What Zeffy's Own Users Are Telling Them — and Why We Built GiveLink Differently
Zeffy's public feedback forum tells a clear story: nonprofits and donors are pushing back on the tip model. Here are the six most common complaints — and how we think about each one.
On this page
Zeffy's promise is bold: a 100% free fundraising platform for nonprofits. No platform fees. No monthly cost. The trade-off is a "voluntary contribution" that donors are asked to leave at checkout — pre-selected at 15–17% of the donation amount.
For many small nonprofits, that trade-off has been worth it. Zeffy has grown to serve over 30,000 organizations, and for volunteer-run groups with zero tech budget, the $0 price tag is hard to beat.
But Zeffy also runs a public feedback forum where nonprofits and donors post feature requests, complaints, and suggestions. And the feedback tells a story that's worth hearing if you're evaluating fundraising platforms in 2026.
We read through the forum carefully. Here are the six most common themes — not cherry-picked gotchas, but patterns that show up again and again.
1. "The contribution is not eligible for tax relief"
Source: feedback.zeffy.com — "The contribution to Zeffy is not eligible for tax relief"
This is the single most upvoted compliance-related request on Zeffy's feedback forum. Donors discover — usually at tax time — that the 15% "contribution" they left at checkout is not tax-deductible. The contribution goes to Zeffy (a for-profit Canadian company), not to the nonprofit, so it does not qualify as a charitable deduction under IRS rules.
Why this matters: Donors who budget their charitable giving assuming full deductibility are surprised to learn that only the portion reaching the nonprofit qualifies. For a donor who gave $100 + $15 to Zeffy, the deductible amount is $100, not $115. At scale, this matters — particularly for major donors who track deductions carefully.
2. "Make the voluntary contribution more clear"
Source: feedback.zeffy.com — "Make the optional voluntary contribution more clear"
This request appears in various forms across the forum: donors who didn't realize they were tipping Zeffy, donors who thought the money was going to the nonprofit, and donors who felt the checkout flow was designed to be confusing.
Why this matters: When donors don't understand where their money is going at the moment they give, trust erodes — not in Zeffy, but in the nonprofit whose donation page hosts the prompt. The nonprofit didn't choose the tip amount, didn't choose the pre-selection, and often can't control the language. But the donor's confusion attaches to the nonprofit's brand.
3. "Default the contribution to $0"
Source: feedback.zeffy.com — "Voluntary contribution defaults to 0"
Multiple forum posts request that Zeffy's contribution default to $0 instead of 15–17%. The current default pre-selects a tip, and donors who want to give $0 to Zeffy must actively change the amount — a design pattern known as a "dark pattern" in UX research because it relies on inertia to generate revenue.
Why this matters: A default that benefits the platform at the donor's expense is a choice, not a necessity. Other platforms that use tip models (like JustGiving) default to smaller suggested amounts or make the opt-out more prominent. The 15–17% pre-selection is a revenue optimization decision, not a UX constraint.
4. "Contribution still not defaulting to zero in Tap to Pay"
Even after Zeffy introduced an option to default the contribution to $0 in some contexts, the Tap to Pay (in-person) flow still pre-selects a tip as of March 2026. This is particularly frustrating for nonprofits running events where donors are tapping to give in person — the tip prompt appears on a device the nonprofit controls, making it feel like the nonprofit is asking for the tip.
Why this matters: In-person giving is a trust-sensitive context. A donor tapping their card at a gala expects their full amount to go to the cause. Seeing a platform tip prompt on the nonprofit's own device undermines that trust in a way that's hard to recover from.
5. "Suggested voluntary contribution"
Source: feedback.zeffy.com — "Suggested voluntary contribution / Contribution volontaire suggérée"
This bilingual feature request (reflecting Zeffy's Canadian user base) asks for more control over the suggested tip amount. Nonprofits want the ability to lower the default or set a flat dollar amount instead of a percentage. As of this writing, Zeffy's suggested amounts are controlled by Zeffy, not by the nonprofit.
Why this matters: The nonprofit is the one with the donor relationship, but Zeffy controls the checkout prompt that the donor sees. This creates a principal-agent conflict: Zeffy's revenue depends on the tip being high; the nonprofit's donor relationships depend on the checkout being clean. Those incentives are not aligned.
6. "Contribution / payment mistake"
Source: feedback.zeffy.com — "Contribution / payment mistake"
Donors who accidentally left the default tip report difficulty getting refunds for the Zeffy contribution portion. The thread contains multiple reports of donors who didn't intend to tip the platform and want their money back.
Why this matters: Accidental charges — even refundable ones — create negative experiences that donors associate with the nonprofit, not the platform. A donor who has to email support to undo a tip they never intended is a donor who may not give again.
What we take from this
We're not writing this to pile on Zeffy. They built a product that works for a lot of organizations, and the 100%-free model genuinely removes a barrier for small nonprofits getting started with online fundraising.
But the feedback patterns above point to a structural tension in the tip model: the platform's revenue incentive (maximize tips) is in direct conflict with the donor's experience (a clean checkout where every dollar goes where they intended).
That tension is why we're building GiveLink differently. We charge the nonprofit a transparent 1% platform fee — visible on the pricing page, reflected in the dashboard, disclosed to anyone who asks. No tip prompt at checkout. No suggested contribution. No pre-selected default.
We believe that's the right trade-off: the nonprofit pays a small, predictable cost, and the donor's experience stays clean. We're building a platform where the donor checkout is about the donor and the cause — not about funding the platform.
If you're evaluating fundraising platforms and the tip model concerns you, we'd love to have you on the waitlist. We're building GiveLink for nonprofits that believe transparent pricing and clean donor experiences are worth paying for.
Sources: All quotes and complaints referenced in this post are from Zeffy's own public feedback forum at feedback.zeffy.com. Links to specific posts are provided inline. These sources were verified and archived on April 8, 2026.
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