Donations and finance

Finance is the highest-trust part of Givebear. When a money answer is vague, donors lose confidence and staff lose time. This page explains how money moves, what Givebear charges, and where to reconcile every gift.

How money moves

Givebear runs on Stripe Connect. Each organization has its own Stripe connected account. Donations, kiosk taps, membership dues, and event payments are charged on that account, not on a shared Givebear account. The money is your organization's from the moment it is captured.

We add a platform fee to each gift and let Stripe collect its card processing fee at cost. Stripe then settles the remaining balance and pays it out to your bank. You manage the bank account, payout timing, and tax details inside Stripe through the embedded screens in your dashboard.

What Givebear charges

Two costs apply to each gift:

• A Givebear platform fee, set by your plan.
• Stripe's card processing fee, passed through at cost with no markup.

Each plan has one flat platform fee. The same rate applies whether a gift comes in online, at a kiosk, or as membership dues, so there is one number to reason about per plan. Paid plans lower that rate. Stripe's online and in-person card rates are separate and never marked up.

For the exact percentages, see pricing. We do not repeat fee numbers here so the docs can never drift from the live plans.

When a donor chooses to cover fees on a donation page, the gift is increased so the fees come out of the donor's total and your organization receives the full intended amount.

Donors can pay with a card, with Apple Pay or Google Pay where their device supports it, and (once Stripe activates it on your account) by bank transfer for recurring gifts. A wallet payment is a card payment underneath, so it carries the same fees. See Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Before money can move

A donation page or kiosk can only take real payments once two checks pass:

• Stripe setup is complete: the connected account exists and Stripe onboarding is finished.
• Billing is ready: the organization has a plan, and any paid plan has an active or trialing subscription.

The Free plan is billing-ready with no subscription. Plus and Growth need their subscription to be active or trialing. Until both checks pass, the Payments, Bank transfers, Payment setup, Chargebacks, and Tax documents screens show a "Finish setup" prompt instead of live data.

To get these checks green, follow getting started.

Where finance lives in the dashboard

Money is split across a few areas of the sidebar:

Transactions: the ledger

The Transactions screen is your record of every gift. Each row is one event: a one-time gift, a recurring charge, or a recurring subscription that was created or canceled.

Four totals sit at the top: total raised (net, after fees and refunds), number of donations, unique donors, and average gift. Pick a date range from the picker at the top, then narrow the list by type, source (web, kiosk, or imported), refund status, dispute status, fund, campaign, and a minimum or maximum amount. Search matches donor name, email, fund, or payment ID.

Open a row to see its detail drawer. There you can read the money breakdown, resend the receipt, issue a refund, view the payment in Stripe, and review any disputes. The net amount is the gross gift minus refunds, disputed amounts, and any dispute fees. You can also select rows to resend receipts in bulk.

Export the ledger

Two exports cover different needs:

• Export selected downloads the rows you ticked on the current page.
• Export all downloads every row that matches your current filters and date range, however many pages that is. Its columns are Date, Donor name, Donor email, Fund, Campaign, Gross, Platform fee, Stripe fee, Net, Refunded, Disputed, Source, Type, Payment intent id, and Charge id. Dates are in UTC. Each Export all is recorded in Settings > Activity.

Edit a donation

With the Edit donations permission, the detail drawer of a completed gift has an Edit section. From it you can move the gift to a different fund, set or clear its campaign, and attach it to a contact, move it to another contact, or unlink it. Money never moves: only the attribution changes, and fund totals are recalculated. The change is recorded in Settings > Activity with the before and after values.

Recurring gifts

The Recurring gifts screen lists the subscriptions on your connected Stripe account with the donor, fund, amount and interval, status, and start date. Four totals sit at the top: active donors, monthly recurring revenue, annual run-rate, and paused subscriptions.

The list pages with next and previous, since Stripe has no page count. Search matches the donor's email or name only, and a search returns every match at once without paging. Filter by status: active, paused, past due, canceled, or ended. Open a row to pause, resume, or cancel the subscription.

Refunds

You issue refunds from a transaction, not from Stripe. Open the gift, choose Issue refund, and enter a full or partial amount up to the refundable balance. The refundable balance is the gross gift minus anything already committed to a refund.

Pick a reason: requested by customer, duplicate, fraudulent, or other. A note is required when the reason is "other". Stripe then moves the money, and the refund usually reaches the donor's statement in 5 to 10 business days, depending on their bank. The gift's refund status and net amount update once the refund settles.

Disputes and chargebacks

A dispute (chargeback) happens when a cardholder challenges a charge with their bank. Disputes are time-sensitive: Stripe sets an evidence deadline, and missing it usually means losing the funds.

You see disputes in two places. The Chargebacks screen lists every disputed charge so you can review, accept, or respond to it. Individual transactions also carry a dispute badge and let you open the dispute evidence for that specific payment. Your organization's contact email also gets one alert per new dispute, and the dashboard bell shows how many need a response. Treat any dispute as urgent finance work and gather the donor, amount, date, and context before you respond.

For the step-by-step response and every dispute status, see handle disputes and chargebacks.

Payments, bank transfers, and payment setup

Three Finance screens embed Stripe directly so you never leave the dashboard:

• Payments shows Stripe's own list of incoming payments and their status.
• Bank transfers shows your account balance and recent payouts to your bank.
• Payment setup is where you manage your bank account, tax information, and payout settings.

Payout timing is controlled by Stripe and your connected account, not by a Givebear schedule. For when money lands in the bank, rely on the Bank transfers screen and your Stripe account settings.

If you keep your books in QuickBooks Online, each payout can post there automatically as one balanced journal entry. See sync payouts to QuickBooks Online.

Reports and tax

Insights is the reporting hub. It summarizes giving over a date range you choose, with a comparison period, plus top donors and breakdowns by campaign and kiosk. Use it for board updates and trend reviews. Use Transactions when an answer depends on the exact state of one gift.

The Tax and IRS screen builds nonprofit tax reports by year: a Schedule B donor report, a Form 990 revenue summary, and a 1099-K reconciliation.

Tax documents holds the forms Stripe issues. Because donations run on your connected account, Stripe generates, files, and delivers your Form 1099-K once your account passes the federal or a lower state threshold. The 1099-K reports gross card volume with no deduction for fees or refunds, so it will not match your bank deposits. Use the 1099-K reconciliation in Tax and IRS reports to bridge the two.

Billing: your Givebear subscription

Billing is separate from donations. It lives in the Admin area and covers your Givebear plan, plan usage (such as contacts and emails), and your invoices. Changing plans here is what sets the platform fee applied to every gift, so it directly affects the money story above.

For plans, usage limits, and invoices in depth, see settings, roles, and billing.

Who can see and do what

Finance access follows the organization's roles and permissions. The permissions that matter most here:

• View donations: see the Transactions ledger and use Export all.
• Issue refunds: refund a gift.
• Edit donations: move a gift to another fund, campaign, or contact.
• View analytics: open Insights and reports.
• View billing and Manage billing and payouts: see and manage the Billing screen and the embedded Stripe payout screens.

The built-in Member role can view donations but not analytics, billing, or donor records. The Financial Manager preset is the finance bundle: refunds, donation edits, manual gifts, billing and payouts, analytics, and donor records. The embedded Stripe screens (payments, payouts, dispute evidence) require the manage-billing permission.

Refunds, donation edits, receipt resends, and full exports are recorded in the organization's audit trail under Settings > Activity; see settings, roles, and billing.

To set this up, see settings, roles, and billing.

Keep going