What Should I Do If a Donor’s Credit Card Fails?

Don’t worry! We make it easy to collect these donations.

There may come a time when you put on a fundraiser where donations are not charged immediately. For instance, an a-thon experience where donations are charged per unit of activity after the event concludes, or an auction where the winning bid is charged at the end of the fundraiser.

Since their credit card isn’t charged until later, the transaction may fail if:

  • The limit on their card that was reached before the donation charge
  • The card expired between when their donation/bid/pledge was placed and when the transaction was charged
  • They froze their account as a result of misplacing their card

Thankfully, you have some options! If this happens, both the donor and organizer receive an email notification that the payment has failed. Donor and/or experience organizers can retry the payment directly from the email in just a few clicks.

What donors can expect 

If a donor makes one of the donations mentioned above, but their transaction fails:

  • They will receive an email from RallyUp informing them that their donation did not reach the organization
  • In the email, a link to a donation page is provided to remake their donation quickly
  • From the donation page, payment information can be edited, if necessary, and the donation resubmitted.

It’s that simple.


How donors can resubmit their donation

  1. In the notification email sent from RallyUp, click the Update Information and Complete Payment button. 
  2. From this page, click SUBMIT PAYMENT* to use the payment information initially entered. 
  3. Click EDIT under the ‘payment method’ section to enter new credit card information.
  4. Click SUBMIT PAYMENT.

What experience organizers can expect

When it comes to the experience organizer, they have full transparency into what is going on. When a donation on an experience fails, the organizer: 

  • Will receive an email notification of the failed payment(s) on their fundraiser
  • Can click the link in the email to view the failed payments
  • Will receive an email notification when a donation is successfully remade. 

How the organizer can retry the failed charge for the donor

Not only can the donor retry their donation after a failed transaction, but so can the organizer! Here’s how: 

  1. Click on the link VIEW FAILED PAYMENTS’ link in the email or go to View Donations* in your experience management menu.
  2. Under the Status column, filter for failed payments.
  3. Hover your mouse over the donation you want to resubmit. In the three-dotted menu at the right of the row, click Update Payment Information.
  4. You can submit using the previous payment information or enter new payment information in the box that appears.
  5. Click RESUBMIT PAYMENT.

Done and done. 

Give your donors a nudge 

If you want to remind your donors of the failed payment to encourage a resubmission, organizers can resend donors the “Failed payment notification” email! Just click on the 3 dotted menu on the ‘View Donations’ page. Keep in mind that this will only appear in the menu for payments that are in ‘Failed’ status.

Have more questions?

We’re here to help! Our team is available via chat during normal business hours. Just hit the purple message button in the bottom right of your screen.

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