Round-Ups Overview
Round-Ups are a unique type of recurring donation where a donor registers their debit or credit card to track their spending over the course of the month to accumulate a donation based on their spending.
Each time a transaction is made with their connected card, the transaction is rounded up to the nearest dollar and the difference between their purchase amount and the rounded amount is added to their donation amount that accumulates throughout the month. At the end of the month, their accumulated amount is donated as a lump sum to your organization.
For example, if a donor purchases a coffee for $2.40 on their connected credit/debit card, we "Round-Up" the purchase to the next dollar amount ($3) and the change ($0.60) would be counted as Round-Up change that will be added to their accumulating donation amount.
Round-Ups Registration Process
Donors can register their debit or credit card for Round-Ups from your Harness fundraising pages by selecting the Round-Ups option. They will also have the ability to designate their Round-Ups gift to any of your active Campaigns.
On the next screen, a donor can learn more about how Round-Ups works on the left side of the page.
On the right, the donor will then be asked to log into their existing donor account or provide their contact information to create a new donor account. If the donor is already a contact (their email address is already in your Saved Contacts), they must login before they will be able to register their card for Round-Ups. *A donor account is required to provide donors the ability to manage/cancel their subscriptions.
Next, a donor will be asked to set their monthly cap (the maximum amount they are willing to donate in Round-Ups) and provide their card information. The donor must also provide consent and authorize Round-Ups on their card by checking the 2 required checkboxes. By then selecting Enroll in Round-Ups, their card will be registered and Round-Ups will begin accumulating on any transactions made from that point onward.
Harness has direct partnerships with Visa and Mastercard. If donors are registering a Visa or Mastercard, no additional steps are required after selecting Enroll in Round-Ups.
For American Express and Discover cards, Harness leverages Plaid to connect with the donor's credit card to track their spending and accumulate Round-Ups. Donors registering American Express or Discover cards will see an additional prompt requiring them to complete the registration of their card through Plaid.
Round-Ups Minimum
What is the Round-Ups Minimum?
All active Round-Ups donors that register/create a Round-Ups donation after April 9th, 2021 will be charged a minimum donation of $9.99 if:
Their monthly Round-Ups/spare change accumulation is less than $10
Their Round-Ups account falls into an "error"/disconnected state
Why Was the Minimum Added?
Your organization can now better plan/prepare to expect a certain amount of Round-Ups revenue each month (minimum of $9.99 per Round-Up donor).
The new minimum amount is a reasonable "ask" that corresponds with the minimum monthly cap ($10) a donor can set. Also, the $9.99 round-up donation ends up being less than $0.34/day in round-ups for the donor.
Your organization ultimately gains more revenue by saving $ in processing fees formerly charged on smaller dollar amounts.
On occasion, a Round-Ups account would become disconnected & we wanted to remove all barriers to your donor being able to "reconnect"/still give.
How Does the Minimum Affect My Existing Round-Ups Donors?
All active Round-Up donors prior to April 9th, 2021 can expect to continue donating via our previous policy (whatever they accumulate outside of any giving cap they set, they'll give).
Are Donors Made Aware of the Minimum?
We have added a "How Round-Ups Work" section to the Round-Ups registration checkout which includes information about the $9.99 monthly minimum donation.
We have updated our Terms of Service to ensure donors are aware that the minimum donation will be processed if their accumulated change does not exceed the minimum threshold.
Round-Ups Troubleshooting
A Donor is Unable to Register Their Card for Round-Ups
While not a common issue, there are a few potential causes for a donor being unable to register their card for Round-Ups:
The donor has provided an invalid card number - In this case, the donor would need to enter their valid/correct card information.
The donor is being told their login credentials are invalid - If registering an American Express or Discover card, the registration process will utilize Plaid to connect Harness with the donor's credit card. This connection through Plaid requires that the donor log into their online banking. The donor will need to ensure that the login credentials they're entering for their online banking are correct/valid.
The donor's bank is requiring 2-factor authentication - The donor will need to complete their additional verification step as their financial institution requires it for security reasons.
A Donor's Round-Ups is Showing a Round-Ups Error
This error message displays in your Round-Ups Report and appears when a donor's card was registered using Plaid, and the connection between Plaid and their bank/card issuer has become disconnected. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as:
The donor's online banking username and/or password has changed
The donor's financial institution has updated their security settings
In all cases, the donor's Round-Ups should be canceled and the donor will need to create a new Round-Ups gift. Feel free to use the email template below when contacting the donor to encourage them to create a new Round-Ups donation.
EMAIL TEMPLATE
Hello,
Thank you so much for supporting our mission here at [ORGANIZATION NAME] through your Round-Ups spare change monthly donations! We appreciate you!
We noticed that your Round-Ups account is currently disconnected and your spare change donations are currently suspended. We have successfully cancelled your current Round-Ups subscription so that you can easily create a new one here (HYPERLINK ONE OF YOUR HARNESS FUNDRAISING PAGES/GIVING FORMS). We appreciate you doing this as soon as you're able so your spare change can support our efforts this month.
Questions? Contact XXXX at [email protected].
.
Thanks so much, again, for your support!
FAQs
Q: What is Plaid and why does Harness leverage their platform to track spending for American Express and Discover cards?
A: Plaid is a financial services platform that allows financial institutions such as banks and credit card issues to each other and other applications (https://plaid.com/what-is-plaid/). Plaid tracks spending on the donor's credit card and makes it possible for Harness to know how much spare change has accumulated over the course of the month to ensure the correct Round-Ups donation amount is processed.
Q: How much can I expect a donor to donate each month?
A: The average active card user accumulates about $25/mo in spare change. Donors can set a minimum giving cap of $10 & a maximum giving cap of $100. If a donor accumulates spare change that is less than the giving cap:
For all donors who registered for Round-Ups after April 9th, 2021, the minimum Round-Up donation will always be $9.99. If the donor's accumulated amount is less than $10, their gift will be $9.99.
For all donors who registered for Round-Ups before April 9th, 2021, they'll donate the amount was accumulated (ex: cap is $10, donor accumulates $5.94, donor will give $5.94).
Q: Why did we receive a Round-Ups donation less than the cap the donor set & exceeded?
A: When a donor reaches their cap, the amount they donate is the accumulated Round-Ups amount before they hit their limit. For example, if a donor set a cap at $15, and their accumulated Round-Ups balance is currently $14.50, then a purchase resulting in round-up amount greater than $.50 would put them over their $15 cap. If no other transactions with a lower round-up occur before the end of the month, their total Round-Ups donation would be $14.50.
Q: Why did we not receive a Round-Ups donation of less than $1?
A: For Round-Ups donations created before April 9th, 2021, to ensure Stripe's processing fees do not eat up your entire donation, any total Round-Ups that accumulated to less than $1 at the end of that month do not get processed.
Q: A donor successfully registered for Round-Ups, but no spare change is accumulating?
A: The donor may not be using the card that was registered. If the donor has registered a debit card, other transactions in their bank account using other payment methods (or even other debit cards) will not be tracked/counted toward their Round-Ups donation.
Q: How do donors set & change their giving cap?
A: During Round-Ups registration, donors can adjust the default/suggested giving cap of $50 to a higher or lower cap. The lowest cap they can set is $10, the highest cap is $100.
After the donor has registered, they can increase/decrease their cap at any time in their personal Donor Dashboard via this guide. They can also adjust their settings to give either $1 or $0 if the transaction ends in $.00.
Q: Why aren't Round-Ups donated after each transaction?
A: Credit card processing fees can range from 2.2% + $.30 > 6.5% for each transaction. Round-Ups accumulations range from $0.01 > $0.99. The processing fee on individual Round-Ups would consume the majority of the round-up or even put you in a negative balance. Additionally, tiny dollar amounts (less than a dollar) are usually an indication of fraudulent activity & would trigger consistent bank security concerns & alerts.
Q: My donor registered the same card multiple times. How do I prevent this?
A: Currently, we're unable to prevent a donor from registering the same card for Round-Ups multiple times. This is because for security their full card information is not stored in Harness, only within Stripe (our payment processor), so the Harness platform is unable to access/check against the cards they already have registered to avoid duplicate registration.
Q: How do I pull a report of previous month's Round-Up donations?
A: Your Round-Up report only shows active Round-Up donors for the current month, so the best way to see previous month's Round-Up donations is to download your Donation Report as a CSV/Excel file and apply a filter to the Donation Type column using Excel or similar spreadsheet application.