BetterWorld auction software: who pays for the free plan

Every figure below comes from its own pages, opened in October 2026. The question is narrow: who pays, and does any of it work in pounds.

What is a BetterWorld auction?

It is online bidding plus most of the rest of a fundraising campaign, sold as one free product. The silent auction page describes bidding from a link or QR code with no app, max bids, extensions that block sniping, outbid alerts by text, and winners’ cards charged at close. Live auctions, paddle raise, ticketing and giveaways sit alongside.

The pricing page states every tool is included on every plan, with no feature gating, which is unusual.

Who pays when a BetterWorld auction is free?

Your donors do, one at a time, by choice. The help centre article on the suggested contribution says it starts at $0.99 on winning bids and tickets and $0.25 on donations, and that donors can opt out.

Credit where it is due: that is a flat starting amount, not a slice of the gift, so it does not grow because your room was generous. BetterWorld’s earnings page adds that even if nobody contributes, “we don’t take it out of what you raise”.

What happens when a donor declines?

The charity picks up the card fee, and only the card fee. The processing fees article is blunt: on a $100 gift the donor does not cover, “you would receive $96.80”.

That 2.9% is the US Stripe rate. Stripe’s UK rate is 1.5% plus 20p on standard UK cards, so a British charity here watches roughly double the domestic rate leave each transaction before anyone argues about who absorbs it.

The coverage figure appears at two levels. The payments page says over 95% of donors cover fees; a July 2026 explainer says more than 90%. Both are averages. Your room, on one night, is a single sample.

Since 1 November 2025 the Fundraising Regulator’s code has required a platform charging fees to show donors how the fee is calculated, how much it receives, and a straightforward way to remove it.

What do the paid plans cost?

Three ways to stop asking your donors, from the plans article in October 2026.

Read the Flex line twice if you run auctions. An auction counts as “everything else”, so dropping the donor prompt without a subscription costs 5% of what it takes.

Does BetterWorld work for UK charities?

Not comfortably, and BetterWorld says so itself. Its article on international use states the platform “is best set up for organizations located within the United States”. A non-US Stripe account can be connected, but it advises against it: transactions still occur in USD, and foreign exchange fees land twice, on the transaction and on withdrawal.

One line matters for your finance team. Under BetterWorld’s terms, Better World Collective, Inc. is merchant of record for card payments, handling receipts, chargebacks and refunds. The money does not reach your account first.

Can a UK charity claim Gift Aid through it?

No, and nothing on the site pretends otherwise. Its pages promise instant tax receipts, the US charitable deduction, not a Gift Aid declaration. A help centre search for Gift Aid in October 2026 returns employer-matching articles instead.

Gift Aid adds 25p per £1 given by a UK taxpayer, and needs a declaration from each donor. On a gala built around pledges, that is the biggest number a US platform cannot reach for you.

Instant Items, and the reserve price underneath them

Here is the part I would read twice. BetterWorld offers a catalogue of lots any auction can add at no cost, which its own blog accurately calls consignment items borrowed from a supplier.

The help centre gives a worked example. An all-inclusive trip to Mexico or the Dominican Republic carries a reserve price of $1,956 that goes back to the supplying business, bidding must open at $2,025 or higher, and the charity keeps only the portion above that reserve.

It is risk free, as described: nothing sells, nothing is owed.

My quarrel is with what it does to a guest. The generosity is already in the room, and a reserve price takes its slice on the way past. Somebody bidding $2,500 on that trip has spent $2,500 of willingness, and the charity keeps $544. The same money through a donated lot stays whole, and as a gift in the UK it carries Gift Aid on top. I ran that arithmetic across the market in free auction sites, and it does not improve because the catalogue is free to borrow.

At the Yacht Club de Monaco, for the Sheba Medical Center, one evening raised over £1,000,000. Every lot was given its own story before it sold, and nothing came out of a catalogue.

What does BetterWorld get right?

• No percentage of what you raise on the default plan, so success never raises the bill.
• Every feature on every plan, the free one included.
• Card rates published in full.
• A contribution starting under a dollar, not scaling with the gift, which is a kinder design than a percentage tip.

My argument is with the model, not the organisation. A tip-funded platform puts a second ask in front of your donor at the moment you have already asked. A consignment catalogue keeps a reserve between the room and the cause. Both are reasonable decisions, and both quietly cost you. I went through the same exercise on 32auctions.

Where the Generosity Works platform differs

The Generosity Works platform is not a free product with a funding model tucked behind it. It is free when a charity books me as auctioneer and host, and my fee is the only money Generosity Works takes. The platform is not sold on its own; our pricing page explains why. It is one fee agreed up front, and it does not move with the total.

In practice:

• Payments run through the charity’s own Stripe, so the only deduction is Stripe’s UK rate.
• No percentage, no per-bidder fee, no tip prompt in front of your donors.
• Pounds throughout, with Gift Aid captured at the moment of the gift.
• Lots are donated, so the charity keeps every pound of hammer price, and the silent auction software sits inside the evening, not beside it.

If it is the hire you want rather than the evening designed around it, that is what my bookings site is for.

Ask the question in pounds

Free is not a price. It is a sentence with the subject missing, and the only useful question is who finishes it. On a BetterWorld auction the answer is your donors, politely and optionally, plus whatever the dollar does on the way home.

If you have a number to hit this year, book a discovery call and let’s talk about it.