GOCARDLESS GUIDE

Taking and managing donations with GoCardless

GiveGiftAid connects to your charity's own GoCardless account. GoCardless runs the regulated payment flow and holds the money; GiveGiftAid gives you the donation page, supporter records, regular-giving controls and Gift Aid tools.

Before you start

Live or Sandbox?

Live connects your real GoCardless account and collects real donations at givegiftaid.uk. Sandbox connects a GoCardless Sandbox (test) account at givegiftaid.uk/sandbox: everything works the same, but no money moves. They're separate workspaces with their own page address, supporters, payments and Gift Aid records, and nothing is shared between them.

Many charities set up Sandbox first to practise, then connect Live when they're ready. Compare Live and Sandbox.

1 · Connect

Connect your live GoCardless account

  1. On givegiftaid.uk, choose Connect your charity.
  2. Choose Continue securely with GoCardless. There's no form to fill in. New to GoCardless? Sign up on the GoCardless page that opens. Already use GoCardless? Sign in.
  3. Your donation page uses the organisation name on your GoCardless account, at an address made from it (for example givegiftaid.uk/riverside-trust). You can change the address later in Account & data.
  4. Approve GiveGiftAid's access. GiveGiftAid uses GoCardless's secure connection (OAuth), so your GoCardless password is never given to GiveGiftAid.
  5. You return to your dashboard. Open the GoCardless account panel and wait for Verified and Payments enabled. Donations are blocked until GoCardless has verified your account.
Already have supporters in GoCardless? Their customer records, mandates, subscriptions and payments are brought into Donors automatically. Payments taken outside GiveGiftAid are held for Gift Aid review rather than claimed automatically.
1 · Connect (testing)

Connect a GoCardless Sandbox account

  1. Create a free Sandbox account at manage-sandbox.gocardless.com ↗. It's separate from any live GoCardless account.
  2. On givegiftaid.uk/sandbox, choose Connect your charity. The form is already set to Sandbox (testing).
  3. Continue to GoCardless and sign in with your Sandbox account.
  4. Your Sandbox page is named after your Sandbox organisation, at givegiftaid.uk/sandbox/your-charity-name.

Your Sandbox dashboard shows a yellow Sandbox workspace banner on every page. To log back in, choose Charity login on givegiftaid.uk/sandbox, or pick Sandbox (testing) on the login page.

2 · Collect

Take one-off and regular donations

Supporters give from your donation page. A one-off gift is paid instantly by bank transfer (Pay by Bank). A regular gift takes a first payment now and sets up a Direct Debit for future payments.

Supporters approve payments on pages hosted by GoCardless and their bank. GiveGiftAid never asks them for online-banking details, and doesn't see or store full bank account numbers.

3 · Donors

See everything about a supporter in one place

Open Donors in your dashboard to see each supporter's payment method, mandates, regular giving, payments and Gift Aid together. Activity started directly in GoCardless (for example a payment you created there) is picked up from GoCardless's notifications, so the two stay in step.

From a donor you can set up, edit, pause, resume or cancel regular giving where GoCardless allows it. Changes are made in GoCardless, not just shown in GiveGiftAid.

5 · Status & refunds

Track payments and issue refunds

Payment and mandate statuses update from GoCardless automatically. On a collected payment, Refund via GoCardless sends the refund through GoCardless after you confirm. Record manual refund notes a refund you made some other way.

If a refunded or failed payment was already in a Gift Aid claim, GiveGiftAid flags the correction to make in your next claim.

6 · Gift Aid

Gift Aid is separate from collecting payments

Gift Aid is a record GiveGiftAid keeps for you; it doesn't change anything in GoCardless. Donations made on your GiveGiftAid page follow the supporter's declaration. Payments taken directly in GoCardless wait in the Gift Aid review list. Only payments covered by a declaration can be included. For the rest, request a declaration from the supporter in one click. How Gift Aid review works.

7 · Troubleshooting

If something doesn't match GoCardless

Open your dashboardBrowse the Help Centre