Greater Giving for a UK charity: what it does, and what it costs

So I read their own pages in October 2026 and wrote down only what they say. I build a platform for British galas, so I have a dog in this fight, and I would rather be useful than flattering.

What is Greater Giving?

It is cloud-based event software for charity auctions, galas and school fundraisers, bundled with card payments and optional mobile bidding. Its history page traces it to a long checkout queue at a Portland benefit auction in 2002, where Jeff Jetton built Auctionpay, and says it now runs on Global Payments infrastructure. The home page claims 10,000-plus nonprofits and $9 billion processed.

It sells two packages. Express pairs the event software with Auctionpay card readers for check-in and out. Event adds online registration and donation pages, with Online Bidding an optional add-on for silent auctions on guests’ phones.

How much does Greater Giving cost?

Greater Giving does not publish a price. Asked on its own home page, the answer is that the company tailors pricing to your usage and invites you to request a custom proposal. The URL /pricing returns a 404.

I will not guess. But “tailored to your usage” is the phrase to read twice: a fee shaped by how much you put through the system grows with a good night, so see how it is calculated before you sign.

Set-up looks chargeable too: the packages advertise a bundled price with discounted set-up, and donation pages built by their team carry an additional fee per page.

Does Greater Giving work with UK charities?

Nothing on their site says it does, and several things suggest it is not built for us. The about page says Greater Giving works “exclusively with schools and nonprofits across the nation“. The home page counts events “nationwide”. The terms of use run on US federal law and Oregon law.

It prices in dollars. The headline figure is $9 billion in “fundraising dollars processed”, and no page I opened mentioned pounds sterling. Conversion costs money: Stripe’s published UK rate is 1.5% plus 20p on standard UK cards, with 2% added where conversion is needed. It costs attention too: I want a room thinking about the lot, not converting a dollar sign while the bidding goes quiet.

None of that makes it unusable here. It does mean you are the exception, not the design case. Ask: can we run in pounds, settle into a UK bank account, and get card readers to a venue in Leeds.

Whose merchant account does the money land in?

Theirs, by the sound of it. The Auctionpay page says the company sets up a merchant account for you, and that funds reach your account within five business days.

That is a criticism of the model, not the company. When the platform owns the payment relationship, the processing rate becomes the one number you cannot check against anyone else’s. The grid also offers convenience fee options so donors can offset processing, moving that cost onto the guest. Since 1 November 2025 the Fundraising Regulator’s Code has required platforms to show donors, before taking card details, how the fee is calculated and how to remove it. Ask to see that checkout screen.

At MS-UK I told the room at the start exactly where every pound was going, lot by lot. The live pledge afterwards raised £8,300, all of it kept. I turned the lights on and the money followed the transparency. Pricing deserves the same treatment.

The card readers you post back

Greater Giving clients do not buy their card readers. The company ships them out at roughly one per hundred guests, and you post them back within four business days. Both are card-swipe devices: a laptop’s USB port or a tablet’s audio port.

A London room pays by contactless or chip and PIN, and most of my guests have not swiped a card in years. Ask what happens to a transatlantic courier in the week your event lands.

Can a UK charity claim Gift Aid through Greater Giving?

Not on anything I could find. Gift Aid appears nowhere on the pages I read, which is no surprise for software built for US tax rules.

On auction lots it rarely matters, because HMRC treats a winning bid as a purchase and allows a split payment only where the donor knows the value of what they get as they give.

On gifts it matters enormously. Gift Aid adds 25p per £1 from a UK taxpayer, and each claim needs a declaration with the donor’s name and home address. That is the whole argument for the pledge. Ten lots in a room of two hundred means ten winners, and the pledge straight afterwards is how the other hundred and ninety give. Without a declaration captured in that moment, you are chasing paper forms for a fortnight.

What does Greater Giving do well?

Several things. Phone support runs on the day of your event whatever day it falls on, which is more than many vendors offer a Saturday-night gala. The platform is PCI Level 1 certified, and the partner network includes benefit auctioneers who know the room. Their advice to get set up three months to six out is what I would tell a client.

Two claims I would treat as marketing rather than fact: mobile bidding generating 10 to 30% more revenue, and 20 to 30% increases on average. Neither is sourced.

I have written separately about the other US platforms a UK charity meets.

Where the Generosity Works platform is different

I built the Generosity Works platform for the British gala, so the gaps above are the ones it was designed around.

• Payments run on the charity’s own Stripe keys and settle into their own account, with Stripe’s standard rate the only deduction.
• No percentage of what the room gives, no per-bidder fee, no tip prompt.
• Gift Aid capture on the pledge, the HMRC split on lots, tiered pledges and regular giving.
• Silent auction and live bidding, ticketing, cards held from registration, and an offline server for when venue wifi gives up.
• No hardware to post. Guests bid on the phones in their pockets.

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.

Get it in writing

Whoever you choose, get four things in writing: the total in pounds, whether any of it is a percentage, the card rate your guests pay, and how a Gift Aid declaration is captured. Then write down what the charity keeps.

If you have a number to hit this year and want the plan, the platform and the night designed together for one fee agreed up front, book a discovery call. Let’s talk about your number.