With Funraise, you can accept DAF donations right on your website or Campaign Site with the DAFpay payment method from Chariot. This native integration with Chariot is available for all plans.
What is a DAF (Donor Advised Fund)?
A DAF (Donor Advised Fund) is a charitable account managed by a sponsoring organization (like Fidelity Charitable or Schwab Charitable). With a DAF, a donor donates directly to their DAF fund and then the donor can later direct those funds (grant them) to your organization.
Activate DAFpay with Funraise
DAF donations with Funraise are made possible through a partnership with Chariot. While it's not required, we recommend creating your Chariot account before activating DAF payments with Funraise.
1. In Settings > Gateways > Click Connect with Chariot
2. Enter your Contact Email Address > Click Connect with Chariot
This contact email will be used by Chariot to communicate with you about your Chariot account.
☝️ Your organization's EIN is used to connect with Chariot
When you connect with Chariot, your organization's EIN will be used to match with Chariot's verified database of DAF-eligible organizations.
It's possible that your EIN is not yet listed with Chariot. If so, you'll will receive an error at this step and you can follow Chariot's instructions to verify your organization before returning to this step. Chariot's verification process generally takes one business day.
Your organization's EIN can be managed in Settings > Your Organization.
3. Add DAFpay to a Giving Form — Once you're connected with Chariot, you can add DAFpay to any Giving Form by accessing the Giving Form > Settings > Payments > Payment Methods
DAFpay on Giving Forms
Once added to a Giving Form, DAFpay appears as an additional donation method at the bottom of the first screen of the form. When a donor selects to give via DAFpay, the DAFpay flow will launch on top of the form.
Just like all other Funraise Giving Form flows, DAFpay is an intuitive experience on all device sizes. Donors will select select their DAF provider, log in, and grant an amount, all in one seamless flow on your website ✨
Manage DAFpay transactions
You'll see DAF donations in Funraise in your Transactions section, just like all other transaction types. DAF donations will have a payment method of Donor Advised Fund.
DAF Transacton Statuses
A DAF transaction can take some time to process. When a new DAF transaction is created, it will start in a Pending status. As the payment progress through the verification and approval process, the status will be updated in Chariot and those status updates will sync with Funraise.
In some cases, you may need to manual update the Status of a payment in Chariot. For example, marking a check disbursement as Completed after you have received a paper check. Any status update in Chariot will be synced with Funraise.
DAFpay acknowledgement email
The human donor (the supporter that granted the amount from their DAF account) will receive an acknowledgement email, confirming that their DAF grant is processing.
☝️ The logo, sender, and subject for these acknowledgement emails comes from the Giving Form receipt email settings.
When the DAFpay transaction status is updated to Complete, the human donor will receive an email confirming their grant has been received.
It's good to know that this email is just an acknowledgement email letting the human donor know the status of their DAF grant — this email is not a donation receipt. Technically, the donor already donated the funds to their DAF and can receive a donation receipt from the DAF institution. The DAF acknowledgment email text is not customizable.
☝️ Is the DAF or the Human the donor?
Technically, the charitable institution of the DAF account is the donor. The supporter that will be connected with a DAF transaction is the charitable institution, not the human donor. The human donor that granted from their DAF account to your organization is connected to the transaction via a Soft-Credit.
That means when a DAF transaction is created, a supporter with an Institution Type of Donor Advised Fund will be created / connected with the Transaction.
If you're new to DAFs, this may seem odd, but this is the standard way to track and account for DAF donations.
Receiving DAFpay funds & disbursements
Your organization will receive all DAFpay payments from each DAF provider directly, as they arrive, usually via electronic transfer or mailed check. Like all other payment methods, Funraise does not disburse funds to your bank account.
DAF disbursements are unique and you'll want to learn more about how your funds are received and how long it usually takes to receive funds.
DAFpay fees
There is no cost to activate DAFpay with Funraise. Transaction fees are only incurred when a DAFpay transaction is created on your Giving Form. Similar to other payment types there are two fees: platform fees and processing fees.
Platform fee | 2% |
Processing fee | Starting at 2.9% |
Platform fees are standard and always 2%.
Processing fees are generally 2.9%, but can be lower with a paid Chariot plan. To learn more about processing fee options contact Chariot at contact@givechariot.com
All DAFpay fees are assessed by Chariot — this includes both the platform fee and the processing fee. Although Funraise does not assess DAFpay fees directly, you can view the Platform Fee Amount for each transaction in Funraise. Similar to other payment methods, you will not be able to view the processing fee amount in Funraise.
For DAFpay detailed fee reporting, we recommend reporting from your Chariot account, where the full fee amounts are available.
☝️ DAFpay fees are unlike other transaction types
DAFpay is not eligible for Donors Cover Fees
DAFpay fees are not based on your Funraise plan
DAFpay fees are not based on your organization's Funraise plan and do not follow the standard Donor's Cover Fees model. This is because, a donor does not have the opportunity to cover fees when submitting a DAFpay transaction.
Good to know
One-time frequency only
DAFpay transactions can only be a one-time frequency and can not be a recurring frequency.
Is a Chariot account required?
No, but it's free and will unlock additional reporting and functionality including access to a direct deposit account for your DAF funds. We highly recommend claiming your Chariot account.
DAFpay does not have the same features as other payment flows
Because DAFpay launches into a self-contained modal from the first screen of your form, some Giving Form features are not available with DAFpay transactions.
Giving Form features that are not available with DAFpay include:
Tickets
Premiums
Multiple Allocations (A default Allocation can be applied, but a donor can not select from a list of Allocations when making a DAFpay donation).
Recurring Frequency
Dedications, Comments, Company Match
Anonymous
Donors Cover Fees
Custom Questions
Required Address or Phone numbers and some contact information details
Communication Opt-ins
onInfoEvent Handler
DAFpay transactions will send a webhook when the transaction is created or edited. DAFpay transaction on a Giving Form will run the onSuccess and onFailure Event Handler.
DAFpay and peer-to-peer fundraising
When a DAFpay transaction is made to a peer-to-peer fundraiser's page, the fundraiser is not credited as a soft-credit as is the case will other transaction types. This is because a transaction can only have one soft-credit assignment. For DAF transactions, the "human" donor that granted the funds from their DAF account is the supporter that will be assigned a soft-credit for that transaction.
DAFpay and Campaign Site progress bars
When a DAFpay transaction is created, it will start in a Pending status, which means it will not appear immediately on a Campaign Site progress bar — only Complete transactions are applied to a progress bar. When the DAF transaction is received and the status is updated to Complete, the transaction can then appear on a progress bar.
DAFpay is only available to U.S.-based nonprofit organizations
DAFpay by Chariot is available exclusively to U.S.-based 501(c)(3) organizations and IRS-recognized public charities. Learn more about eligibility requirements.
How long does it take to receive the DAF gift that was initiated on the giving form?
Here is a full list of timelines by fund. Note, there are both electronic fund transfers and paper check grants and the timing between the two will be different.
When will the donation status in Funraise change from Pending to Complete?
If the payer is sending the funds directly into the nonprofits chariot account the gift will automatically be marked as complete.
In the case of electronic payments, typically it takes a few days to a week for the status to change.
If the payer is sending the funds outside of your chariot account, you will need to manually mark the gift as complete in Chariot.
In these cases electronic payment can take up to a week, mailed checks can take 3-6 weeks