Fast payout fees for emergency appeals

13 November 2026

Anyone setting up an appeal after a disaster should name the charity from the first day. That is the line from the UK government, which says people fundraising in response to an emergency should raise money for a named charity from the outset, and be open about what the money is for, including the charity's name and registered number. The same guidance says donors should be told upfront about any expenses that will be deducted before funds reach the charity. For appeals that run on card payments, those deductions often include the cost of getting the money from a donor's account into the charity's.

Why fee disclosure comes before the donate button

Emergency appeals attract small, quick, emotional gifts, and the charges that come with them are easy to overlook. A donor who gives £10 through a payment page may not know whether 20p, 50p or more will be taken on the way. The government's reminder to the public about fundraising responsibilities is aimed at exactly this gap: if a deduction is coming, say so before the gift is made.

The Fundraising Regulator sets out what that looks like on online platforms. Its code says platforms must make fee information clear and easy to find before donors enter their financial details. The detail matters. Fee information should show how the fee is calculated, how much the platform will receive from the donation, and how the fee can be amended or removed. A line in the footer or a link buried in the terms does not meet that standard, because the information has to be in front of the donor before the card number goes in.

For a small group or an individual running a community appeal, this changes the order of work. The fee conversation comes before the page is built. Someone has to establish which platform is being used, what it takes, whether any charge can be waived or reduced, and how the charity will be named on the page. Doing that in advance is easier than rewriting a live page after donors have started asking where their money went.

Comparing UK gateway pricing for charities

Charges vary widely depending on whether a charity uses a payment gateway directly or goes through a fundraising platform that bundles processing with other services. The figures below come from Charity Digital's 2024 comparison of payment gateways and from The Grand Appeal's own explanation of its processing fees. They are published rates, not quotes, and they will not apply to every organisation.

Two things stand out. First, a monthly subscription and a percentage charge behave very differently as an appeal grows. A plan that costs £19.95 a month plus 10p a transaction can look cheap against a flat percentage when gifts are large, and less attractive when a quiet month brings only a handful of donations. Second, the gap between the rate Charity Digital lists for Stripe and the rate The Grand Appeal reports for its own Stripe transactions shows that a published headline price is a starting point. A charity's own arrangement may differ, and the Stripe page also notes bespoke pricing above £250,000 in processed donations.

The platform figures deserve a careful read. The Grand Appeal reports that donations through JustGiving and Enthuse carry 1.9% plus 30p and a separate 5% Gift Aid processing fee. The Gift Aid element is easy to miss, yet for a charity reclaiming tax on eligible gifts it is part of the true cost of that route. Anyone comparing options should add up every line, not just the headline percentage.

Fast payout and how donations reach the charity

Most online donations do not travel directly from donor to charity. The DEC, which coordinates joint appeals by UK aid charities, says in its privacy policy that donations may pass through a third-party platform before reaching the appeal. It adds that it uses third parties to process donations as efficiently, effectively and securely as possible. That sentence describes the normal path: a donor pays on a web page, a processor handles the card transaction, and the money is then paid out to the charity's bank account.

Each step on that route has a cost and a clock. The cost is the fee set out above. The clock is the time between a donor giving and the charity being able to spend the money, and in an emergency that gap can matter more than a fraction of a percentage point. A charity paying for shelter, water or medical supplies cannot spend a donation that has not yet landed in its account. A platform that charges slightly more but pays out sooner may serve the response better than a cheaper one with a slower schedule, though the right balance depends on the charity's cash position and how quickly it has to commit funds.

Teams should ask providers a plain set of questions before launch: when is the first payout made, how often do payouts follow, and does the schedule change when a new account is started or when volumes jump suddenly? Fundraising teams reviewing payout turnaround speeds for overseas merchant accounts can consult digital benchmarking resources such as CASINOS EVALUATED to inspect practical processing timetables, and then set what they find beside the written terms from the provider they are considering. Get the answers in writing and keep them with the appeal records.

The practical point for trustees is that settlement timing belongs in the same conversation as price. A charity that compares only percentages may end up with a cheaper route that leaves money idle during the weeks when need is greatest. One that asks about both can decide knowingly which trade-off it is making, and can tell donors honestly where their gifts are going and when.

What emergency appeals should get right at setup

The Charity Commission's guidance on emergency fundraising, known as CC40, says charities can run emergency appeals legally and effectively to help people affected by an emergency. The legal side is not a barrier to acting quickly. It is a framework for making sure that the generosity of the public ends up where donors intend. The Commission has repeated the main expectations in a February 2026 blog on trustees' fundraising responsibilities: charities should be clear and transparent about what they will use emergency appeal funds for, and comply with the law and the Code of Fundraising Practice.

In practice that gives trustees a short list of setup decisions. They should settle the purpose of the appeal in plain words, so the page tells donors what the money will pay for. They should choose the payment route with its fees and payout timing in view, and make sure the fee information is visible before card details are requested. And where an individual or community group is raising money on the charity's behalf, the government's advice applies: fundraise for a named charity from the start, show its name and registered number, and tell donors about any expenses that will be deducted before the funds are passed on.

There is a further reason to get these points right early. Appeals tend to spread beyond the people who start them, with supporters sharing links and others setting up their own pages. If the original message is vague about purpose or deductions, every copy of it inherits the vagueness. A clear first page, with a named charity, a stated purpose, an honest account of fees and a known payout schedule, gives later fundraisers something accurate to follow.

Before an appeal goes live, check three things: that the charity's name and registered number appear on the page, that the fees are shown before the donor reaches the payment fields, and that you have the provider's payout schedule written down.