Payment Processing for Donation Forms

To align with PCI compliance standards, Blackbaud Merchant Services only stores the minimum information required to process a donation securely. Successful payment processing doesn't require the billing address.

Checkout process

The donation forms checkout processes payments in two steps — authorization and capture. Both must be successful to capture full donor details and send them to Blackbaud Merchant Services. Full donor details can vary depending on the payment method, and some digital wallets may still pass the donor's name to Blackbaud Merchant Services during the authorization step, depending on the wallet provider.

When a payment processes, it must reach authorization before capture can succeed or fail.

1. Authorization (Auth) validates the card, checks for fraud, and confirms funds are available.

2. Capture finalizes the donation by submitting the full form and donor data for settlement.