Checkout FAQ

The new checkout experience is a combination of new merchant account settings and new form data elements that together provide a dynamic, secure, and PCI v4-compliant payment transaction for your donation forms. These updates require a Blackbaud Payment Services (BBPS) account to process and disburse credit and debit card payments.

In addition to credit and debit card, direct debit, and offline payments, the new experience also includes Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo digital wallets. Sustaining (recurring) payments, designated giving, giving levels, tributes, and premium fraud management continue to be supported with the new checkout experience.

You may continue to use your current BBPS and Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS) accounts if you have them. If you need to create new accounts see Getting Started with Blackbaud Merchant Services. Whether you are using new or existing accounts, you will need to configure a new Payment Capabilities in Luminate Online.

Once your payment configuration is set up, replace your old Payment Type data element with the new Checkout modal (available October 2024) or Checkout embedded data elements (available November 2024). Checkout modal is an iFrame window that opens when the donor or participant is ready to make a payment. Checkout embedded is seamlessly integrated into your form design. These new data elements are familiar, easy to use, and more attractive than the older element.

Note: The only part of your form that will change is the payment section. You will replace the Payment Type data element with the new Checkout modal or Checkout embedded element. These new elements will replace your payment fields. All other sections of your form are unaffected.

Note: Initially, checkout will support single transactions with PayPal, with support for recurring PayPal transactions coming soon. Currently, Venmo only supports USD and single transaction processing.

Tip: Style customization is available in the data element configuration. Also, you can apply custom built payment solutions such as DAF Pay, or other customizations such as recurring gift upsells, either before or after the new payment section within your form.

The new Checkout modal data element will be available October 2024. The new Checkout embedded data element will be available November 2024. Designing and implementing new options and improvements will continue even after March 2025.

Note: All active forms must use the new checkout experience for transactions when the new PCI v4 standards take effect in March 2025.

• Centrally Managed Payment Methods: Every payment type you accept can be included under one merchant account. A single account for direct debit, credit and debit cards, and digital wallets makes management easy and efficient.

• Centrally Managed Payment Processing: End-to-end donation flow from checkout to disbursement is available when using BBMS merchant accounts with the new checkout experience.

• More Payment Options: Checkout supports a wide range of payment methods, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo, direct debit, and credit and debit cards.

  Note: Initially checkout will support single transactions with PayPal, with support for recurring PayPal transactions coming soon. Currently, Venmo only supports USD and single transaction processing.

  Note: The Checkout Modal in the 24.4 release in October 2024 does not include options for donors to select check or cash payments. This is coming in the 24.5 release in Nov 2024 as well as many other features and enhancements.

• Improved Form Design: Forms are responsive and mobile-first. Get a modern and intuitive interface with either the embedded or modal checkout data element.

• No Downtime: Collect more with zero downtime.

• Optimized Payment Capture: More payment methods equal more choice, which translates to higher conversion rates raising your revenue. Blackbaud continually runs A/B tests to improve these conversion rates and optimize the donor experience.

• Reduced Processing Fees: Donor Cover and Complete Cover are coming soon to the new checkout experience!

• Secure By Design: Checkout adheres to the highest standards of payment security, being fully PCI-compliant. This ensures that all payment transactions processed meet rigorous security protocols, including encryption, tokenization, and secure data handling practices, and premium fraud management.

Yes! Checkout supports Apple Pay and Google Pay for single and recurring transactions. Initially checkout will support single transactions with PayPal, with support for recurring PayPal transactions coming soon. Currently, Venmo only supports USD and single transaction processing.

Tip: To accept PayPal and Venmo transactions, you must link your PayPal business account to your BBMS account. Getting started is quick and easy. See How to set up PayPal (and Venmo) with Blackbaud Merchant Services.

Note: The new standards and requirements only apply to forms that are published and actively accepting transactions. Start with the forms that will be active from the beginning of March to the end of June 2025. This may decrease the number of forms you need to address as you decide how you want to apply the new features.

Reviewing and updating your forms is a big job, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Use the project guide below start making a plan that works for you. We recommend the following approach.

1. Identify your needs. Make a list or calendar of campaigns, events, and communications you know you are expecting from March through June 2025. What donation forms do you need for those? These are the priority.

2. Review your existing forms. Use the Donations by Form report to identify forms that both are effective and apply to those March through June 2025 priorities. These are the forms to update. This also identifies the need for any new forms.

   Tip: New eLearning is available! See Auditing Active Donation Forms.

3. If you do not have BBMS and BBPS accounts, create them. See Get Started with Blackbaud Merchant Services.

   Tip: New eLearning is available! See Understanding Secure Payment Processing / Blackbaud Luminate Online.

4. Your new merchant account(s) can now be imported in Luminate Online. Configure your new payment configurations. See Payment Capabilities.

5. Update your donation forms. Edit the form to select the correct merchant account and replace the legacy Payment Type data element with a Checkout data element. These are the only two items that require an update.

   Tip: You may add the new data element without removing the existing Payment Type data element. When both data elements are present, and the selected merchant account supports the upgraded checkout, only the Checkout modal data element is used. Having the Payment Type data element present will allow you to roll back changes more easily if you decide you are not ready for the switch.

6. If you have API forms, you must update your corresponding shadow form and adjust your code to call the new checkout API methods. See the Checkout overview in the API docs for more details.

1. Select Fundraising and Donation Management.

2. Select Donation Report and Create a new report.

3. Select Donations by Form and Go. By default, all forms are selected.

4. When you are returned to the Donation Reports list, the new report’s status is Queued.

5. Select Refresh Report List to update the status. When the status is Completed, select Download under Actions. This provides you with a csv file of the report to track your audit and action items.

Tip: You can also use the report to identify API forms. If you have API forms you must update your corresponding shadow form and adjust your code to call the new checkout API methods. More details are coming soon to the API documentation.

Currently, PayPal and Venmo are not available for recurring gifts. If you are using a merchant account with a PayPal and Venmo configuration on a form that has recurring payments enabled, the PayPal and Venmo payment options will be hidden.

Note: TeamRaiser Delayed Self Pledges are processed as recurring gifts. Therefore, PayPal and Venmo are hidden on TeamRaiser forms allowing Delayed Self Pledge.

The new checkout includes reCAPTCHA v3 or later. You no longer need to add the Captcha data element or survey question on form pages with a checkout data element. The Checkout modal and Checkout embedded data elements automatically provide reCAPTCHA v3 or later coverage.

On a multi-page donation form, you can still use the Captcha data element on pages of the form that do not have a checkout data element.

Yes, but you need to create a new payment configuration in Luminate Online. See Payment Capabilities.

• Each donation form belongs to a donation campaign, and each donation campaign is associated with a Luminate Online merchant account. To change the merchant account on a donation form:

  1. Select Fundraising and Donation Management.

  2. Edit a campaign on the list.

  3. Open Choose Financial Options and select a merchant account.

  4. Save your changes.

• TeamRaisers are associated with a donation form and the donation form is associated with a donation campaign. That donation campaign is assigned a merchant account. To change the merchant account on a TeamRaiser, change the merchant account on the associated donation campaign.

  To change the donation form associated with a TeamRaiser:

  1. Select Fundraising and TeamRaiser.

  2. Edit a TeamRaiser on the list.

  3. Open Select Fundraising Options and select a Donation Form.

  4. Save your changes.

1. Select Fundraising, Donation Management, and All Donation Forms.

2. Edit a donation form on the list.

3. Select Design Donor Screens and Edit the Donation Form screen.

4. Select Payment Type under Arrange the order of selected data elements and select Remove.

   

   Tip: You may add the new data element without removing the existing Payment Type data element. When both elements are present and the selected merchant account supports the upgraded checkout, the form uses the Checkout element. Having the Payment Type element present will allow you to roll back changes more easily if you decide you are not ready for the switch.

5. Select Checkout modal under Select data elements to include in this form and select Add.

   

6. Position the data element where you want it in the form by selecting the element name and using the Order arrows.

   

7. Select Save Order and Edit Selected.

   

8. Select your checkout configurations and Preview or Save your changes.

   

Our first release of the new checkout experience in October 2024 will include Online Giving donation forms and online TeamRaiser registration forms. With later releases, all Luminate Online applications that process transactions (e.g., eCommerce, and ticketing) will use the new checkout experience.

Yes! The Checkout modal data element (available October 2024) configuration allows you to select a primary color to match your branding. The Checkout embedded data element (available November 2024) allows you to select a primary color, secondary color, font color, and font family.

No. Payment Card Industry requirements do not apply to ACH.

If you currently process ACH transactions with a direct payment gateway such as iATS or Payflow Pro, you can continue to do so. However, all credit and debit card transactions will require the new checkout via BBMS with native direct debit support. You cannot have the new checkout experience and your legacy checkout experience on the same form. Going forward any form that allows credit and debit card payments will not support third party gateways such as iATS or PayflowPro.

Tip: We recommend that you migrate your direct debit recurring gifts from your current direct payment gateway to BBMS to consolidate your payment processing vendors, reconciliation, reporting, and admin processes. Processing all your transactions through your BBMS account allows you to take advantage of all the new payment features and capabilities. This is a single, end-to-end solution for credit and debit card, direct debit, and digital wallet transactions.

Warning: If you do not migrate your existing direct debit recurring gifts to BBMS, you will have to maintain two workflows. The first for all existing direct debits to be run with your direct connect payment gateway, and the second for all new direct debit transactions that will be processed with your BBMS account.

Existing forms will continue to work with existing configurations through 2024 Q4 and up to the compliance deadline date in March 2025.

Currently, PayPal and Venmo are not available for recurring gifts. If you use a merchant account with a PayPal and Venmo configuration on a form that has recurring payments enabled, the PayPal and Venmo payment options are hidden.

Note: TeamRaiser Delayed Self Pledges process as recurring gifts. Therefore, PayPal and Venmo are hidden on TeamRaiser forms allowing Delayed Self Pledge.

Support for PayPal recurring gifts is coming soon.

The new checkout includes reCAPTCHA v3. You no longer need to add the Captcha data element or survey question on form pages with a checkout data element. The Checkout modal and Checkout embedded data elements include reCAPTCHA v3 or later coverage.

On a multi-page donation form, you can still use the Captcha data element on pages of the form that do not have a checkout data element.

Some API methods will change, and some new methods will be introduced as required by PCI v4 updates. See the Checkout overview in the API docs for more details.