Established by Baptist Financial Services (BFS) in 2016, Giveway’s purpose is to deliver an electronic payments platform for Christian organisation’s to efficiently receive online donations and payments at the lowest possible cost.

Since inception, the Giveway platform has offered fee free donations and payments for donors registering their payment as a direct debit arrangement with BFS, or live processing of card payments with a subsidised merchant fee. Giveway, once combined with a fee free BFS account, delivers an end-to-end low-cost solution for receiving online donations and payments.

Giveway offers card payments via an Australian debit or credit Visa or MasterCard as the main payment method for all campaigns. All International and American Express cards are not supported by default. In exceptional cases International cards may be permitted by special application and subject to approval. If approved, additional fees may also apply.

Card payments are the easiest to use option for Giveway donors, as payments are processed online at the time of entry, with an online login and receipt provided to manage their existing and new payment arrangements. Importantly debit card transactions achieve the same outcomes as a direct debit payment and hence are a good alternative to direct debits.

Giveway also offers the option for registering for direct debit payments if the client providing the Giveway campaign has also decided to support direct debit payments. In providing this option each client needs to consider if they are willing to support both the manual receipting and reporting that comes with direct debits, as the Giveway platform does not provide a reporting or receipting function for direct debits. Receipts for direct debit payments are provided direct by the client and not Giveway.

Giveway is heavily subsidised by BFS to keep costs at a minimum. There are no monthly or ongoing fees for hosting of standard Giveway campaigns on the Giveway website. For card payments, a minimum 1.5% merchant fee plus a $0.40 transaction fee applies to all card payments processed on the Giveway platform. For all Giveway campaigns, unless the organisation hosting the Giveway campaign wishes not to support this feature, there will be an option if the donor or payee wishes to cover the merchant fee.

BFS reserves the right to increase the minimum Giveway merchant fee if costs increase in the future, or where the Christian organisation wishes to customise a Giveway campaign beyond its original purpose, or establish campaigns of a more commercial element where a lesser subsidy is more appropriate. This will be determined upon establishment of each Giveway campaign. For direct debit payments, no costs apply.

One-Off, Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annually are the payment frequencies that are available with Giveway.

All Giveway payments are received and settled daily on each business day into the Giveway campaign’s nominated BFS account. For card payments there is a three (3) business day settlement process (if the donor was debited on a Monday, the donation amount will not appear in your BFS account until Thursday). On weekends and public holidays, payments are settled on the next available business day.

For card payments, the donor can change or cancel their payment at any time via their donor login. For direct debit payments, as per the Giveway Service Agreement a donor must contact BFS via email at Giveway@bfs.org.au or telephone or mail the BFS Client Service Team to change or cancel their payment to Giveway.