PayPal for Nonprofits: Fees, the Charity Rate and What Donors See

connectNPO · Updated October 2026

The treasurer forwards last month’s PayPal statement with one column highlighted: the fees. Someone on the board asks whether there is a cheaper way, and someone else says donors like PayPal because they already have an account. Both have a point, and both can be checked.

PayPal for nonprofits comes down to two questions: what it costs, and what the donor sees when they press Donate. The first answer is on PayPal’s own fees page, and it holds a saving worth checking. The second is where we have something to add: on October 1 and 2, 2026 we followed the Donate link on the home pages of 105 small California nonprofit websites, and PayPal was behind more of them than any other tool.

PayPal nonprofit fees: what PayPal charges a nonprofit

PayPal’s standard fee on a US donation through its Donate button is 2.89% plus 49 cents. If PayPal approves the organization for its charity rate, the fee is 1.99% plus 49 cents. On a $50 gift that is about $1.94 at the standard rate and $1.49 at the charity rate.

From the PayPal fees page, updated October 1, 2026. Donations from outside the US add 1.50%. Check the page before you budget, because fees change.

The charity rate costs 0.9% of each gift less, and the 49 cents stays the same. On one gift that is small. For example, if you raised $40,000 online in a year, it adds up to $360, which is why the next section matters.

The charity rate works like a member price at a store where membership is free: the saving is real, but it starts only after you apply and are approved.

PayPal for nonprofits: the charity rate needs an application

Being a nonprofit does not get you the lower rate on its own. PayPal’s fees page says charity rates are subject to eligibility, application and pre-approval, under its Confirmed Charity terms and conditions. If you opened a PayPal Business account years ago and never applied, you may still be paying the standard rate.

So check your PayPal account today and see which rate you pay. If you are a registered 501(c)(3) and you are on the standard rate, applying for the lower rate is the cheapest saving in this guide.

How many small nonprofits use PayPal

Of the 105 Donate links we followed, 85 led to a working way to give online, and PayPal was the giving tool behind 18 of those 85, more than any other tool. Four more PayPal pages stopped our software with a security check, so the count would be 22 if they work for a person; we could not confirm that. The next tools were far behind: Givebutter with five, Donorbox and GiveWP with four each.

PayPal also showed up inside other tools. Six forms from other giving tools, including Donorbox and Neon, loaded PayPal’s checkout code next to their own card form, which points to PayPal being offered as one way to pay. That is different from a PayPal donate page: a nonprofit can offer PayPal without its Donate button ever going to PayPal.

The method, the sample and the limits are in our donation form count: California 501(c)(3) public charities with revenue between $250,000 and $1 million, one visit each, every row checked by hand. No organization is named.

Sending donors to PayPal is like a shop that walks you next door to pay. The payment goes through, but the counter, the sign over it and the receipt belong to someone else.

What the PayPal donate page looks like to a donor

On 17 of the 18, the donor ended up on a PayPal page to pay: either the Donate button went straight there, or a button on the nonprofit’s own page opened it. 13 of the 18 reached the giving page in one click from the home page; on 7 of those, the PayPal form was one more button away.

The 10 PayPal donate forms we could read as they loaded, October 1 and 2, 2026: 9 on PayPal and 1 on the organization’s own site. On the other 8, the next step was a PayPal button we did not press, because pressing it starts a payment.

Monthly giving was there on 9 of 10, and 6 of 10 let the donor add the fee to the gift. Suggested amounts were where the PayPal forms fell short: 7 of 10 made the donor type an amount. On the 62 forms from other tools that we could read in the same count, 46 showed suggested amounts. A page of your own in front of PayPal can show amounts and say what each one pays for, the way the give panels in our donation page examples do; you can press one on the Harborlight sample site. In a second check on October 2, 2026, all 9 PayPal-hosted donate pages we reached also showed PayPal’s Venmo button; see Venmo for nonprofits.

Setting up PayPal for donations, step by step

Most of this is an afternoon’s work; the charity-rate approval takes as long as PayPal’s review. In order:

1. 01Use a PayPal Business account in the organization’s name. Not a staff member’s personal account. Gifts then arrive in an account the organization controls, and the records stay with the organization when people change.
2. 02Apply for the Confirmed Charity rate. PayPal reviews eligibility under its Confirmed Charity terms. Until approval, the standard donation rate applies.
3. 03Make the donate page say who you are. Add your logo, your organization’s name and one line about what a gift does. On PayPal’s page, that is most of what the donor sees of you.
4. 04Put a page on your own site in front of it. Link your Donate button to a page of your own that says what a gift pays for, then send the donor to PayPal. Suggested amounts can live there if the PayPal page asks for a typed amount.
5. 05Press it on a phone once a month. Use your own Donate button on your phone, all the way to the end. When we followed 105 Donate links for our donation form count, one PayPal link had expired.

Suggested amounts work like prices on a menu: the donor picks from what is written down instead of having to name a number.

When PayPal is the right tool, and when to add another

PayPal suits an organization that wants donations working this week, receives a modest number of online gifts, and has donors who already trust the PayPal name. Its Donate button needs no developer. If most of your gifts are taken in person, at events, see Square for nonprofits for a $50 gift priced six ways.

It is worth adding something when you want the gift to happen on your own page, when you want suggested amounts tied to what they pay for, or when your year-end statements take hours. Stripe’s payment code loaded on 37 of the 85 working forms in our count, mostly inside giving tools; our guide to Stripe for nonprofits covers that side, and year-end giving covers what to change before December. For the rest of what a home page should lead to, see what should be on a nonprofit website; for what a site costs to keep each year, see nonprofit website cost per year; and for fifteen working examples, the sample sites.

Comparing donation platforms such as Zeffy or Givebutter? Our Zeffy vs Givebutter comparison shows what donors saw added before they paid, on real nonprofit giving pages. For every option on one page, see our guide to nonprofit payment processing.

Frequently asked questions

Fees from PayPal’s fees page, updated October 1, 2026; check it before you budget. Counts from our visit to 105 California nonprofit websites on October 1 and 2, 2026; no organization is named. This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.