The Moravian Ministries Foundation in America will begin paying the processing fees for online gifts made through the Moravian Giving Portal, beginning July 1. The Foundation itself has never charged any kind of fee. But, the backend processor, Blackbaud Merchant Services, charges a financial, processing fee similar to others who perform this service. This fee has been deducted from the gift, so the receiving congregation or agency got the net balance of the gift after the fee.
While Blackbaud Merchant Services continues to charge the fee, MMFA will pay it beginning July1. The receiving congregations, agencies, and ministries will now receive the full amount of the donor’s gift.
“Many congregations and agencies may now find the fee-free online giving service provided and maintained by MMFA more attractive than their own third party provider. This removes the last roadblock for online gifts through our portal and we are extremely thankful to our donors and investors who make this possible,” said MMFA president and CEO Chris Spaugh.
Given that fees still get charged, we encourage donors to consider direct debits (of a checking or savings account) vs. credit card transactions whenever possible. MMFA only absorbs a 75-cent fee for direct debits while card transactions are 2.79% of the donation amount.
Concurrent with its decision to cover the transaction fees, MMFA will also make some other changes to Giving Portal service to the Moravian Church in America:
- MMFA will provide reports and payments to the recipients on a monthly basis, the Foundation was doing this twice monthly, during the past year.
- MMFA will establish accounts for all the Moravian agencies, including those who have their own pre-existing online giving tools on their websites. During its first two years, the Giving Portal simply redirected visitors from the Portal to the agency’s page to make the gift there. Maintaining the redirection links has been challenging, so MMFA will now enable all gifts directly through the Portal (as it has been doing for the congregations).
Click here to read Frequently Asked Questions about online giving through the Moravian Giving Portal.
