Your fundraiser hit its goal. Then the payout came back smaller than the total you raised.
The short answer: A platform fee is the cut a software vendor takes off the top of every donation. On a $20,000 campaign, a 20% fee costs your program $4,000. Fee-free solutions like Schoolfundr charge no platform fee and no setup fee, so the only cost left is standard card processing.
That is a full set of uniforms, or a season of travel. Here is where the money goes, and how to stop it.
What platform fees actually cost your program
A 20% fee sounds small. It isn't. Raise $20,000 and $4,000 never reaches your students. Raise the same amount for five years and you have handed over $20,000, not including the ~3% fee charged by payment processors for credit card donations. At the end, you’re left giving away nearly a quarter of the total raised.
Most vendors bury this in tiered pricing, so the number is hard to find before you sign. Add the staff hours spent matching payouts against donations, and the real cost climbs again.
That money is not optional spending. In Coach & Athletic Director's State of the Industry survey, 85.8% of athletic directors said some of their department spending is met through fundraising, and 62.5% said fundraising covers at least a fifth of it. A platform fee comes out of a budget the program already depends on.
Processing fees vs. platform fees
These are not the same thing, and some vendors count on you not knowing the difference.
- Processing fees are what the card networks charge to move money. Every digital payment has them, usually handled through a partner like Stripe. Unavoidable.
- Platform fees are what the software company charges for letting you use it. A middleman cost. Avoidable.
When you compare vendors, ask for both numbers separately, in writing. Hometown's fee and pricing FAQ sets out which costs apply and which do not.
What fee-free actually means
Schoolfundr charges no platform fee and no setup fee, and there are no long-term contracts. The only cost passed through is the standard 3% credit card processing fee, so a program keeps ~97% of what it raises.
- No platform fees and no hidden service charges
- No setup fees or multi-year contracts
- One pass-through cost only: the standard credit card processing fee
- District-wide reporting capabilities through Schoolfundr+
Check out how Broadneck Bruins Soccer in Annapolis raised more than $24,000 on Schoolfundr with no platform fee taken off the top.
3 steps to move your program to fee-free fundraising
- Pull your last three payout statements. Find the platform fee line and multiply it across a full year. That is your number.
- Ask every vendor for platform fee and processing fee separately. If they will only quote one blended rate, that is your answer.
- Tell your community. Families give more when they know their $50 arrives as program support instead of vendor revenue. Put the fee structure on the campaign page.
Why Hometown
Hometown is a suite of digital solutions built to help your school create memorable in-person events and grow revenue. Schoolfundr, Hometown’s fee-free fundraising solution, allows you to raise more with less effort, Box Office handles ticketing and season passes, and Engage provides athletic websites and mobile apps so you can provide a convenient ticket buying experience for your community. Three solutions. One partner.
For a coach or booster lead running a campaign on top of a full schedule, that is the real saving: fewer fees, and fewer hours.
What to do next
Do the math before your next campaign. Pull three seasons of payout statements, add up the platform fee line, and compare it against a fee-free model. If the number surprises you, it was built to. Other programs have already run this comparison, and their results are worth reading.
Ready to keep more of what you raise? Book a demo and we'll walk through your current fee structure with you.
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