Class Action Lawsuit Claims Givebutter Adds Unlawful Junk Fees to Charitable Donations

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Givebutter surreptitiously adds preselected junk fees to charitable donations made through its fundraising platform without donors’ knowledge or consent.  

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The 35-page lawsuit contends that Givebutter, a for-profit fundraising platform that serves as a middleman between donors and charitable organizations, utilizes a deceptive website interface that automatically adds “tips” and “processing fees” to donations without affirmative consent from donors, while also failing to disclose that it unlawfully pockets the purportedly optional fees as profit.

According to the filing, Givebutter advertises that its platform offers “free fundraising at your fingertips” for nonprofit charities via integrated features that redirect potential donors to the Givebutter website to complete the checkout process.

The complaint alleges that Givebutter’s website is deliberately designed to deploy “dark patterns” to extract additional revenue from donors who believe that their donation will go only to their intended charity. Further, the alleged junk fee scheme has been “massively profitable” for Givebutter, which recently received a $50 million private equity investment, the lawsuit says.

“While [p]laintiffs and other reasonable consumers are generous, they have no interest in or intention of enriching a private company like Givebutter as part of their charitable donations,” the case emphasizes.

Per the class action lawsuit, Givebutter’s “tips” and “processing fees” for all donations are designed to be easy to overlook and difficult for donors to remove. The lawsuit says that once donors reach the Givebutter checkout page, which the case says is “riddled with deception,” Givebutter does not obtain affirmative consent before charging the additional fees, and “obscures” that the fees must be proactively removed to be avoided.

Importantly, many donors do not notice the hidden junk fees tacked onto their donations, as they are disclosed only in tiny, light-colored fonts after consumers have already selected their donation amount, the complaint shares.

Moreover, to remove the processing fees, consumers must know to click on an inconspicuous “edit” button, read a “deceptive disclaimer,” and then de-select a checkbox, the lawsuit states. Similarly, removing tips also requires legwork, as donors must instead figure out on their own that a small, downward-pointing triangle can change the tip amount, then repeatedly click the triangle to reduce the tip amount to zero, the filing says.

The case emphasizes that the defendant tells nonprofits that “[m]ost donors choose to cover” the processing fees charged by Givebutter for its services but fails to disclose that donors are never given a reasonable choice whether to pay the fees, meaning the fees are not truly optional.

The filing notes that consumers who attempt to donate through Givebutter are not engaging in “arm’s-length commercial transactions,” but rather making donations under time pressure, emotional stress, or a sense of urgency for causes they care about.

“In this context, donors reasonably rely on Givebutter to present charges clearly and honestly, and to require explicit consent before diverting any portion of their donation away from the intended cause,” the filing states.

The Givebutter class action lawsuit looks to cover all individuals who, while residing in California, Oregon, Ohio or Georgia, and within the applicable statute of limitations, paid Givebutter a preselected tip or processing fee.

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