Fund Fee Types define how your organization charges admin fees to specific funds. Fund Fee Types have two components consisting of the Fee Type and the Apply Fee. Different combinations of the two can be configured to fit your organization's needs and funds.
Fee Types
A fee type defines how a fund will be charged. In most settings, the fees are calculated based on a fund’s asset balances. Accounts can be excluded from admin fees to prevent the system from including specific asset accounts such as receivables when calculating the admin fees. If Average per Quarter is selected on the admin fee type, the fees are based on a fund’s bank and investment balances. In this case, accounts cannot be excluded.
- Flat Fee - Charges a flat amount at a defined interval or on a per each basis.
- Percent - Charges a percentage of a fund's asset balance at a defined interval or on a per each basis.
-
Percent Range - Uses tiers, which can also be laddered, to charge a percentage of a fund's asset balance.
- These are often used on endowed funds with large asset balances to keep their admin fee costs to a reasonable level.
- These are often used on endowed funds with large asset balances to keep their admin fee costs to a reasonable level.
Apply Fees
The Apply Fee options define when or how often a fund will be charged.
- Interval options can be thought of as "fund asset balance fees" and are used to charge a fund on a monthly, yearly, etc. basis.
- Admin fees that are applied at an interval must be processed at the same interval that is defined in the relevant admin fee type.
- Interval options do not post until your organization processes the admin fee transaction. The calculate date should be set to the last date of a given interval period.
- Per Each options are based on volume and apply a fee to each donation, grant, etc. that is posted by your organization.
- These are often applied to fund types such as fiscal sponsorship, agency, and affiliate.
- Per each admin fees post automatically when the donation, grant, invoice, etc. is posted with the same date as the transaction date.
- Per each options only apply to new transactions and do not apply retroactively.
- "Minimum yearly fee" does not take "per each" options into consideration.
Additional Fund Fee Type Options
Fee Types and Apply Fees Table
Interval options, such as monthly and quarterly, are mutually exclusive from the per each options. An interval and a per each option cannot be used in the same fund fee type. Similarly, only one apply fee option can be used in the same fund fee type.
The table below shows the available fee types and when/how they can be applied. For example, a fund fee type with a flat fee can be applied on a per each basis, but a percent range fee cannot be applied on a per each basis.
|
Fee Types and Apply Fees Y=Yes N=No |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Apply Fee |
Flat Fee |
Percent |
Percent Range |
|
Monthly |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
Quarterly |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
Yearly |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
Fiscal Year (fiscal_year) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
Bi-Annual |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
Bi-Annual Fiscal Year (bi-annual_fy) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
|
|||
|
Per Each Grant (ea_grant) |
Y |
Y |
N |
|
Per Each Internal Grant (ea_int_grant) |
Y |
Y |
N |
|
Per Each Donation (ea_donation) |
Y |
Y |
N |
|
Per Each Internal Donation (ea_int_donat) |
Y |
Y |
N |
|
Per Each Stock (ea_stock) |
Y |
Y |
N |
|
Per Each Voucher (ea_voucher) |
Y |
Y |
N |
|
Per Each Invoice (ea_invoice) |
Y |
Y |
N |
Calculations and Examples
For the purpose of this article and to make a clear distinction between the percent range fee type and flat or percent fee types, the information and calculations are organized into two parts: Flat and Percent Fee Types and Percent Range Fee Type.
Example calculations were created using two example funds and several example admin fee types. Not all flat and percent fee types were used; however, the process and resulting transaction details will be similar for other apply fee options of the same type.
Example funds used in the options listed below.
- Donor Advised Fund - The fund being assessed/charged admin fees.
- Operating Fund - The fund receiving the admin fee revenue.
Example admin fee types used in the options listed below.
- Flat Fee Type - Monthly
- Flat Fee Type - Per Each Donation
- Percent Fee Type - Monthly
- Percent Fee Type - Per Each Donation
- Percent Range Fee Type - Yearly - No Ladder
- Percent Range Fee Type - Yearly - With Ladder
Flat Fee and Percent Fee Types Examples
The examples below compare the resulting transactions of a flat and percent fee type when applied on a "per each donation" basis or a "monthly" basis.
Per Each Example
In this example, the donor advised fund is assigned a flat fee type of $5.00 and a percent fee type of 2%- both of which are configured to apply on a "per each donation" basis.
When the donor advised fund receives a donation of $125.00 and the donation is posted, two charges occur.
- The Flat Fee Type - Per Each Donation charges $5.00.
- The Percent Fee Type - Per Each Donation charges $2.50.
Monthly Example
In this example, the donor advised fund is assigned a flat fee type of $10.00 and a percent fee type of 2%, both of which are configured to be applied on a monthly basis.
As a reminder, interval admin fees, such as monthly, do not post automatically and will need to be processed by your organization at the interval specified in the fee type.
When the admin fees are processed for the donor advised fund, two charges occur.
- The Monthly - Percent Fee Type charges 2% on the fund balance.
- The Monthly - Flat Fee Type charges 1/12th of $10.00 per month ($0.83).
Percent Range Fee Type Examples
Yearly Example
The images below show the laddered and non-laddered fee types. The percent ranges are the same; the only difference between the two is the fee ladder setting.
The table below lists the amount charged to the donor advised fund (with a balance of $15,000) when using a fee ladder vs. no fee ladder.
| Fund Balance ($15,000) | % Range | With Fee Ladder | No Fee Ladder |
| $0.01 | 1.00% | $10 | $0 |
| $1000.01 | 0.75% | $30 | $0 |
| $5000.01 | 0.55% | $27.50 | $0 |
| $10000.01 | 0.45% | $22.50 | $67.50 |
| $15000.01 | 0.35% | $0 | $0 |
| = $90.00 | = $67.50 | ||
If a fund advisor or an organization has multiple funds held by an organization, then using tier/ladder fees based on the total value of all associated funds may be desired. Using tiered/laddered admin fees helps organizations to not penalize organizations that create more than one fund for different purposes.