Zeffy is funded solely by voluntary contributions from donors. Some donors may request a refund or adjust their contribution, here is how our team can assist you.
How is Zeffy free? What is the voluntary contribution to Zeffy?
Zeffy is the only 100% free fundraising software available to nonprofits in North America. In addition to offering our fundraising technology for free, we also cover all processing fees on behalf of organizations. When a donation of $100 is made to an organization that uses Zeffy, they receive $100 to put towards their mission. On every other platform, organizations will take back $97 or less.
We are able to support nonprofits in this way thanks to voluntary contributions from donors. As the name states, it is a voluntary contribution. We understand it is not everyone who can or who wishes to contribute, so if a donor asks for a partial or full refund of a contribution, our team can issue a refund to them.
How refunds are handled
When a donor requests a contribution refund, it requires an intervention from Zeffy’s team. Since contributions are not made directly to the organization but processed through Zeffy, nonprofits cannot issue contribution refunds independently.
How to proceed when your donor requests a refund
1) Share information about our business model and confirm the refund amount desired:
We encourage you to tell your supporters that you choose to fundraise with Zeffy so that 100% of their donation can go to your mission, not towards paying fees. Their contribution to our platform also helps the thousands of nonprofits in North America to raise more and make high quality fundraising technology accessible to all. If you want to share more information about our business model with your donors, you can refer to this help page here.
Since our sole source of funding is voluntary contributions and is what allows us to cover all processing fees, if a donor does not wish to contribute the full suggested amount, they may want to consider covering just the processing fees. This is typically 5% of the amount of the transaction.
2) Contact Zeffy’s Support Team:
To open a support request, please click here! Reach out to us directly with the relevant details including:- The donor's name
- The donor's email
- The date of the transaction
- The amount they wish to be refunded.
If I issue a refund, does the voluntary contribution to Zeffy get refunded?
One of the most common questions we receive is whether the voluntary contribution made to support Zeffy’s operations is also refunded when a donor’s main contribution is refunded. The answer is no. The contribution to the organization and the contribution to Zeffy are treated as separate payments.
Even though the transaction is refunded, we still cover processing fees associated to that payment. The voluntary contribution is processed as a separate transaction and serves as a vital source of income for Zeffy to cover operational costs and maintain our 100% fee-free model for nonprofits.