What are the additional fees included on a project?

There are a few fees added to the materials cost of a project that have to be fulfilled in order for the project to be considered fully funded.

1. Vendor shipping charges are the costs charged by the vendor to ship the requested materials. 
2. Sales tax is added automatically by our system for certain states. Every state has different rules regarding the tax-exempt status of nonprofits, so requested resources may still incur a sales tax despite our organization’s general IRS tax exempt status.
3. The 3rd party payment processing fee is 1.5% of the project cost. This rate represents the weighted average of the processing fees DonorsChoose incurs across the various payment methods used by our donors.
4. The Fulfillment labor & materials fee is a flat $30.00 fee added to every project on the site. This covers not just the labor required to bring a classroom project to life, but the physical costs of processing student thank-you letters, which include postage from the classroom to DonorsChoose; postage from our office to the donor; mail pick-up; and a label, envelope, and cover sheet.

Each project also allows donors to add an optional suggested donation to help DonorsChoose. We encourage donors to dedicate 15% of each donation to support our lean operation and the work that we do. Donors' inclusion of this suggested donation enables us to engage teachers, build awareness, fund additional projects, and generally run DonorsChoose.

Our efficiency has earned DonorsChoose the top 4-star rating from Charity Navigator. Founded in 2000 by a history teacher, we are a highly-trusted nonprofit organization that is 100% focused on educators.