# 95% of donors cover charities’ transaction costs on Blackbaud Heroix

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/04/17/95-donors-cover-charities-transaction-costs-blackbaud-heroix/
- Published: 2014-04-17T10:01:17+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Blackbaud’s Heroix online giving platform has started inviting donors to increase
their donation to cover the transaction and card fees, ensuring that charities receive**
100% of each donation**. Since the ‘Donor Cover’ option was introduced in Ireland,
95% of people making direct donations have chosen to cover the fees.

Donors are presented with the message: ‘I’d like to help a little bit more by donating
towards the cost of online fundraising’, with the option to select it or ignore 
it.

 

## Advertisement

[⌊Blackbaud Heroix Donor Cover hover message⌉⌊Blackbaud Heroix Donor Cover hover
message⌉[

Blackbaud Heroix Donor Cover explanatory message on hover

 

John Bird, Blackbaud Europe’s general manager, peer-to-peer, explained:

> “With online giving on the increase it only seems fair that not-for-profits should
> receive all of the money people donate to their cause – this is not the case with
> other major online giving platforms. Donor Cover is another tool to help [charities]
> raise even more money to support their mission.”

## Irish Cancer Society and Donor Cover

[Irish Cancer Society](http://www.cancer.ie/) has already benefited from a drop 
in the transaction fees it has to pay to accept online donations, after it started
using Donor Cover as part of [Heroix](http://heroix.co.uk/).

Justine O’Donnell, Irish Cancer Society’s supporter services manager, said:

> “We have been delighted by the take up rates by donors for the donor cover feature.
> The vast majority of supporters agree to it and this has led to a significant 
> drop in costs. The feedback we have received from supporters has been positive
> as they like the transparency and the choice to further support the organisation.”

This seemingly small option is another example of combining the ‘nudge’ approach
and modest tweaks to the user experience, and has started to be used by other online
giving platforms.