Transparent Fees

TREEGENERATION is developing a unique "Local" Platform which you can read about here. Our platform is designed to support local businesses whilst raising money for wildlife projects at the same time. Since the model is still under development, we are not charging a profit for our services, although we are recouping the transaction costs incurred through raising funds for wildlife.

Our platform provides the public with opportunities to make financial contributions to wildlife projects, and in return get rewarded with Local Credit, which you can use to claim discounts form participating shops and businesses.

There are zero fees for businesses, instead you "pay" through the discount rewards that you provide.

For wildlife projects a Fundraiser Fee is charged on the money that is raised, but this varies substantially depending on the income generation source:  

  • Direct contributions - money that is given to a wildlife project in return for Local Credit
  • Donations - money that is given freely without a Local Credit reward
  • Contributions from sale of business products - money given to a project on the fly, whilst purchasing a business offer

Other factors that effect the Fundraiser Fee include:

  • The payment processor used by a customer during checkout;
  • The price of a product being purchased, and the amount that is contributed to wildlife from the purchase;
  •  The number of items in a customer's cart during checkout. 


Although our Fundraiser Fee Structure is complicated, we aim to be as transparent as possible:

Payment Processors
GoCardless - Instant (Open Banking) payments (20p flat fee + 1%)
Stripe - Credit card payments (20p flat fee + 2%)

Donations
Quantifiable but depending on the payment processor and the size of the donation, with a maximum of 12% on a £5 donation via Stripe, reducing to just 2% on a £100 donation via GoCardless.

Contributions from sale of business offers
Quantifiable but varies widely depending primarily on product purchased and amount contributed to wildlife from sale. 

Example 1 - a £10 gift voucher with a £1 contribution to wildlife, will typically cost around 70-80p.
Example 2 - a £40 "Buy-now" product with a £4 contribution to wildlife, will typically cost around £1.00 - £1.40.
 

Direct Contributions
The costs incurred from funds raised from Direct Contributions is not quantifiable because it depends how the contributor uses the Local Credits that they receive as a reward.

Example 1 - Credit does not get used: this would not result in any additional costs beyond those incurred in collecting the Contribution.

Example 2 - All the Credit is used to obtain "Wild Saver" loyalty discounts: no additional costs incurred.

Example 3 - The Credit is used to obtain a 10% discount on a number of low value vouchers - this would incur considerable additional costs.

Example 4 - The Credit is used to obtain a 20% discount on a single high value "Buy-now" product - this would incur moderate additional costs.

Because these costs cannot be quantified, we charge a flat 20% Fundraisers Fee on income generated for wildlife projects via Direct Contributions.
 

Business Banking
We currently bank with Triodos which is a green, ethical, investment bank. The downside to using Triodos is that their day to day transaction costs are high:

Incoming payments: 30p
Outgoing payments: 10p

In the future we will be switching to a more economical banking provider, and after we have done this the cost of our services will reduce significantly.