If you run a nonprofit and you've looked at Stripe, you've seen that registered nonprofits can apply for a discounted rate. Finding out what that rate actually is takes longer, because Stripe doesn't publish it anywhere; its nonprofit page asks you to contact sales. Whether you qualify is a separate question again, and it turns on how much of your income arrives as donations rather than as gala tickets, membership dues, and program fees.
This guide covers what Stripe charges a nonprofit at standard rates, the three conditions that decide the discount, which parts of your income it doesn't reach, and how to handle the persuasive fundraising Stripe doesn't do at all.
Quick answer
Stripe charges nonprofits the same 2.9% + $0.30 as everyone else unless you apply for and receive its nonprofit discount. Qualifying is the part to check first. Stripe requires registered nonprofit status with tax documentation, an eligible country, and more than 80% of your Stripe volume coming from tax-deductible donations. Gala tickets, membership dues, tuition, registration, and auction payments don't count toward that 80% and aren't covered by the discounted rate. If your income is mixed, plan for the standard rate on the non-donation half.
What Stripe offers nonprofits
Stripe is a payment processor. It moves money from a supporter's card into your organization's bank account, and that's the job it does. Stripe processes payments for nonprofits, but it doesn't provide a donation page, donor records, tax receipting, or event ticketing. Those are things you add around it.
What it does well matters for this reader, so it's worth being specific about. Money lands in your own Stripe account and your organization stays the merchant of record, which means you're the one holding the relationship with your supporters and their data. Card coverage is global, Apple Pay and Google Pay work out of the box, and bank transfers through ACH cost 0.8% capped at $5.00, which makes a real difference on large gifts. Recurring charges are supported, so monthly giving works without anyone rekeying a card.
The boundary is just as concrete. Stripe won't give you a page where donors pick an amount, won't keep a donor history you can report on, won't issue the tax receipt your treasurer needs at year end, and won't sell tickets to your gala. If you've been told Stripe is a fundraising platform, it isn't; it's the layer underneath one.
Stripe nonprofit fees and the discount
Before you apply for anything, it's worth seeing which parts of your income the discount can actually reach. Here's how Stripe's standard US rates line up against what the nonprofit discount covers.
What you're taking | Standard Stripe rate | Covered by the nonprofit discount? |
|---|---|---|
Online card donations | 2.9% + $0.30 | Yes, if you qualify |
Bank transfers (ACH) | 0.8%, capped at $5.00 | Not part of the discount, and already the cheapest route for large gifts |
Gala and event tickets | 2.9% + $0.30 | No |
Membership dues | 2.9% + $0.30 | No |
Tuition and program fees | 2.9% + $0.30 | No |
Auction payments | 2.9% + $0.30 | No |
International cards | 2.9% + $0.30, plus 1.5% | No |
Currency conversion | Plus 1% where conversion applies | No |
Rates verified 19 August 2026 against Stripe's US pricing and its nonprofit fee documentation. Confirm current rates before relying on them; you can model the standard rate against your own numbers with our Stripe fee calculator.
Stripe doesn't publish the discounted rate itself. Its nonprofit page asks you to contact sales, and its support documentation sets out the eligibility rules without naming a figure.
Nonprofit software companies that work with Stripe consistently report the discounted rate as 2.2% + $0.30 on Visa and Mastercard, against the standard 2.9% + $0.30. Treat that as the widely reported number rather than a published one, and confirm what you'll actually pay when you apply.
Stripe's nonprofit discount only applies if more than 80% of your Stripe payment volume comes from tax-deductible donations. That's the rule that decides most applications. Alongside it, Stripe asks for two other things:
- Registered nonprofit status. You'll need valid tax documentation confirming it. In the US that's an EIN or an IRS letter confirming 501(c)(3) status.
- An eligible country. The list covers the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and most of western Europe. Check the current list before you assume you're on it.
Applying isn't a setting you simply switch on. You’ll need to submit a request through Stripe's nonprofit pricing form with your account ID, the registered email on the account, your tax documentation, and confirmation that you meet the 80% threshold. Stripe reviews it, and the discount applies to the account rather than to individual payments.
So the overall calculation depends on what your year actually looks like. A food bank taking online donations and nothing else gets a clean saving on close to all of its card income. A community arts organization running a spring gala, a membership scheme, and a summer workshop program might find that donations are under 80% of what goes through Stripe, in which case the discount doesn't apply to the account at all. It's worth adding up last year's income by type before you spend time on the application. If you want the full picture of what Stripe charges outside the nonprofit context, we've broken down Stripe's processing fees separately.
What Stripe alone doesn't cover for nonprofits
Bottom line: Stripe handles the payment, and every other part of collecting money from your supporters is something you'll build or buy. A nonprofit running only online donations can work with Stripe plus a donation page; one that also sells tickets, takes dues, or charges for programs needs more than a processor.
Here's what tends to sit in the gap, by income type.
- Donation pages. Stripe gives you a checkout, not a page where a supporter chooses between $25, $50, and $100, or ticks a box to cover the fee. Building that is its own job, and we've covered the options in detail in our guide to accepting donations through Stripe.
- Recurring giving. Monthly donors are worth far more over time than one-off gifts, and the thing that keeps them is being able to update a card or change an amount without emailing your office. That means a recurring billing setup with a self-service portal behind it, not just a repeating charge.
- Gala and event tickets. Ticket types, early bird pricing, capacity limits, and someone checking guests in on the door. None of that is a Stripe feature. It's the same problem as selling fundraiser tickets anywhere else, with the added wrinkle that this income sits outside the discount.
- Membership dues. Annual or monthly, renewing automatically, with one list you can look at to see who's current. Clubs, faith communities, and associations run on this, and it's what our membership payments pages are built for.
- Pledges paid in installments. A supporter committing $1,200 over twelve months isn't a subscription and isn't a single gift. It's a fixed amount split into scheduled charges, which works the same way as Stripe payment plans for any other purchase.
Plenty of organizations don't need any of this. If donations are all you take and a simple page in front of Stripe covers you, stop there; adding tools you won't use costs money and staff time you'd rather spend elsewhere.
For everyone else, the choice usually comes down to three options, and it's worth naming them plainly. You can build the missing pieces yourself, which means a developer and ongoing maintenance. You can move to a fundraising platform, which brings donor management and receipting with it, though many of them take a percentage of every gift, so what you pay rises with what you raise. Or you can keep Stripe and add a flat-cost checkout layer on top, which is what Checkout Page does: donations, tickets, dues, and forms on your own Stripe account, with your organization still the merchant of record.
How to set up nonprofit payments on your own Stripe account
The order matters more than most guides suggest, because one of these steps is easier to do early.
1. Apply for the nonprofit discount before your volume builds
Get the application in while you're setting up rather than after your year-end appeal. You'll need your Stripe account ID, the registered account email, your tax documentation, and the 80% confirmation. Stripe reviews these manually, so leave time.
2. Set up donations with preset amounts and a recurring option
Give supporters a small set of suggested amounts and an open field, and put the monthly option in front of them rather than hiding it as an afterthought. Preset amounts and recurring giving are both standard on a donations page built with Checkout Page, and everything runs through your own Stripe account.
3. Add tickets, dues, and program fees to the same account
Keeping your gala tickets, membership renewals, and workshop fees on one Stripe account means one set of records and one reconciliation at month end. It also gives you the number your discount eligibility turns on, which is the share of your volume that comes from donations.
4. Let supporters manage themselves
A monthly donor who wants to pause, or a member whose card expired, shouldn't have to email you. A branded customer portal with passwordless access lets them update a payment method or cancel on their own, which saves your staff the admin and saves you the awkward conversation.
For a lot of the organizations reading this, the free plan is the whole year. Checkout Page is free up to $3,000 a month in sales, which is $36,000 a year passing through your account before you pay us anything, and the free plan carries almost every feature: donation pages with preset amounts, recurring giving, event tickets, membership dues, registration forms, and the supporter portal. The two limits are Checkout Page branding on the page and a single user account.
Here's what a $2,000 month actually costs a nonprofit on the free plan, taking 40 gifts of $50.
What you pay | On $2,000 of donations |
|---|---|
Stripe processing, 2.9% + $0.30 per gift | About $70 |
Checkout Page, free plan | $0 |
Total | About $70 |
The processing fee is Stripe's, and you'd pay it whichever route you took. A platform taking 3% of each gift would add roughly $60 a month on top of that, and it would keep rising as your giving grew.
Above $3,000 a month, plans start at $24 a month billed annually, and nonprofits, charities, and educational institutions get 50% off. Either way it's a flat subscription rather than a share of your income, and we don't add a platform fee on top of payments, so Stripe's rates are what you pay whatever mix of donations, tickets, and dues you're running. You can see the plans and start free without a card.
Quick summary
- Stripe charges nonprofits the standard 2.9% + $0.30 unless you apply for and receive its nonprofit discount, which is widely reported as 2.2% + $0.30 but isn't published by Stripe.
- The discount requires registered nonprofit status, an eligible country, and more than 80% of your Stripe volume coming from tax-deductible donations.
- Ticket sales, membership dues, tuition, registration fees, and auction payments are excluded from the discounted rate and count against the 80% test.
- Bank transfers through ACH cost 0.8% capped at $5.00, which is usually the cheapest way to take a large gift regardless of your discount status.
- Stripe processes payments but doesn't provide donation pages, donor records, receipting, or ticketing. Checkout Page adds those on top of your own Stripe account, free up to $3,000 a month in sales and 50% off every paid plan for nonprofits.
Stripe for nonprofits FAQ
Is Stripe good for nonprofits?
Yes, for organizations whose income is mostly donations. Stripe handles cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers reliably, money lands in your own account, and registered nonprofits in eligible countries can apply for a discounted rate. It's less of a fit if you need donor records, tax receipting, or event ticketing, because Stripe doesn't provide those.
What are the downsides of Stripe for nonprofits?
Stripe processes payments and stops there. There's no donation page, donor database, tax receipting, or event ticketing, so you'll add tools around it. The nonprofit discount is also narrow. It applies only if more than 80% of your Stripe volume is tax-deductible donations, which rules out many organizations with mixed income.
How do I get Stripe's nonprofit discount?
Apply through Stripe's nonprofit pricing request form. You'll need your Stripe account ID, the registered email on the account, documentation of your nonprofit status (in the US, an EIN or IRS 501(c)(3) letter), and confirmation that more than 80% of your payment volume comes from tax-deductible donations. Stripe reviews applications manually.
Does Stripe's nonprofit discount cover ticket sales?
No, the discount applies to tax-deductible donations only, and it excludes ticket sales, membership fees, tuition, registration fees, and auction payments. Those stay at the standard rate. Ticket revenue also counts against you in the 80% test, so a large gala can affect whether your account qualifies at all. Work out your income mix before applying.
What online payment system is best for nonprofits?
It depends on what you're collecting. Donation-only organizations do well with Stripe plus a donation page. Fundraising platforms add donor management and receipting, though many take a percentage of every gift. If you take tickets and dues as well as donations, a flat-cost checkout layer on your own Stripe account usually works out cheaper as giving grows.
