Blackbaud Merchant Services vs Giving Fund: Fees, Settlement, and Reconciliation

Comparison data as of May 2026. Features and pricing may change.

For related tools, see Alignmint features. If you use Blackbaud products, you've probably been asked to choose between Blackbaud Merchant Services and Blackbaud Giving Fund for processing donations. The difference isn't obvious - both handle money coming into your organization - but the fee structures, donor experience, and settlement timelines are meaningfully different. This guide breaks down what each product does, what it costs, and when neither is the right answer.

Pricing as of May 2026. Check vendor websites for current pricing.

Comparison data as of May 2026. Features and pricing may change.

Quick Answer: BBMS Fees vs Giving Fund

Blackbaud Merchant Services is usually the better fit when you want direct donor relationships, faster settlement, and cleaner refund control. Blackbaud Giving Fund is a donor-advised fund path, so donations can arrive later, may be reduced by fund fees, and may be harder to reconcile to the original donor intent. For most finance teams, the key comparison is not only processing rate. It is whether your payment processor, donor CRM, receipts, deposits, and fund accounting stay connected.

If your team is comparing Blackbaud Merchant Services fees against Blackbaud Giving Fund, ask three questions first: who issues the receipt, when does the money settle, and what amount will hit your books. Those answers usually reveal the real cost faster than a rate table alone.

Question	Blackbaud Merchant Services	Blackbaud Giving Fund
Who receives the original gift?	Your nonprofit receives the payment directly.	The donor gives to the Giving Fund, which later grants money to you.
Who receipts the donor?	Your nonprofit usually owns the receipt and donor relationship.	The Giving Fund issues the donor's charitable receipt.
How fast does money usually arrive?	Often a few business days, depending on contract and payment type.	Often slower because funds move through a donor-advised fund path.
What makes reconciliation harder?	Lump-sum deposits may still need matching to gifts and accounting entries.	The disbursed amount may not match the donor's original gift after fees.

For a nonprofit finance team, the safer decision is the one that keeps donor intent, receipt records, deposit timing, and accounting entries easy to trace.

When to Replace BBMS or Giving Fund

Situation	Practical replacement signal
Deposits do not match donor records	You need one system for gifts, receipts, and fund accounting.
Giving Fund grants arrive late or net of fees	You need direct settlement and transparent per-gift reporting.
Finance rebuilds reports every month	You need campus or program reporting without spreadsheet merges.
Donors ask for updated receipts or giving history	You need a donor CRM tied to the same ledger as deposits.

What Is Blackbaud Merchant Services?

Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS) is Blackbaud's proprietary payment processing gateway. It handles credit card, debit card, and ACH transactions for nonprofits using Blackbaud software like Raiser's Edge NXT, Luminate Online, or Blackbaud Online Express.

Think of it as Blackbaud's version of Stripe or PayPal - a payment processor that sits between your donors' bank accounts and yours.

How BBMS Works

1. A donor makes a gift through your Blackbaud-powered donation form
2. BBMS processes the credit card or ACH transaction
3. Blackbaud deducts a processing fee
4. The remaining funds are deposited into your bank account (typically within 2-3 business days)

The transaction is recorded directly in your Blackbaud CRM. If you also use Financial Edge NXT for accounting, you'll still need to reconcile between the two systems - BBMS deposits show up as lump sums in your bank, not as individual donor transactions in your general ledger.

BBMS Fee Structure

Blackbaud does not publish BBMS rates publicly. Based on nonprofit reports, typical fees include:

Fee Type	Typical Range
Credit card processing	2.2% - 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
ACH / eCheck	0.75% - 1.5% + $0.30 per transaction
Monthly minimum	$25 - $50/month (waived if processing volume is sufficient)
PCI compliance fee	$0 - $100/year
Chargeback fee	$15 - $25 per incident
Setup fee	Varies (often bundled with Blackbaud product implementation)

Your actual rates depend on your annual processing volume, average transaction size, and contract negotiation. Larger organizations with higher volume generally get better rates.

Common Blackbaud Merchant Services Fees

When nonprofits search for "BBMS fees," "Blackbaud Merchant Services fees," or "Blackbaud processing fees," they are usually trying to answer a simple question: what will each donation actually cost?

The clearest comparison point is that BBMS behaves like a traditional processor. You should expect a percentage fee on each credit card transaction, a smaller percentage on ACH or eCheck gifts, possible monthly minimums, and occasional administrative fees such as chargebacks or PCI compliance.

The harder part is visibility. Because rates are often contract-specific, two nonprofits using Blackbaud Merchant Services may not pay the same effective fee. Before signing or renewing, ask for the card rate, ACH rate, flat transaction fee, monthly minimum, chargeback fee, PCI fee, settlement timing, and whether any additional Blackbaud product fees are required for reconciliation or reporting.

Questions to Ask Before You Renew BBMS

Use renewal season to get the full picture in writing. Ask Blackbaud or your implementation partner for:

• Effective processing rate: your average card rate, ACH rate, flat transaction fee, and monthly minimum.
• Settlement timing: when card, ACH, recurring, and refunded transactions appear in the bank.
• Deposit detail: whether deposits can be matched to individual donors, funds, campaigns, and appeals without manual cleanup.
• Accounting handoff: what still has to move from fundraising software into the general ledger.
• Receipt ownership: who issues donor receipts and how corrections are handled.
• Failure handling: what your team sees when a transaction fails, is disputed, or is refunded.

The goal is not to prove BBMS is wrong for every nonprofit. The goal is to avoid a payment setup where the visible rate looks acceptable but finance loses hours every month proving where the money went.

What Is Blackbaud Giving Fund?

Blackbaud Giving Fund (formerly known as the Blackbaud Giving Fund National Philanthropic Trust) is a donor-advised fund (DAF) operated by Blackbaud. It's a charitable intermediary - not a payment processor.

This is an important distinction. When a donor gives through Blackbaud Giving Fund, they are technically making a tax-deductible donation to the Giving Fund itself. The Giving Fund then "recommends" a grant to your nonprofit.

How Giving Fund Works

1. A donor makes a gift to Blackbaud Giving Fund (the DAF)
2. The donor receives an immediate tax receipt from the Giving Fund
3. The Giving Fund deducts its fees from the donation
4. The Giving Fund disburses the remaining amount to your organization as a grant
5. You receive the funds - typically on a less predictable timeline than direct processing

Your organization does not receive the full donation amount. The Giving Fund takes a cut before the money reaches you.

Giving Fund Fee Structure

Fee Type	Typical Range
Fund fee (deducted from donation)	1% - 3.5% of the gift
Credit card processing (charged to donor)	2.2% - 2.9%
Minimum disbursement	Varies
Settlement timeline	15 - 45 days (longer than direct processing)

The critical difference: with Giving Fund, the donor may see a lower fee on their end, but your organization receives less than the full gift amount because the fund fee is deducted before disbursement. This cost is less visible to your finance team because the money arrives already reduced.

Why Giving Fund Settlement Can Confuse Finance Teams

Giving Fund donations can be perfectly legitimate gifts, but they behave differently from direct card or ACH payments. The donor's tax receipt, original gift amount, fund fee, grant disbursement, and deposit date may not line up in the way your bookkeeper expects.

That matters when you are closing a month, honoring a restricted designation, or explaining revenue to a board member. A donor may remember a $500 gift. Your bank may show a later deposit for a different amount. Your team then has to decide how to record the gross gift, the fee, the donor relationship, and the fund restriction.

Before using Giving Fund as a default path, ask whether your accounting process can clearly answer: who gave, what they intended, what you received, when it settled, and how it was booked.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Factor	Blackbaud Merchant Services	Blackbaud Giving Fund
What it is	Payment processor (like Stripe)	Donor-advised fund (charitable intermediary)
Who receives the donation	Your nonprofit directly	The Giving Fund, then grants to you
Tax receipt issued by	Your nonprofit	Blackbaud Giving Fund
Processing fees	2.2-2.9% + $0.30/transaction	2.2-2.9% (donor side) + 1-3.5% fund fee
Fee visibility	Clear - you see the deduction	Partially hidden - arrives pre-deducted
Settlement time	2-3 business days	15-45 days
Donor relationship	Direct - you own it	Indirect - DAF is the intermediary
Recurring giving control	Full control	Limited - donor controls through DAF
Refund capability	Standard refund process	Complex - goes through the DAF
Monthly minimums	$25-50/month possible	None typically
Works with	Raiser's Edge, Luminate, Online Express	Blackbaud tools + external

When to Choose Merchant Services

BBMS makes more sense when:

• You want direct donor relationships. Your organization issues the tax receipt. You own the donor data. You control the recurring giving schedule.
• Cash flow timing matters. 2-3 day settlement is significantly faster than 15-45 days through the Giving Fund.
• You need refund flexibility. Refunding a Giving Fund transaction requires coordination with a third party. BBMS refunds are straightforward.
• Your average gift is small. The per-transaction flat fee ($0.30) is more cost-effective on small gifts than a percentage-based fund fee.

When to Choose Giving Fund

Giving Fund may make sense when:

• Donors want to give through a DAF. Some donors prefer using donor-advised funds for tax planning purposes. If your donors are already using DAFs, accepting Giving Fund grants is standard practice.
• You're running a campaign with a Blackbaud partner. Some Blackbaud-powered giving days and campaigns route through the Giving Fund by default.

The Hidden Cost: Two Blackbaud Products, Neither Includes Accounting

Here's what both options share: neither one connects directly to your fund accounting.

If you use Blackbaud Merchant Services with Raiser's Edge NXT for CRM and Financial Edge NXT for accounting, you're paying for three separate Blackbaud products - and still manually reconciling between them. Deposits land in your bank as lump sums. Someone on your team has to match those deposits to individual donor transactions, then create journal entries in Financial Edge.

If you use Blackbaud Giving Fund, it's even more complex. Disbursements arrive on unpredictable schedules, and the amount doesn't match what the donor gave because fees were deducted. Your bookkeeper has to figure out the original gift amount, the fee, and which fund to record it against.

This reconciliation work adds up. For many small-to-mid-sized nonprofits, the hours spent reconciling between Blackbaud's own products cost more than the processing fees themselves.

For a detailed breakdown of what Blackbaud actually costs across all their products, see our guide to Blackbaud's hidden costs.

A Simpler Alternative: Integrated Payment Processing

Modern nonprofit platforms solve this problem by building payment processing directly into the accounting system. When a donor gives online, the transaction is:

1. Processed through integrated Stripe (2.9% + $0.30 - transparent, published rate)
2. Recorded as a donation in the donor CRM with automatic tax receipt
3. Booked to the correct fund in your general ledger - restricted, unrestricted, or designated
4. Deposited in your bank account within 2 business days

No reconciliation. No lump-sum deposits to untangle. No separate accounting product to purchase.

Alignmint includes secure online payment processing on all plans. There are no additional platform fees, no monthly minimums, and no hidden fund fees deducted before disbursement. Every dollar your donor gives, minus the standard processing fee, goes directly to your organization and is automatically recorded in your fund accounting system.

For organizations evaluating their options beyond Blackbaud's tools, see our Blackbaud alternative guide.

The Bottom Line

Blackbaud Merchant Services and Blackbaud Giving Fund serve different purposes. BBMS is a payment processor - it moves money from donor to nonprofit. Giving Fund is a charitable intermediary - it moves money from donor to DAF to nonprofit, taking a cut along the way.

For most small-to-mid-sized nonprofits:

• BBMS is the better choice if you're staying in Blackbaud tools, because you keep direct donor relationships and faster settlement.
• Giving Fund makes sense primarily when donors specifically want to give through a DAF.
• Neither is necessary if you're open to a platform that includes payment processing, CRM, and accounting in one place - eliminating the reconciliation problem entirely.

The real cost isn't just the processing fee. It's the hours your team spends reconciling between Blackbaud's separate products every month.

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