As a registered charity ourselves (Charity Number: 1136547), we know how important donations are, and we work hard to keep the cost of donation processing as low as possible for our charity partners. We do not and will not charge charities monthly or annual fees for using our platform.
We believe that our fees are competitive, especially considering that the vast majority of donations taken through BigGive.org are doubled through the match funding.
We rely on the generosity of people who donate to leave a voluntary tip as well as a small processing fee on donations, which helps us cover the costs of running and improving Big Give. Without this income, we would not be able to offer this service.
All donations on our platform are processed safely and securely by our Payment Processor, Stripe. Learn more about Stripe.
Processing fees
Each donation made on our platform is subject to a small processing fee. The processing fee is deducted from the donation at the point it is transferred to the charity.
The amount charged depends on the payment method used.
From 1 July 2026, our processing fees are:
| Payment method | Payment method country | Fee (exclusive of VAT) |
| Visa, Mastercard, or any credit or debit card except American Express | UK | 1.9% of donation + 25p |
| EU | ||
| Rest of world | 3.2% of donation + 25p | |
| Donation Funds (BACS bank transfer) and Pay by Bank | UK | 1.5% of donation + 25p |
| American Express debit or credit card | Any country | 3.2% of donation + 25p |
All amounts are rounded up or down to the nearest penny.
Before 1 July 2026, our processing fees were:
| Payment method | Payment method country | Fee (exclusive of VAT) |
| Visa, Mastercard, or any credit or debit card except American Express | UK | 1.5% of donation + 20p |
| EU | ||
| Rest of world | 3.2% of donation + 20p | |
| Donation Funds (BACS bank transfer) and Pay by Bank | UK | 1.5% of donation + 20p |
| American Express debit or credit card | Any country | 3.2% of donation + 20p |
All amounts are rounded up or down to the nearest penny.
For more information, please read our blog post (opens in another tab) for the announcement of these changes
Gift Aid fees
Charities have two options for Gift Aid claims on donations made through Big Give:
- Claim Gift Aid from HMRC directly themselves.
- Nominate Big Give to claim Gift Aid on their behalf.
We charge a fee of 3%+VAT on the amount of claimable Gift Aid to cover our costs.
The Gift Aid fee is deducted from the donation at the point it is transferred to the charity.
Please note that Gift Aid fees will remain the same after 1 July 2026.
Donation made with UK Visa Card, without gift aid
If a donor makes a £10 donation without a Gift Aid declaration, then the fees are calculated in the following way:
| Description | Previous fee to 30th June 2026 (1.5% + 20p) | Current fee from 1st July 2026 (1.9% + 25p) |
| Processing fee | £0.35 | £0.44 |
| VAT (20%) | £0.07 | £0.09 |
| Total fee | £0.42 | £0.53 |
| Total transferred to the charity | £9.58 | £9.47 |
Donation made with UK credit card with gift aid
If a donor makes a £10 donation with a Gift Aid declaration, using a credit card (£12.50), and Big Give is nominated to claim Gift Aid on behalf of the charity, then the fees are calculated in the following way:
| Description | Previous fee to 30th June 2026 (1.5% + 20p) | Current fee from 1st July 2026 (1.9% + 25p) |
| Processing fee | £0.35 | £0.44 |
| Gift Aid fee (3% of £2.50) | £0.08 | £0.08 |
| VAT (20%) | £0.09 | £0.10 |
| Total fee | £0.52 | £0.62 |
| Total transferred to the charity | £11.98 | £11.88 |
Donation made with American Express Card from any country, without Gift Aid
If a donor makes a £10 donation using an American Express Card, and does not make a gift aid declaration, then the fees are calculated in the following way, even if they are UK or EU-based:
| Description | Previous fee to 30th June 2026 (3.2% + 20p) | Current fee from 1st July 2026 (3.2% + 25p) |
| Processing fee | £0.52 | £0.57 |
| VAT (20%) | £0.10 | £0.11 |
| Total fee | £0.62 | £0.68 |
| Total transferred to the charity | £9.38 | £9.32 |
Total received by a charity from a successful Big Give campaign
This is an example of a charity partner that has raised £10,000 from the public in a Big Give campaign and has used all of their match funds. In making these calculations, we have assumed the following:
- All of the donations have been made via UK debit/credit card (non-Amex).
- The average donation is £159 (the average donation across the Big Give platform last financial year), which means £10,000 is made up of 63 donations
| Description | Previous fee to 30th June 2026 (1.5% + 20p) | Current fee from 1st July 2026 (1.9% + 25p) |
| Total amount donated | £10,000 | £10,000 |
| Donation processing fees charged | £162.60 | £205.75 |
| Total the charity receives in online donations | £9,837.40 | £9,794.25 |
| Match funding | £10,000 | £10,000 |
| Total received by charity – funding donations (exclusive of Gift Aid) + match funding | £19,837.40 | £19,794.25 |
In this example, the new fees have resulted in a reduction of £43.15 going to the charity, a 0.2% difference in the total received.
Where do the voluntary tips go?
We rely on donations via voluntary tips to cover running costs and managing match funding campaigns. We ask each person donating on our platform whether they would like to add a tip to their donation to support us.
As a charity ourselves, we don’t charge our charity partners for using our platform, so we’re incredibly grateful to people who choose to leave a voluntary tip. Those tips are what make us able to keep doing what we’re doing, run our match funding campaigns, and help make an impact on the world’s biggest problems — together.
We deploy any revenue we generate, beyond what we need to run the organisation, in our Anchor Match Fund. That means we keep paying it forward and multiply even more generosity by supporting charities by providing match funding to their campaigns.