Manage Transactions

Email notifications

GiveDirect sends a variety of receipts and notifications to donors on your behalf. Automatic notifications reduce your workload, improve communications and provide a record keeping trail.

Transaction receipt emails can be customized, allowing you to make the donation receipt part of your overall donor communication and marketing strategy.

We also send a variety of information and confirmation notices to the charity. Some actions that trigger an email include:

  • A one-time donation or payment
  • A recurring transaction on the 15th the month (either successful or failed to process)
  • A change has been made to a recurring account
  • A transaction has been voided, refunded or received a returned item (chargeback or returned check)
  • A change has been made to the charity's account profile or to a user's account

Important tips

Email is not 100% reliable due to many possible connectivity issues and email spam filters. To ensure that GiveDirect emails are delivered to you, please add "givedirect.org" to your email software's safe list. All transactions can also be viewed in your GiveDirect Control Panel.

Note: The Control Panel records transactions in real time. However, a daily reconciliation of transactions is still required to ensure that all data was transferred completely and accurately from our gateway provider. There may be instances where a transaction, or data within a transaction, is delayed in "hitting" your Control Panel.

The GiveDirect platform allows for only one person in your organization to receive automatic email notifications. A general account such as info@, onlinegiving@, or donations@ is one way to give multiple personnel access to e-mail notifications. An alternate method of sharing GiveDirect correspondence is to set up a forwarding rule in your email software.

Samples of contribution email notices

General transaction email receipt

Confirmation sent for one-time donations or when a recurring donation is initially created. The notice sent to charities directs the charity to the control panel to see the complete transaction details.

Samples of recurring email notices

Recurring payment email receipt

Confirmation sent after a recurring payment is successfully processed - either monthly, quarterly, or annually. Charities receive one notice after all recurrings have been processed on the 15th of the month, and an individual notification if a recurring payment is processed after the batch run on the 15th.

Recurring declined notice

This notice is sent to the donor if a debit/credit card payment is declined while processing a recurring donation.

Recurring expired card notice

This notice is sent to the donor if the current card on file has expired. The donor is prompted to log into the Donor's Portal to submit a new expiration date.

Upcoming expiration date notice

This notice is sent to the donor 1 month before the card on file is set to expire.

Recurring cancellation Notice

GiveDirect will stop a recurring donation if the payment method is no longer valid. The notice sent to the donor and to the charity is tailored to the specific reason the payment method failed. The possible reasons are:

  • Invalid Card: This happens when a new credit card is issued. The old card number becomes invalid.
  • Expired Card: The donor is given 30 days after the card expires to update the expiration date before the donation is stopped.
  • Multiple Declines: If the card on file is declined 3 times, GiveDirect will stop the recurring payment until the payment method is updated.

Annual reminders

This is to remind annual donors that a payment will be processed next month and asks the donor to ensure that the payment method is still valid. The example shown is for a donor using a debit/credit card and has login credentials for the Donor's Portal. Similar emails are sent for donors who do not have login credentials or who use a Checking Account method of payment. Charities do not receive a copy of these emails.

Effective September 15, 2022, the annual reminder notice fulfills all Mastercard requirements for subscription payments.

Related: A step-by-step guide of the Donor's Portal