PayPal works a little differently than regular payment processors.

With other payment processors, the experience is integrated via API (Application Programming Interface), so the communication with the credit card gateway happens behind the scenes. As far as the donor is concerned, the payment was submitted on your HiRaiser campaign/donate page.

PayPal does not offer full integration, so it works as follows:

  1. The donor completes the donation form on your HiRaiser campaign/donate page. 

  2. The HiRaiser system records a pledge, and sends the donor to PayPal to complete the transaction. 

  3. You receive a notification email of a PayPal pledge (transaction pending).

  4. The Donor makes the payment on PayPal, and is redirected back to your website.

  5. PayPal sends a payment confirmation to HiRaiser. HiRaiser marks it as paid, and you receive a second notification email confirming the payment.


If the donor does not complete the PayPal payment, you will be left with a pledge that has to be accounted for. If the donor immediately submits a successful donation (via PayPal or credit card), HiRaiser should automatically cancel the open pledge. If they do not do so, or they submit it at a later time, a decision needs to be made regarding how to handle the open pledge – either cancel it if they end up paying using a different method, or if they do not follow up to inquire if and how the donor would like to pay their pledge.


In such cases, you can use HiRaiser's automated PayPal Follow-Up Tool.