How to refund a payment and what to do in case of a dispute?

You refund a donation, a ticket, a membership or a shop purchase in a few clicks, from that payment's record in your dashboard or in the Donoor app. A dispute is different: it is the donor who disputes the payment directly with their bank, and in that case Stripe or PayPal, never Donoor, makes the decision.

This article explains how to refund each type of payment, what happens when a donor sends you a refund request, and how to respond if a dispute is opened.

Who decides on a refund, and where

Three very different situations all involve the word "refund". Here is how to tell them apart:

Refunding a donation, a ticket, a membership or a purchase

Each payment is refunded from its own record:

From the record, the principle is the same everywhere:

1. Click Refund.
2. Choose Full (what remains to be refunded) or Partial (an amount you choose yourself, with shortcuts at 25%, 50% or 75%).
3. Enter a Reason if you wish: it stays in the payment's history, handy for remembering why later.
4. Click Confirm.

The donor receives a notification email and gets the money back on their original payment method, generally within 5 to 10 days. The same actions are available in the Donoor app (iOS and Android): open the record of the donation, ticket or member concerned.

Good to know: you can only refund what your association has actually received. If a donor also left a voluntary contribution to Donoor, Donoor refunds it automatically on its side: you never advance this money. The payment provider's fees, however, are never returned, whether or not a refund is issued.

If a refund request is sent to you

When a donor makes their request from their account (see how a donor requests a refund), it appears directly in the record of their donation, ticket or membership, along with its reason and their message. You can:

• Click Reply to write a message to the donor, without necessarily refunding yet;
• Click Refuse and explain why;
• Refund using the usual button: the request then closes automatically, with no further action.

The donor is informed by email at each reply and follows the exchange from their own account.

If the Stripe or PayPal balance is insufficient

A refund takes the money back from the balance of your Stripe or PayPal account. If that balance is insufficient, for example because the money has already been transferred to your bank account, the refund is blocked. A Receive a donation to top up button lets you make a donation to yourself from your payment link, to rebuild the balance before trying again.

Payments collected outside the platform

A membership fee paid in cash, by cheque or by bank transfer never went through Stripe or PayPal. The refund works in the same way (open the record, Refund, Full or Partial), but with two important differences.

Important: for a payment collected outside the platform, no refund email is sent to the donor and no transfer is under way: it is up to you to return the sum to them directly, in person.

Cancelling an event

If you need to cancel an event, open its record and click Cancel event. Tickets sold are cancelled (they are no longer valid for entry) and all attendees are notified by email.

Important: cancelling an event does not automatically refund the tickets. You then refund each ticket (or each order) from the event's record, just as for a standard refund.

Dispute: when a donor disputes with their bank

A dispute (also called a "chargeback") is not a request sent by the donor from their account: it is a challenge made directly to their bank. Stripe or PayPal then takes back the donation amount, and may charge dispute fees. This decision comes from the payment provider and the donor's bank, never from Donoor.

As soon as a dispute is opened, a Dispute to settle banner appears on your dashboard and in the Donoor app, showing the amount to settle and a link to the donation concerned. In the meantime:

• Your donations continue to arrive as normal;
• Your bank transfers are paused while the debt is rebuilt from your incoming donations, then resume automatically;
• The Dispute button sends you directly to the dispute area of Stripe or PayPal (not Donoor): this is where you submit your evidence.

If you win the dispute, everything is returned to you, including any fees.

Good to know: however a donation is refunded (by you, by an accepted request or after a dispute), the tax receipt already issued for that donation is automatically cancelled. If only a partial refund remains, a new receipt can be issued for the amount still eligible for tax relief.

To understand how refunded money affects your next transfers, see when you receive donations and transaction fees. The rights to refund depend on what your association has authorised for each member: see inviting your team and managing their rights.

Key takeaways

• A donation, ticket, membership or purchase is refunded from its own record: Fundraising › Donations, Ticketing, Memberships or Shop.
• You only refund what your association has received; the contribution to Donoor and the provider's fees follow separate rules.
• A payment collected in cash, by cheque or by bank transfer is refunded in person, with no automatic email.
• Cancelling an event does not automatically refund the tickets: it is a separate step.
• A bank dispute is decided by Stripe or PayPal, not Donoor: your donations keep arriving and your transfers resume once the debt is settled.