How Big Nest Can Help Pay for Itself

Every dollar matters when you’re running a parent-teacher group.

Your group already spends time organizing fundraisers, programs, events, spirit wear, registrations, and other activities. The tools you use should make that work easier, not create another expense that has to be justified every year.

That is one of the ideas behind Big Nest.

Big Nest gives families a simple way to pay, register, donate, and participate online. It also gives your group control over how transaction costs are handled.

Depending on how you configure checkout, the activity your group is already processing can help offset payment processing costs and, in many cases, help cover the annual cost of Big Nest.

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Start With the Economics of Online Payments

Any time a family pays online, there is a cost to processing that transaction.

Credit card processors charge a percentage of the transaction plus, in many cases, a small fixed fee.

Your parent group has a few ways to handle those costs.

With Big Nest, you can choose the approach that makes the most sense for your organization.

Option 1: Absorb the Processing Fees

The simplest approach is to have your group pay the processing fees.

Families pay the advertised amount, and your organization absorbs the transaction cost.

This creates the cleanest checkout experience, but it means your group needs enough margin or reserves to cover those costs throughout the year.

For established organizations with healthy reserves, that may be perfectly reasonable.

For a brand-new group, I usually recommend being more conservative.

Option 2: Add a Service Fee

Your group can add a percentage-based service fee to transactions.

For example, you might configure Big Nest to add a 4% service fee to online payments.

That service fee can help offset payment processing costs and the annual cost of the platform.

This is the approach I often recommend for a new parent group during its first year.

A new group usually does not have much financial history yet. You may not know:

• how much money will move through the website
• how many families will pay online
• which programs will be popular
• how much reserve the organization will build
• how consistently optional contributions will be used

When you are starting from zero, predictability matters.

A modest service fee gives the organization a reliable way to help cover the cost of accepting online payments without requiring the board to dip into reserves that may not exist yet.

For many new groups, 4% is a practical starting point.

Once you have a full year of transaction history, you can reevaluate.

Option 3: Ask for an Optional Contribution

Another approach is to let families voluntarily add a little extra during checkout.

Instead of automatically adding a fee, Big Nest can invite the payer to contribute an additional amount to help support the group and offset transaction costs.

This approach gives families more choice and can work extremely well in communities where people are comfortable contributing a little extra.

Not every family will contribute, and that is expected.

The goal is not to pressure anyone. The goal is to create a simple opportunity for families who are willing to help.

Over the course of a school year, those optional contributions can add up.

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My Recommendation for New Parent Groups

If your organization is brand new, I recommend starting with a 4% service fee for the first year.

The reason is simple: you need to know the organization can cover its operating costs.

A new parent group generally has little or no reserve. That makes it risky to assume voluntary contributions will be enough to cover payment processing and software costs.

A service fee gives you predictability while you learn how your community behaves.

During that first year, pay attention to:

• how much money moves through Big Nest
• which activities generate the most transactions
• how families respond to online checkout
• how much the group accumulates in reserve
• whether your board is comfortable absorbing more costs directly

Once you have that information, you can make a more informed decision.

If the group has built a reasonable reserve and you understand your transaction volume, you may decide to remove the automatic service fee and switch to optional contribution requests instead.

That is often a good long-term progression:

Year one: prioritize predictability.

Later years: optimize for flexibility and family choice.

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What a 4% Service Fee Can Look Like

Suppose your group processes $20,000 through Big Nest over the course of the year.

A 4% service fee would collect:

$20,000 × 4% = $800

That $800 can help offset the cost of payment processing and the annual Big Nest subscription.

The exact result will vary based on transaction volume, payment mix, and processor fees, so this should be treated as an example rather than a guarantee.

The important point is that Big Nest gives your group a way to make the activity you are already processing contribute toward the cost of running that activity online.

You do not need another fundraiser.

You do not need more sponsors.

You do not need more work.

You are simply deciding how the transactions already happening through your organization should be structured.

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Keep the Work. Not Just the Transactions.

Big Nest does more than collect donations or process payments.

It gives your parent group one connected place to run the work of the year.

Fundraisers, families, events, sponsorships, volunteers, and board history all stay connected so the current board can work more efficiently and the next board does not have to start from scratch.

That matters because parent groups change leadership every year or two. As board members and committe chairs rotate out, the organization should retain everything learned along the way.

Big Nest helps preserve that history.

The next board can see what happened, what worked, who participated, which sponsors supported the group, what documents matter, and how the organization operated in prior years.

Instead of rebuilding the organization every fall, each board gets to build on what the last one already learned.

That is the bigger value of Big Nest.

The payment tools can help offset the cost of the platform, but what you are really getting is a connected home for the entire parent group.

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What About Zeffy?

Zeffy can also be a strong option for nonprofits that want to reduce direct payment-processing costs.

Rather than charging the nonprofit a platform fee, Zeffy asks donors and purchasers for an optional contribution during checkout.

For some organizations, that model works well.

The main difference is where the additional checkout contribution goes.

With Zeffy, the contribution supports Zeffy’s platform.

With Big Nest, your organization controls its own fee strategy and keeps the funds generated through its service-fee or optional-contribution settings.

The better choice depends on how your organization wants to structure payments and how much control you want over the checkout experience.

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The Bottom Line

Your parent group should not have to create extra work just to justify the cost of its software.

The better goal is to make the work you are already doing more efficient and financially sustainable.

For a new group, that may mean starting with a modest service fee so you know your transaction and software costs are covered.

For an established group with reserves and predictable payment volume, it may mean switching to optional contribution requests instead.

Either way, the goal is the same:

Make it easy for families to participate online, keep control of your transaction model, and let the activity your group already runs help support the tools that make that work possible.

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