Association finds extra $23,000 a year in savings from merchant card fees

Organization supports school psychologists and school children

The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is a Bethesda, Maryland-based professional society that supports professionals concerned with the mental health and educational competence of children.

The Association depends on the Washington, DC.-based accounting firm, RAFFA PC, for auditing services. RAFFA specializes in serving non-profit clients. Because RAFFA is committed to assisting its clients with identifying opportunities to improve operations and financial results, the firm introduced NASP to Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA). RAFFA's accountants were confident that ERA Consultants could help NASP staff find ways to reduce expenses and therefore free up funds for mission-focused activities. They were right.


ERA analysts found ways to generate an additional $23,200 a year for NASP by reducing merchant card processing fees by an estimated 25%. That is money that can be put to far better use. It can be applied to $5,000 NASP Minority Scholarships for students enrolled in graduate programs in school psychology, or to $1,000 Graduate Student Research Grants, or to $150 "Tiny Grants for Kids" to purchase needed items such as clothing, book bags, eyeglasses, and school supplies.


RAFFA and Expense Reduction Analysts are independent members the BDO Seidman Alliance, a nationwide association of independently owned local and regional accounting and consulting firms sharing a dedication to exemplary client service. The BDO Seidman Alliance enhances member firm capabilities through the availability of supplementary professional services. For example, an accounting firm (RAFFA) invited a consulting company (ERA) to find cost savings opportunities for its association client (NASP).

New pricing negotiated NASP has annual sales of approximately $5 million. Much of the money is generated through membership dues, conference registration fees and publication subscriptions. Payments typically are received by credit card.

The multi-tier pricing structure that NASP had with its incumbent merchant card processor was in effect for a number of years and hadn’t been re-negotiated in a long time. Under the popular multi-tier pricing method, rates for transactions vary depending on how the credit card is processed (physically swiped through or manually keyed into a terminal or via the internet). The new vendor offered a cost-saving Interchange Plus price structure.

Under this pricing method, NASP pays a fixed mark-up –regardless of how the credit card is processed – plus the actual processing costs charged by MasterCard and Visa. The new pricing structure reduced the effective rate a significant 0.78%, from 3.07% to 2.29%.

Furthermore, Interchange Plus offers NASP complete transparency of transaction processing and pricing and also provides management with the necessary information to manage the controllable portion of merchant fees.


The BDO Seidman Alliance enabled all participants to work together for their mutual benefit while pursuing what each does best: the National Association of School Psychologists concentrated on supporting its members and school children, RAFFA helped its client sustain excellence, and Expense Reduction Analysts found extra funds for a non-profit. Your success story is waiting to be written. Get started lowering costs for your company.

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