How to Price Your Fundraiser Voucher for Profit and Goodwill

The single most important decision in any fundraiser partnership is the price — and getting it wrong either costs you money or costs the fundraiser sales.

Here's the short answer first: a good voucher price covers your real cost of delivery, leaves room for the fundraiser's share (at least 10% on Generous.nz) and the platform fee, and still looks like a deal to the buyer. Price it any higher and vouchers stop selling; price it any lower and the partnership isn't worth your time. In this guide we'll walk through the exact numbers, with worked examples, so you can set a price that works for everyone.

Start with your real cost

Before anything else, know what the voucher costs you to deliver:

• Products: the cost of goods — coffee beans, ingredients, stock.
• Services: your time, materials, and overheads per appointment or booking.
• Capacity: what a redeemed voucher costs you in a quiet period versus a busy one. That difference is the key to profitable pricing, and we'll come back to it.

Your wholesale price should cover these costs with a little margin. That's your floor — never go below it, no matter how worthy the cause. A fundraiser that costs you money isn't a partnership, it's a donation with extra steps.

Add the fundraiser's share and the platform fee

On Generous.nz, the buyer pays the full price. Of that amount:

• The fundraiser keeps the share you choose — a minimum of 10% of every sale.
• The platform charges a 5% + GST fee, invoiced to you on the sales the partnership generates (your first $1,000 in sales is fee-free).
• You receive the balance, paid straight into your Stripe account.

So you work backwards: choose a sale price supporters will accept, subtract the share and the fee, and check what's left still covers your costs.

A worked example

Let's price a $50 café voucher with a 10% share:

What happens	Amount
Buyer pays	$50.00
Fundraiser's share (10%)	$5.00
Platform fee (5% + GST on the sale)	~$2.75
You receive	~$42.25

If the card costs you $25 in coffee and labour, that's a healthy $17 margin — and the buyer has already decided to visit you. If the same card costs you $40 to deliver, that 10% share leaves almost no margin, and you'd either raise the price or lower the share. On the other hand, a higher share — say 20% — still leaves you ~$37 on a $50 card, which is why many service businesses happily offer more than the minimum.

Think like the buyer

The price must feel fair — ideally like a deal people would buy anyway:

• Round numbers sell best. $20, $50, $100. Avoid $47.50 or other complicated pricing that makes supporters stop and think.
• Perceived value matters more than the number. A $50 voucher for a service that costs $60 elsewhere feels generous. A $50 voucher for something worth $40 feels like a rip-off, no matter how good the cause.
• The share is part of the pitch. "Buy this $50 card and $10 goes to the school" is a stronger sentence than "Buy this $50 card". Supporters compare offers, and generosity sells.

Use your quiet periods

Your cheapest capacity is your emptiest time — and that's exactly where vouchers shine. A midweek meal, a morning appointment, a Monday stay: pricing these into a voucher lets you offer real value while protecting your margins. A $40 midweek lunch voucher that costs you $15 in food and labour is a better deal for you than a $50 Saturday voucher that costs $30 — and the fundraiser gets the same share.

Terms can do this work for you too. Set the voucher to be redeemed midweek, by appointment, or outside peak season, and you've turned a discount into a capacity-management tool. (See our guide to setting voucher terms that protect your business for the full playbook.)

Price by offer type

Not all offers should be priced the same way:

• Products have hard costs — price them at cost plus margin, and keep the share at 10–15%.
• Services have soft costs — your time and your empty calendar. A 20% share is often affordable and makes the offer far more attractive.
• High-value experiences (weekends away, big-ticket treatments) work better as a small number of higher-priced vouchers than a flood of cheap ones — scarcity protects your capacity.

Test and adjust

Start with a limited run at your chosen price. The results will tell you the truth:

• Vouchers fly out instantly? You may have priced low. The cause is happy, but you might be leaving money on the table next time.
• They crawl? The deal isn't compelling enough — either the price is too high, the offer is confusing, or the fundraiser needs better promotion (here's how to help them promote it).

Real sales data beats guesswork. Run one campaign, review the numbers, adjust, and run again.

The golden rule

The best voucher price is the one where the buyer feels they got a deal, the fundraiser feels proud of the share, and you feel the margin was worth it. Get all three, and everyone wants to run it again.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum share I have to give a fundraiser?

On Generous.nz the minimum is 10% of each sale. You can offer more — and for many service businesses, a higher share sells vouchers faster and builds more goodwill.

Who pays the platform fee?

You do — it's 5% + GST, invoiced on the sales your partnership generates. Your first $1,000 in sales is completely fee-free, and if nothing sells, you owe nothing.

Do I receive the full sale amount?

Yes. The buyer pays you directly through Stripe, the fundraiser's share is paid out automatically, and the platform never holds your money.

What if my vouchers don't sell?

No sales, no fee — and you can adjust the price, the share, or the offer for the next campaign. Many businesses also add their products to the wholesale catalogue so multiple fundraisers can sell them at once, which spreads the risk across campaigns.

Can I change the price after the campaign starts?

Yes — you can update your listing at any time from your business dashboard. Just keep the fundraiser informed so supporters never see a price change they weren't expecting.