Checks are a time-honored way to give. For some donors—especially people who make major gifts—they’ll probably always be the go-to method.
But those major donors aren’t always the ones who give via personal check. In a recent analysis of around 50,000 donors and their giving over a calendar year, Neon One found that more than half of check-based donations were for amounts under $100.
For fundraisers, those check-based donations are appealing because they don’t come with the processing fees associated with digital gifts. But that doesn’t mean they’re free to process; those smaller gifts come with hidden costs you may not have considered.
We’re never going to tell you to turn away a check. All donors—including those making “small” donations— should be able to give the way they prefer to give! But it is worth understanding why donors write checks, what they actually cost your organization, and how you might (gently) guide some of those donors toward giving in ways that are better for both them and for your staff.
The Psychology of Writing Checks
Why do donors reach for their checkbook instead of clicking over to a donation form? There are lots of reasons, but this behavior is usually due to one of two things: fee sensitivity and habit.
Some donors are fee-sensitive. That makes sense, especially if they’re making a large gift. Online transactions come with payment processing fees, and those fees add up quickly if someone’s making a significant donation. For those supporters, writing a check means that more of their money goes directly toward making an impact.
For donors writing smaller checks, the reasoning is often less deliberate. Instead of having a hard preference, many people give by check out of habit. That habit is “sticky”—in our data, we saw that 95% of people who wrote a check in 2024 did so again in 2025.
But that doesn’t mean they’re averse to giving in other ways. 14% of check donors gave online, too, and they did so in amounts that are virtually identical. For this group, their average online donation amount was $1,572. Their average check donation was $1,540. That signals that their check-based donations aren’t a way to avoid fees. If they were, they wouldn’t give similarly both online and off.
This is an important thing to internalize. If a donor declines to give online because they don’t want you to incur processing fees, they probably won’t change the way they give. But if they write checks out of habit, you have an opportunity. Subtly encouraging them to change that habit could save you from costs you didn’t even know you were absorbing.
The Hidden Costs of Check Writing
Checks don’t come with processing fees. If you’re evaluating your nonprofit’s overhead costs, that can seem like a huge benefit.
But not all costs show up in a bank statement. The hidden costs of check-based donations show up in two places: your staff’s time and your donor’s experience.
Staff Costs
Online gifts more or less process themselves. Donations made via check do not.
Someone on your team has to physically receive the check, endorse it, and deposit it at the bank. Then they need to manually update the donor’s profile with the gift details and generate a receipt or thank-you message.
Every one of those steps takes time—and time isn’t free. It’s one of your most precious resources, and every minute a staff member spends manually processing a $40 check is a minute they’re not spending on all the other important work they do.
Donor Experience
Because check processing takes time, it’s easily pushed to the back burner in favor of other, more pressing activities. Sometimes, processing someone’s check-based donation can take days or weeks. That delay creates a really disjointed donor experience.
As a general rule, donors expect a donation receipt and a thank-you message within 48 hours of giving. When a check takes two weeks to process, that expectation goes unmet. And, for donors who like to stay on top of their finances, waiting for a pending check to clear the bank can be deeply frustrating.
If your staff is backed up and manual data entry gets rushed (or skipped entirely), that can negatively impact donors’ experiences over even longer periods of time. That delay can cause inaccurate donor histories, poorly timed communications, or messaging that doesn’t reflect someone’s gift at all.
That’s not the experience you want to give someone who’s donated to support your work.
What to Do If You Want to Encourage Check Donors to Give Differently
Donors should be allowed to give the way they want to give. That’s one of the most important rules of fundraising. But there are some steps you can take to make it easier and more appealing for habitual check-writers to try something else.
Here are a few ways to do that.
Mention online giving in your direct mail appeals. Direct mail is still one of the most effective fundraising channels. But analogue channels don’t always need to result in analogue gifts! Try including a QR code or a simple, easy-to-type URL right on the remit slip or at the bottom of the appeal itself. This gives donors a simple way to respond to your appeal without reaching for their checkbook.
Offer digital options at events. QR codes work well on event signage and printed materials, too. Text messaging is also a good option for events, especially if you have a captive audience. Collect people’s phone numbers at registration and ask them to opt into receiving text messages. Then, at a peak moment during the event, send a text with a direct link to your donation form. Text messages have extremely high open rates, and making a donation on a phone only takes seconds.
Allow donors to cover fees. Enable donor-covered fees on your donation forms. This is a great way to give fee-sensitive donors the option to make a gift quickly and easily while ensuring that you receive the entirety of their intended gift amount.
Add ACH or eCheck options. Fees for ACH or eCheck transactions are almost always lower than those for card-based transactions. Donors may still need to reach for their checkbooks, but the fact that they’re making a digital gift means you’ll be able to avoid the hazards of a donation made with a physical check.
Don’t force it. Some donors will never want to change how they give, and that’s okay. People are creatures of habit, and pushing too hard can cause friction instead of alleviating it. If a check-writer doesn’t make the switch today, they at least know they have options for future gifts.
Everyone Can Benefit From Fewer Checks
Some people will always prefer to give by check. But, if you’re receiving a significant volume of check-based donations that don’t fall into major gifts territory, it may be worth your while to consciously give those donors opportunities to give through other avenues.
You don’t need to eliminate checks! You just need to make it easier for habit-driven donors to choose a payment method that gives them and your staff a better experience.
Give Your Donors Options (Without Adding to Your Workload)
Want to give your donors the best possible experience? Neon One gives you the tools you need to do it. Spin up unlimited donation forms, generate QR codes that link straight to your giving page, and send text appeals when the moment is right.
And, for those donors who still reach for their checkbooks, Neon One makes it easy to catalogue their gift, update their profile, and keep that relationship going.
