Here are four questions to help you decide the best fee strategy for your nonprofit or public sector entity.
Consider a particular service or product you provide.
Answer these questions in order. Stop when the answer is “No.”
1. Can we charge a fee for this?
Can you prevent people who are not willing to pay from using your service or product?
2. Should we charge a fee for this?
Will charging a fee advance your organization’s mission?
3. Can we charge different people different fees for this?
Can you identify who’s willing to pay more if they had to? Can you prevent them from paying less?
4. Should we charge different people different fees for this?
Will charging different users different fees for the same thing advance your organization’s mission?
How many yeses do you have?
0-1: Do not charge anyone a fee for this service or product.
2-3: You can and should charge everyone the same fee for this.
4: You can and should charge different people different fees for this.