modules | Processing fees apply; +10% add-on for Memberships/Volunteers, +20% for Events on top of subscription | Orgs that already know they want a full donor-management CRM, not just a donate button |
| Stripe/PayPal directly (DIY) | $0/mo | 2.9%+$0.30 processing only, no platform layer (2.2%+$0.30 if approved for Stripe's nonprofit rate) | A very small org with a developer or existing form tool, and no need for donor records yet |
Want to run these against your own expected donation size and volume instead of eyeballing percentages? Use our donation fee calculator to see what each option actually costs on your numbers.
Donorbox, in plain terms
Donorbox's Standard plan is free to use (no monthly bill) and takes a platform fee of 2.95% on donation forms and fundraising pages, or 3.95% on event ticketing and memberships. That's on top of card processing, which runs the standard 2.9%+$0.30 per transaction through Stripe by default.
A lower, discounted processing rate of 2.2%+$0.30 does exist, but it's not automatic. It's available on application to Stripe, and Stripe has to approve your organization for it (they generally want to see that more than 80% of your processing volume is tax-deductible donations). Until you've applied and been approved, plan on the standard 2.9%+$0.30.
Donorbox lets donors check a box to cover the platform fee themselves at checkout. This is optional, not automatic. It's a prompt the donor sees and can decline, not a guaranteed pass-through the way Givebutter's tip model works. Some donors will cover it, some won't, and you won't know your real effective fee rate until you've run a few months of donations and looked at what donors actually did.
If you outgrow the Standard plan's fee rate, Donorbox's Pro plan is $150/month and drops the platform fee to 1.75%–2%. That crossover point is a real number worth doing math on. It only makes sense once your fee savings exceed $150/month, which usually means a meaningful base of recurring monthly giving.
Donorbox feels the most like a "traditional" donation page of the four options here. It's a clean donate button and form, nothing fancier. For a brand-new org whose board is used to seeing a standard-looking donate page, that familiarity is worth something.
Givebutter, in plain terms
Givebutter's default setup shows donors an optional tip prompt at checkout, on top of their donation. When that's left on (the default), Givebutter charges your organization $0 platform fee and backs that with what it calls the Givebutter Guarantee. Even if a specific donor skips the tip, your org still keeps the full donation amount. In effect, tips from the donors who do leave one subsidize the free platform for everyone, and Givebutter guarantees you're never worse off than $0 platform fee regardless of any individual donor's choice.
If your organization decides to turn tips off entirely (some boards don't love the idea of donors seeing a tip prompt), Givebutter switches to a flat 3% platform fee (this changed in September 2025; before that it varied 1%–5% depending on campaign type). That's on top of processing: 2.9%+$0.30 for card, 1.9%+$0.30 for ACH bank transfers, which is a meaningfully cheaper way to accept larger gifts if your donors are willing to use it.
The honest tradeoff here isn't hidden fees. It's donor experience. A tip prompt at checkout is a UX choice some orgs are fine with and others actively don't want their donors to see. If tips genuinely bother your board or your donor base, you're looking at that flat 3% instead, which is worth knowing going in rather than being surprised by later.
Zeffy, in plain terms
We'd be leaving out the obvious competitor if we didn't cover Zeffy. It's genuinely $0 platform fee and $0 processing fee to your organization, full stop, not a discounted rate or a "free until you hit volume" catch. Your org keeps 100% of every donation even if a donor tips Zeffy $0.
The way Zeffy funds that is an optional donor contribution at checkout, similar in concept to Givebutter's tip model but noticeably larger by default: Zeffy's suggested contribution runs roughly 15%–17% of the gift (it scales down slightly as gift size goes up), versus a smaller default with Givebutter. Donors can lower or remove it, but the starting number is bigger, and it's shown fairly prominently in the checkout flow.
That's the honest tradeoff, not a hidden one. Some organizations and boards genuinely dislike how prominent Zeffy's default contribution prompt is, and some donors find it pushier than a standard tip jar. There's also a structural difference worth knowing: your donations flow through Zeffy's own platform account model rather than a processor account tied directly to your organization, which is a different setup than Donorbox or Givebutter and worth a quick read of Zeffy's own documentation before you commit if that matters to your board.
If keeping literally 100% of every dollar is the priority and you're comfortable with a more assertive tip prompt, Zeffy is a legitimate option. If you'd rather control how forceful that ask feels to your donors, Givebutter's tips-on model gets you the same $0-fee outcome with a lighter touch.
Neon One / Neon CRM, in plain terms
Neon One isn't really a donation-button competitor to the other two. It's a full donor-management CRM with donation processing built in as one piece of a much bigger system. Pricing is revenue-based and starts at $99/month for Essentials, $209/month for Impact, and $409/month for Empower, with add-on modules on top: +10% for Memberships or Volunteers, +20% for Events.
That's a real monthly commitment before you've processed a single donation, which is a much bigger step than Donorbox or Givebutter's $0/month starting point. Neon One makes sense once an organization already knows it needs integrated donor records, event management, membership tracking, and reporting in one system. It's not for a brand-new org that just needs a working donate button this week.
If you're not sure yet whether you need a full CRM or just a donation form, read our do you need a CRM page first. Most new nonprofits don't need one in year one, and it's a much easier decision to make once you know what a CRM actually replaces.
Taking payments yourself (Stripe or PayPal directly)
You can skip a donation platform entirely and connect a Stripe or PayPal account straight to a form on your own website. There's no platform-fee layer at all here. You only pay the processor's standard rate, 2.9%+$0.30 per transaction (2.2%+$0.30 if you've applied to Stripe and been approved for its nonprofit rate).
The catch is that "platform fee" you're avoiding was buying you a working donation form, receipt emails, basic donor records, and a checkout flow someone already built and tested. Doing it yourself means you, or someone technical you know, has to build and maintain the form, handle receipts, and keep your own donor records somewhere. That's genuinely fine for a very small org that already has a developer on the board or a simple form tool they're comfortable with. For most brand-new nonprofits, this ends up costing more time than it saves in fees, and they end up moving to a platform within the first year anyway.
So which one should you actually pick?
For a brand-new org with zero budget and no CRM needs yet, this comes down to two realistic starting points: Givebutter and Donorbox, not a single winner:
Givebutter can mean genuinely $0 in fees, period, if your donor base is the kind that tips (many individual donors do, especially for smaller peer-to-peer or crowdfunding-style campaigns). The tradeoff is a visible tip prompt at checkout, which some boards are fine with and some aren't.
Donorbox is simpler and more traditional-feeling. It's a standard donate button your board will recognize, no tip prompt to explain, still free to start on the Standard plan. You'll pay the 2.95%–3.95% platform fee unless donors opt to cover it, which they may or may not do.
Zeffy is worth a look if keeping 100% of every donation matters more to your org than controlling how the checkout feels to a donor. It's genuinely $0 in fees to your org, funded by a default tip prompt that runs noticeably larger than Givebutter's, which is the honest tradeoff, not a hidden one.
Neon One only makes sense once you already know you want an integrated CRM handling donations, memberships, volunteers, and events together, not as a first donate button. If that's you, start with our CRM page instead of this one.
DIY Stripe/PayPal only makes sense if you already have a developer or simple form tool on hand and don't need donor record-keeping yet. Otherwise you're trading a small fee savings for real setup and maintenance work.
Run your own expected donation size and donor count through the fee calculator before deciding. The right answer changes depending on whether you're mostly processing $25 individual gifts or a handful of $5,000 grants.
Getting started
Whichever you choose, set it up before you need it. Don't wait until a donor is trying to give and hits a broken link. If Donorbox's simpler, no-tip-prompt setup sounds like the right fit for your org, here's where to start:
That's a plain, untracked link -- we haven't joined Donorbox's affiliate program yet and earn nothing from it today. If Givebutter's tip-covered model fits your org better, their pricing and signup are public at givebutter.com/pricing. We don't currently have a confirmed affiliate program with them, so that's a plain link, not a referral link.
If keeping 100% of every donation matters more than the checkout experience, Zeffy's site is at zeffy.com. No affiliate program confirmed with them either, so that's also a plain link.
If you already know you need a full CRM, Neon One's plans are public at neonone.com. Also a plain link, no affiliate relationship confirmed.
Next: once your donation platform is live, go back and finish the rest of your first 90 days checklist. A donation platform alone doesn't make you fully operational.