What to expect

By completing the steps in this document you will have a working solution that delivers as many of the following as you wish:

• online donations - one-off and recurring - by debit / credit card
• automated Gift Aid recovery on eligible donations

As a result of this you will have a centralised, cloud-based CRM that enables you and your colleagues to track and manage your fundraising.

Before you start: this is what you will need

For all the features you want to enable you will need to have some information to hand. It is assumed that you have a computer which is connected to the internet.

Donorfy

First things first, you will need to have created your Donorfy system. It only takes a few minutes - click here to create Donorfy Essentials or click here to create Donorfy Professional.

Already got Essentials but want to use Professional plan features (such Gift Aid claims and Opportunities)? - contact us to arrange an upgrade.

For online card donations

If you want to accept debit / credit card donations (one-off or recurring) you will need the login to your Stripe account if you have one. If not, you can set one up, in which case you'll need the details of the bank account into which you want Stripe to pay the funds raised. (Please note - Stripe retain transaction fees - please see their website for their fee structure).

You will also need:

• The URLs (if you have them) for your Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
• A logo with a transparent logo for your giving page, as well as the URLs for any other assets (eg videos, images) that you want to display on your page.

For Gift Aid recovery (Professional plan only)

You need to have first registered with HMRC to use Charities Online - more info.

• Sender ID (also known as a Government Gateway ID or a User ID) and Password.
• HMRC Reference - usually a 7 character reference starting with two letters followed by numbers.
• The name, address and phone number of the Authorised Official from your organisation.

Online Donations by credit/debit card

This enables you to take donations by payment card, either one-off or recurring. You will need to be signed into Donorfy as an Admin user.

Connecting Donorfy to your Stripe account

1. Go to Settings | Configuration and find Stripe Connect
2. Make sure you have something in the Statement Text field - this is the text that will appear on the donors' card statements.
3. Click on the blue Stripe button.
4. Follow the instructions to create a Stripe account, or link to an existing one if you already have an account.

Setting up a donation page

1. Click on the orange Add button towards top-left of the screen. Choose Campaign (under the Fundraising section).
2. Give the campaign a name in the Description field - eg "Spring Appeal 2021".
3. Select the current year from the dropdown.
4. Scroll down - under Transactions, select Donation from the Product dropdown, and General from the Fund dropdown.
5. Click the Save Changes button, top-right.
6. You should now have a number of tabs across the top of the page. Click on the Donation Page tab.
7. In the Page Title field, enter the title that will be displayed in bold at the top of your donation page.
8. In the Page Text area, enter the text and media that you want to appear at the top of your donation page.
9. Enter the URLs for your Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy page(s), assuming you have them. Leave blank if not. Don't forget the https:// or http:// at the beginning.
10. In the Thank You Page area, enter the text and media that you want to appear once the donation has been made.
11. In the Link from Thank You Page area, enter the URL of the page to which the donor will be taken once they click the Contiue button on the Thank You page - eg your home page. Don't forget the https:// or http:// at the beginning.
12. In the How The Donation Should Be Processed section, select your local currency, the bank account, and department.
13. Leave the Acknowledgement documents blank, and switch off the automatic acknowledgement option. The donor will receive a receipt from Stripe. If you want to explore sending a customised, personalised acknowledgement from Donorfy too then you will need to follow the instructions in this article.
14. In the Your Logo section you can upload a logo that will appear on the top-right of your donation form. TIP: choose a small logo to avoid the main part of the form being squashed.
15. Click on Save Changes, top-right.

Testing your donation page

1. The URL for your new donation page is shown at the top of the Campaign | Donation Page form. Copy the URL and paste it into another browser - one that isn't logged into Donorfy (depending on the browser it may not display when logged in).
2. Enter a one-off donation for £1.
3. After a few minutes go back into Donorfy to search for the constituent - you should be able to see the donation on his/her timeline as a Transaction. If you ticked the Gift Aid box you should also be able to see a Gift Aid Declaration.

You could also create a Transaction Payment List to monitor all the donations coming from this page (click the orange Add button, Under Lists | Transactions select Transaction Payment List and create a filter for the Campaign on which your page is based.

Gift Aid (Professional plan only)

To get started claiming Gift Aid on your donations you first need to register with HMRC to use 'Charities Online' - see this page for more information.

Once you have registered HMRC will provide you with a sender id and password in Donorfy go to Financial > Gift Aid - click on the Settings tab and complete the fields. 

Once you have entered your details click on Save Settings

To check you have entered a valid Sender id and Password click Test Sign On. If the test fails you will need to correct the Sender id and Password in Donorfy or verify with the HMRC.

Once the test has been successful, you can opt to toggle the Submit Gift Aid Claims to HMRC to Yes and then click on Save Settings. This will then ensure that your Gift Aid Claim follows the automated claim process in Donorfy. 

Donorfy will automatically start building up your claim as per How is a Gift Aid Claim compiled and submitted? Eligibility explained.

If you do not wish to claim Gift Aid at this time set the Submit Gift Aid Claims to HMRC to No.  This will stop the automatic claims that happen monthly and also any manual claims.  Once you are happy to proceed with your claims set this button to Yes