What is Tap to Pay for organisations?

Tap to Pay turns your organisation's phone into a contactless payment terminal, right inside the Donoor app. The donor holds their bank card, phone or watch near your phone, and the donation is collected in a few seconds, with no card machine to buy and no reader to plug in.

Despite its name, Tap to Pay also works on compatible Android phones.

When to use Tap to Pay

Tap to Pay is for taking a donation in person, from a donor who would rather pay by card: collections, drop-in sessions, stands, fêtes, galas or markets. QR codes and payment links are for when donors pay on their own, from their own phone.

The three can be combined. For a detailed comparison, read Payment link, QR code or donation page: which one should you use?

Compatible phones and activation

What you need

• A connected, activated Stripe account: Tap to Pay only works through Stripe. If your organisation has only connected PayPal, activate Stripe first.
• Your organisation's address, filled in under Settings › Organisation in the dashboard: without it, the app asks you to add it.
• A compatible phone: an iPhone XS or later running iOS 16.4 or later, or an Android phone with NFC (the contactless chip) running Android 11 or later. Details in Which iPhone is compatible with Tap to Pay?
• Precise location, allowed for Donoor: it is a security requirement for contactless payments.
• An internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data) when you take the payment.

Activating Tap to Pay step by step

You only need to activate it once per phone.

1. Download the Donoor app from the App Store or Google Play, then log in.
2. Tap Collect, the centre button in the bottom bar. The first time, a short introduction appears.
3. Tap Activate Tap to Pay. If Stripe is not active yet, the app offers Connect Stripe instead.
4. Allow location access and choose precise location. If you refused it or only granted approximate location, Open settings takes you to the right place.
5. On Android, if the app reports that NFC is turned off, turn it on in the phone's quick settings.

Good to know: the very first connection of a phone sets it up with Stripe and can take a few minutes (“Configuring reader…” on iPhone, “First-time setup…” on Android). Keep the app open, and do it before the big day rather than in front of your first donor.

Taking a donation step by step

1. Tap Collect, then type the amount on the keypad or use the €5, €10, €20 and €50 shortcuts.
2. If the donor would like a receipt, tap the Email chip and enter their address: the receipt is sent automatically after the payment.
3. If the donor agrees to cover the fees, tap the Fees chip: the screen shows the total to pay, and your organisation receives the amount you entered.
4. Tap Tap to Pay on iPhone (or Charge on Android). When the button reads “Hold the card near”, hold the phone out to the donor.
5. The donor holds their card, phone or watch near it until the confirmation signal, then the screen confirms the payment.

Tip: on iPhone, hold the phone flat, screen facing the donor: the card is read at the top, near the camera. On Android, it is held against the back of the phone, near the NFC antenna.

Payment fees apply to every card payment. When the donor does not cover them, they are deducted from the amount your organisation receives. See Can donors cover the fees?

Receipts, tracking and the money

If you did not enter the email address before the payment, the confirmation card offers Send a tax receipt if your organisation issues tax receipts on Donoor, or Send a receipt by email otherwise. Enter the address and tap Send; Edit email then lets you fix a typo. The donation is also linked to the donor area for that address.

In the dashboard, open Fundraising › Donations and filter by the Tap to Pay source: every payment appears there with its date and amount. In a donation's details, the Collected by section shows which team member was holding the phone.

The money goes straight to your organisation's Stripe account: Donoor never holds the funds. It is then paid out automatically to your bank account, just like your online donations (see When do I receive donations?).

Letting your volunteers take payments

Each team member takes payments on their own phone, and several volunteers can do so at the same time.

1. In the dashboard, open Settings › Team, click Invite a member, enter their email address and choose the Volunteer role.
2. Once the invitation has been accepted, click the member and check that the Use Tap To Pay permission is ticked. Without it, the app shows “Payment collection not allowed”.
3. The volunteer installs the app, logs in, activates Tap to Pay and makes a test payment with a small amount before the big day.

These defaults can be adjusted member by member. If you untick the Tap to Pay permission, that person can no longer take payments: Donoor checks it on every payment.

Payment security

• Card data is encrypted and never stored on your phone: you never see the full card number, the security code or the donor's PIN.
• Depending on the amount or the card, the donor may need to enter their PIN on a secure keypad that appears on your phone, without you seeing what they type.
• On Android, Stripe refuses to take payments on a modified (rooted) phone, or when developer options, USB debugging, screen sharing or screen recording are active.

Good to know: the app includes help under Settings › Tap to Pay help, with, on iPhone with iOS 18 or later, Apple's Tap to Pay tutorial, which is handy for training your volunteers. To go further, follow the Tap to Pay course.

Key takeaways

• Tap to Pay works on an iPhone XS or later (iOS 16.4 minimum) and on Android with NFC (Android 11 or later), with no extra hardware.
• You need an active Stripe account, your organisation's address and precise location on the phone.
• The donor can cover the payment fees and receive their receipt by email.
• The money goes straight to your organisation's Stripe account, and every donation appears under Fundraising › Donations.
• Your volunteers take payments on their own phones, without seeing the amounts collected.