Each credit card order placed on FutureFund is charged a platform fee. This fee is the combination of the following:

• Processing Fees: These are fees charged by processors, interchanges, and credit card companies to cover the costs of accepting credit cards, preventing fraud, and managing payouts.
• Platform Fee: This fee funds development of the FutureFund platform and support costs.

For simplicity, we refer to both fees as Platform Fees. There are no other fees other than the Platform Fee.

How the Fee Is Figured

The fee depends on the campaign type. Most campaigns, like Purchase and Donation Drive, charge a percentage of the sale plus a small fixed amount for each payment. Ticket and membership campaigns (Ticket, Membership and Tiered Membership) charge a flat fee for each ticket or membership sold instead. Free tickets and memberships have no fee. Because of this, a low-priced ticket or membership can carry a larger fee than an item at the same price in a Purchase or Donation Drive campaign. Auctions use their own rate.

For a full breakdown of current rates by payment method and campaign type, see our pricing page.

Choosing Who Pays the Platform Fee

Your account has one setting that decides who pays the platform fee. It applies to every campaign, in the Online Store and in First Step, unless a campaign overrides it (see the next section).

To change it:

1. In the Admin, click Account Settings.
2. Under Payments, click Online Store.
3. Click Advanced settings to open more options.
4. Pick an option from the Platform fees menu.
5. Click Save.

Making One Campaign Always Fee-Free for Buyers

Sometimes you want buyers to have a fee-free checkout on just one campaign, like a membership drive or a sponsorship push, without changing the fee setting for your whole account. You can do that with a per-campaign override.

To turn it on:

1. In the Admin, open the campaign and click Edit.
2. Go to the Options tab.
3. Click Advanced settings to open more options.
4. Check Organization always pays the platform fee.
5. Click Save.

With this checked, buyers never see a fee charge for that campaign. Your organization pays it out of the deposit instead. The fee amount itself doesn’t change, only who pays it does, and it overrides your account-wide setting for that campaign only.

This is available on Donation Drive, Purchase, Membership, Tiered Membership, Sign Up, Ticket, Pledge, and Campaign Bundle campaigns. It is not available on External or Shop campaigns. Auctions have their own Who pays platform fees? setting on the Options tab.

If a buyer’s cart has items from more than one campaign, FutureFund splits the fee fairly: they’re only charged a fee on items from campaigns that don’t have this option turned on. For a Campaign Bundle, the bundle’s own checkbox governs the whole bundle price.

Ways Supporters Can Pay Less

Supporters aren’t limited to paying by card. A few other payment options carry a lower fee, or none at all:

• In-person payments (SnackBar): Tap, dip, and swipe payments taken in person through SnackBar cost less to process than an online card payment.
• Cash (SnackBar): If your school turns on Accept cash payments for SnackBar, cash sales carry no processing fee at all. The buyer pays only the item total plus any sales tax. See In-Person Payments (SnackBar) to turn it on.
• ACH Direct Debit: At checkout, a supporter can choose to pay directly from their bank account instead of a card. This is FutureFund’s lowest-cost payment option for online orders. It’s offered automatically when the order totals $250 or more and doesn’t include event tickets, an A-Thon pledge donation, or a payment plan (installments), since those need money right away or a scheduled follow-up charge that a bank payment can’t provide. Because a bank payment takes a few business days to clear, the order shows as Pending on the Orders page until it settles, then finalizes and emails the receipt automatically like any other order.

See the pricing page for exact current rates on every payment method.

Notes

• With Parent Option Fees, the checkbox only appears when the cart actually has a fee to cover. A cart made up entirely of campaigns with Organization always pays the platform fee checked shows no checkbox.
• On a payment plan (installments), the platform fee is charged along with each installment rather than all up front.
• The collected platform fee can be refunded; however, this will debit your organization’s account to cover the cost. There is a separate platform fee for each organization if more than one organization is used in the order.
• Platform fees are not applied to check/cash orders, including cash sales taken in SnackBar.
• Orders built by an admin with Build Order are created without a platform fee.