At a glance: Connect your organization’s Stripe account to accept one-time and recurring gifts, choose which payment methods donors can use, and enable donor self-service for recurring gifts.

Audience: Databank administrators

Estimated time: About 30 minutes, plus any Stripe verification time

With Stripe, donations go into your organization’s own Stripe account and Stripe pays them directly into your bank account. Databank continues to record gifts as usual, and donors can manage their recurring gifts through your portal.

Before you begin

Confirm you have a Databank login with administrator access.
Check whether your organization already has a Stripe account.
If creating a new Stripe account, have your legal organization name, EIN, bank account details, and authorized contact information ready.
Set aside about 30 minutes for setup.

Important: If your organization already has a Stripe account, do not create a new one. A second Stripe account will split payments, payouts, and reporting across multiple accounts.

If Stripe does not appear on Administration > Partner Credentials list, contact Databank support so it can be added before you begin.

Setup steps

Section 1. Connect your Stripe account

Path: Administration > Partner Credentials

Open the STRIPE entry on the Partner Credentials screen.
Choose one connection option:
- Connect an existing Stripe account to sign in to Stripe and approve Databank access.
- Set up a new Stripe account to complete Stripe onboarding for a brand-new account.
Enter Default Campaign and Default Segment. Both are required and are used when a payment arrives without its own campaign or segment, such as a payment taken directly inside Stripe.
Click Save.

If onboarding is interrupted: Return to the same screen and click Continue Stripe onboarding to finish the Stripe setup process.

How to verify

After saving, Databank displays your Stripe Account number and a connection status.

Ready to accept payments means setup is complete.
Onboarding is not finished means Stripe still needs more information.
Payouts are not enabled yet means payments can be accepted, but Stripe will hold funds until verification is complete.
Stripe has asked for more information means you should sign in to Stripe | Financial Infrastructure to Grow Your Revenue and complete the requested updates before Stripe’s deadline.

Once connected, two new menu items appear: Stripe Activity under Dashboard and your portal settings under Administration.

Section 2. Choose what donors can pay with

Path: Dashboard > Stripe Activity > Payment methods

The What donors are offered table is read live from your Stripe account. Select the payment methods you want to offer, then click Save payment methods.

Cards
Bank Account (ACH)
Cash App Pay
Apple Pay
Google Pay

Only payment methods marked as ready are shown for Databank donation forms. Other Stripe-supported methods are excluded if they would cause donor errors during checkout.

Apple Pay requires one additional setup step. Contact Databank support with the web address used for your donation forms so it can be registered with Stripe. Until then, Apple Pay stays hidden. Apple Pay only appears on supported Apple devices, and Google Pay only appears when the donor has it configured.

This setting applies across your Stripe account and affects all donation forms. Individual forms can still offer fewer methods.

Section 3. Put Stripe on your donation forms

Path: Forms > your donation form > Payment Settings

Set Payment Gateway to your Stripe entry.
Save the form once so Databank can load the payment methods enabled on your Stripe account.
Under Accepted payment methods, select the methods this form should offer.
Choose whether to enable Post Stripe payments automatically.
Save the form and make a small real test gift to confirm the full flow works correctly.

Automatic posting: When enabled, successful one-time gifts go directly into contributions instead of waiting on the Payments page. Recurring gifts and gifts that cannot be matched to an existing contact still wait for review.

Card brand checkboxes do not appear when using Stripe. Accepted card brands are controlled in your Stripe account, not on the Databank form. After testing, you can refund the test payment in Stripe.

Section 4. Set up the donor portal

Path: Administration > your portal settings

Your portal is where donors sign in to manage recurring gifts. Depending on your terminology, the menu may appear as Contact Portal, Donor Portal, or another label used by your organization.

Portal capability	Included with Stripe	Full Portal
View recurring gift details	INCLUDED	INCLUDED
Update payment method	INCLUDED	INCLUDED
Stop recurring gift	INCLUDED	INCLUDED
View payments and receipts	INCLUDED	INCLUDED
Giving history and receipts	NOT INCLUDED	INCLUDED
Pledge balances	NOT INCLUDED	INCLUDED
Edit contact details and preferences	NOT INCLUDED	INCLUDED
Change recurring gift amount	NOT INCLUDED	INCLUDED

Contact Databank if you want to enable the Full Portal. Without it, sections 3 and 4 of the portal settings screen remain inactive.

Portal settings by tab

General and portal access: Copy your portal link, set the support email address donors should use, and add a welcome message.
Branding: Upload your logo, set a square browser icon, and choose a theme color for buttons and links.
What members see and can change: Full Portal only. Control access to giving history, pledges, contact details, email preferences, meetings, and donor self-service actions.
Your custom fields: Full Portal only. Choose which custom fields donors can view and edit.
Giving again: Select a donation form or enter a web address so donors can use a Make a contribution button.
Emails: Edit the donor-facing messages used by the portal.

At the bottom of the Emails tab, you can adjust link expiration settings. Sign-in links expire after 10 minutes by default. Card notice links expire after 3 days by default. Leaving these fields blank uses the default values.

Use Preview portal at the top of the settings page to see the donor experience before going live.

What donors will see

Donors do not use passwords. They enter their email address on your portal page and receive a secure sign-in link.

Their recurring gift: amount, frequency, next payment date, and current payment method.
Update payment method: donors can add a card or use Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App Pay, or bank account payments when enabled.
Payments and receipts: donors can review successful payments and open receipts.
Stop recurring contribution: available when you allow it.
Make a contribution: opens the donation form you selected in portal settings.

Card details are entered into Stripe-hosted fields and go directly to Stripe. Databank does not store card details.

Emails sent to donors

The portal includes three donor emails, each with a button back to the portal. You can edit all three on the Emails tab and use Preview this email or Restore default as needed.

Sign-in link: sent when a donor requests access and when a new recurring gift starts.
Card expiring: sent about 30 days before the card on a recurring gift expires.
Payment failed: sent when a recurring payment does not succeed and the donor needs to update the payment method.

Your finance contact also receives email notifications when a gift declines or a bank payment is returned. Tell Databank support which address should receive those notices.

Save before previewing. The preview shows only saved content, and preview buttons do not open real donor links.

Day-to-day use in Databank

Path: Dashboard > Stripe Activity

This screen shows live subscriptions and recent payments, along with their related Databank records. At the top, you can see counts for active subscriptions, canceled subscriptions, and payments received over the last seven days.

What is on the Stripe Activity screen

Subscriptions: recurring gifts Stripe is billing, including donor name and related pledge. Row actions include Open in Stripe, Copy subscription ID, and Stop recurring gift.
Recent payments: payments recently collected by Stripe, along with receipts.
Payment methods: the same account-wide payment method settings described earlier.

How gifts and pledges behave

One-time gifts post through the normal process, or automatically if that setting is enabled.
Recurring gifts wait for someone to post the first payment, which creates the pledge.
After the first payment, Stripe collects future payments on schedule and Databank records them against the pledge.
Databank nightly charging does not process Stripe gifts, so donors are not charged twice.
Editing a pledge in Databank also updates Stripe. The change applies to the next payment and does not trigger an immediate charge.
The pledge screen shows what Stripe will bill for Stripe-based recurring gifts.

Post the first payment for recurring gifts promptly so the pledge is created without delay.

What remains in Stripe

Use Stripe | Financial Infrastructure to Grow Your Revenue for money-management tasks that stay in Stripe.

Payouts, payout schedules, and bank account details
Refunds and disputes
Receipts sent directly by Stripe
Recurring payment failure handling after repeated unsuccessful attempts

If Stripe eventually cancels a recurring subscription after repeated failures, Databank marks the related pledge inactive to match.

Good to know

Refunds made in Stripe are not automatically written back into Databank for gifts from your donation forms. Enter a negative contribution in Databank so totals stay aligned.
Recurring gift amount changes are not available to donors unless you have the Full Portal.
PayPal, Klarna, and Link are currently not available through Stripe donation forms.
Existing recurring donors on another payment provider continue unchanged. Saved card details cannot be moved into Stripe, so donors who want to switch must create a new Stripe recurring gift and you must stop the old pledge.
Bank payments can take a few days to clear and remain pending until the money arrives.

Related to

Stripe Payment Gateway Intergration