How do payment gateway integrations work?


This is especially important to understand when it comes to recurring (monthly) donations, or donations that are split into multiple payments paid over several months or years.

  • The communication between HiRaiser and your payment gateway happens behind the scenes via API only at the time of the submission.

  • HiRaiser sends a one-way, one-time request to your payment gateway at the time the transaction is submitted. The payment gateway sends a response informing that the payment has been charged (or declined if it fails, with the reason why.)  HiRaiser records the result.

  • Anything that happens after the initial submission is independent – what happens in your payment gateway account (Stripe, Authorize.net, or similar) happens only there, and what happens in HiRaiser stays in HiRaiser.

  • If anything needs to be updated, it would need to be done in both places.

What types of transactions might need to be updated?


  • Recurring payments that have failed or been cancelled
  • Changes to the amount of a payment
  • Refunds or cancelled payments due to error or another reason