Why we use Stripe?

Although Stripe is not the cheapest credit card provider out there, it will help you raise the most money on your campaign. This is for a few reasons:

• Stripe accepts the greatest diversity of card types.
  
• Stripe accepts credit cards from 150 different countries.
  
• Stripe circumvents machine learning to process even “high risk” credit cards.
  If you are running an international call center, this feature is CRITICAL.
  Have you ever had a card rejected while you were traveling because you forgot to inform the bank of your travel plans?
  Stripe allows you to adjust the Fraud Shield settings so that even if the cardholder is in America but your call center is abroad, the transaction will still be processed.
  

• Stripe will send your donations directly to the appropriate country. If you have a nonprofit branch in Canada, the UK, and the USA, then it is important to have your funds land directly in the respective bank account. This allows you to issue proper and automated receipts, which will save time with accounting. Depending on the currency of your donation, the funds will be rerouted accordingly.
  
• It’s the industry norm: reliable, secure, fast, and simple.
  
• The world’s largest crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe use Stripe because of its flexibility and reliability.
  Stripe is currently running on over 40,000 websites and businesses, whereas companies such as Payment Fidelity are only on 700 or so.
  

• Stripe is incredibly reliable. They have never had any downtime. Even giants such as Microsoft Azure have had downtime in our experience. With Stripe, you get total reliability.
  

• Stripe processes very quickly and has the best technology over other providers.
  

• Due to their size and immense resources, Stripe’s security is second to none.
  

• Other providers may appear to be more affordable but after they charge for card authorizations, refunds, etc. Those “cheaper” options are often more expensive.
  

Application and stripe fees

There are two fee types in a Stripe account:

• Stripe fee: This is the fee charged by Stripe. The amount varies depending on the country of the account and is NON-REFUNDABLE. (see table below).
  

• CauseMatch fee: This is the platform fee taken by CauseMatch. Our SOP is to withhold the fee % per the contract + an additional 5% security deposit. This security deposit is used to cover fees on offline donations as well as donations from other gateways. If any amount is left over after the campaign, CauseMatch will return it.
  

Stripe combines the application and Stripe fee together into one line called ‘fee’. If you hover over this amount with your mouse, you can see the breakdown of the two fees.

Non-Profit Pricing

For US and Canadian accounts, there is nonprofit pricing available. It must be specifically requested by the nonprofit itself. The pricing is 2.2% + 30c for non-Amex cards and 3.5% for Amex cards. For more information and to apply on Stripe please visit the link below:

https://support.stripe.com/questions/fee-discount-for-nonprofit-organizations

Currency Exchange Fee

The above fees assume that the card was issued in the same country as the Stripe account. Where the card processed was issued in another country, Stripe charges an additional 1%.

Breakdown of fees based on currency

The fees listed here are based on our experience with Stripe and may be subject to change. For more accurate information and updates please visit Stripe.com.

Tax receipts

After a donor donates, CauseMatch will send a tax receipt on your behalf as part of the thank you email. This thank you email is a valid tax receipt in the US and the UK (as long as it contains the donor’s name, donation date, donation amount, and name of the issuing entity).

In order to issue tax receipts in a specific country, two conditions MUST be present:

• There must be a registered nonprofit that can issue recognized tax receipts in the relevant country.
  
• The money must be received in the country where the receipt is issued. You must have a bank account in that country. For example, to issue tax receipts in the US, the money must be received in the US by an S501c3 non-profit that is willing to issue receipts.
  

Important notes

The Stripe account is fully owned by you and must be set by an authorized person at the non-profit.

• Accuracy of information:
  

• Emails from Stripe:  
  

• Save your Password:  
  

• Authority:
  

information when setting up the account so it is ideal that this account should be set up by the main person in the organization

• Refunds:
  

Stripe has a very strict refund policy that you can see HERE. In the case that a donation is refunded (because of an accidental duplication or mistake on the part of the donor) you are able to refund the entire amount to the donor or the amount minus the fee. If you choose to do a full-refund to the donor, you are taking responsibility for covering the Stripe fee. We will refund you the portion of the fee that would otherwise be owed to CauseMatch.

Example: A donor accidentally donates $10,000 instead of $10. Stripe takes 3% and CauseMatch takes 7% in fees. You can refund the full $10,000 to the donor or refund minus the fee (in this case it would be $300). CauseMatch will NOT charge the 7% on this donation ($700), but you are still responsible for the $300.

In the case there was an extremely large error (like above) you can contact Stripe directly and explain the situation.