Your organization pays nothing to use it.
No subscription, no setup fee, no seats. Participants pay one Service & Processing Fee when they register, shown as its own line before they pay, and the rest of what they pay is yours.
The whole rule, on one screen.
$0 to your organization
Registration, parade operations, vendors, volunteers, reporting, and help building your first year. No platform charge.
8% of each registration
Paid by the participant at checkout. Never less than $5 or more than $60, and the same on every event in your season.
One Service & Processing Fee per sponsorship
One sponsorship purchase carries one Service & Processing Fee, however many spaces or events it includes.
Free entries are free
An entry your organization makes free, with its reason on record, carries no fee at all. Ceremonial and civic guests, public safety units, school and youth performers, a grand marshal, a courtesy comp: record why, and it costs nobody anything.
One line, two ways to pay, your call on who carries it.
One Service & Processing Fee
Participants see one line at checkout, the Service & Processing Fee. It combines the Karsenics fee and Stripe's actual cost for the way they pay, with nothing added to Stripe's part. Directly under it they read that it covers processing their payment and running their registration, and that your organization does not keep it.
Card or US bank account
Participants pay by card or straight from a US bank account through Stripe. Card is the listed price. Paying from a bank account costs less to process, so the total is lower, and the checkout shows the difference as a saving. There are no checks.
You decide who carries it
For each event you pick one of three settings. It changes who pays the fee, never how much it is.
Pass
The participant pays the whole fee and you receive your full price. This is the default.
Split
The participant pays half of the fee and you cover the other half.
Absorb
The participant pays your price and never sees the fee. You cover all of it.
A $250 registration, fee passed to the participant
| Card | US bank account | |
|---|---|---|
| Your price | $250.00 | $250.00 |
| Service & Processing Fee | $28.37 | $23.69 |
| Participant pays | $278.37 | $273.69 |
| You receive | $250.00 | $250.00 |
Stripe's rates as published on stripe.com. If Stripe changes them, these numbers change with them.
The details, stated plainly.
Is there a subscription, a setup fee, or a charge per staff seat?
No. Your organization pays nothing to use the platform, add staff, or have us help build your first year. Karsenics is paid through the per-registration fee.
Is the fee the same on every event?
Yes. 8% of what the participant pays for each registration, never less than $5 or more than $60, on every event in your season. A free registration carries no fee. If your agreement sets a different rate for a particular event, it says so in writing.
What happens when we comp someone?
An entry your organization makes free, with its reason on record, carries no fee at all. Ceremonial and civic guests, public safety units, school and youth performers, a grand marshal, a courtesy comp: record why, and it costs nobody anything.
Who handles refunds and payment disputes?
Participants pay by card or from a US bank account, straight into your organization's own Stripe account, and it reaches your bank on Stripe's payout schedule. Your organization issues refunds and handles payment disputes. The Service & Processing Fee is not refunded when your organization refunds a participant, except as our Refund and Cancellation Policy describes.
Does Karsenics ever hold our money?
No. Participants pay into your organization's own Stripe account. Karsenics never holds your funds, and card and bank account numbers never reach us.
What is the Community Growth Fund?
Karsenics PBC allocates 20% of net profit, calculated after founder compensation, to the Community Growth Fund, shared by organizations according to their completed, non-refunded registrations. The first distribution is after year five, then every third year.
Where are the rules written down?
In our Refund and Cancellation Policy and Platform Terms of Use, which every participant agrees to before they pay.
We'll walk through the fees against your real events.
Bring last year's registration numbers and we'll show you exactly what participants would see at checkout and what lands in your account.