This article will walk you through the needed steps to enable SEPA in Fundraise Up, including the steps in Stripe to ensure that transactions are processed and handled appropriately. Additionally, it will explain the donor experience for donors giving via SEPA in your Checkout modal or on your Campaign Page.

Enabling SEPA in Stripe

In order for SEPA to work properly in Fundraise Up, it must be enabled in Stripe.

• Go to your Stripe dashboard,
• Click Settings,
• Scroll down and click Payment Methods,
• Choose to enable SEPA.

Disable Stripe's SEPA Emails

Stripe has a series of emails to assist with account verification and payment confirmation, which are unnecessary if you're using our SEPA solution as we allow you to customize versions of those emails right from Fundraise Up.

Failure to disable the Stripe SEPA email set will result in the donor receiving two sets of emails that will contain differing content.

Set your Statement Descriptor in Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up's SEPA flow uses Stripe's Creditor ID, meaning that the top-level label that will show up on bank statements will be Stripe Payments. As such, it's very important that you also ensure your Statement Descriptor in Fundraise Up is set to something identifiable to your organization, so that donors looking at their bank statements see a sub-label indicating that the Stripe Payments direct debit is to your particular organization. To set your Statement Descriptor in Fundraise Up:

• Go to the Fundraise Up dashboard,
• Click your name in the top right, and choose Settings from the dropdown menu,
• Click Account in the left hand menu,
• Scroll down and set your Statement Descriptor if not already set, then click the Save Changes button.

Enable SEPA in Fundraise Up

To enable SEPA payments in Fundraise Up, your Fundraise Up account must be connected to a Stripe account based in any of the following countries:

If your Fundraise Up account is connected to a Stripe account based in any of these countries, the Payment Methods screen will provide options for the enabling of SEPA. You can enable SEPA by following these steps:

• Go to the Fundraise Up dashboard,
• Click your name in the top right, and choose Settings from the dropdown menu,
• Click Payment Methods in the left hand menu,
• Click Enable for SEPA (UK Direct Debit),
• Confirm that you've done the following, as instructed on the setup screen and as covered above:
  • disabled Stripe's default SEPA emails,
  • enabled SEPA within Stripe,
  • and set your Statement Descriptor on the Account page of Settings.
• Click the Enable SEPA button to start allowing donors with EU bank accounts to donate directly from those bank accounts using your Fundraise Up forms!

Review how your donors will pay with SEPA

When a donor gets to the Payment Options screen in a Checkout modal or Campaign Page, as long as their donation is 2 EUR or higher (which most donations will be, as the default Campaign minimum amount for one-time and recurring donations is 5 EUR), they'll be provided a Direct Debit button.

If they click the Direct Debit button, they'll be taken to a screen where they can provide their IBAN and confirmation of understanding of how the flow is managed.

This experience is mirrored in the Virtual Terminal; for donations made in EUR, you can select SEPA Direct Debit as the payment method and provide the donor's IBAN, name, and email to instantiate their payment via SEPA.

Payment processor fees on SEPA donations are 0.8% + 30¢ capped at $6.00

Customize Confirmation and Verification Emails

When donors make SEPA donations, they'll receive by default some of the Email Templates you can manage and customize from your Fundraise Up account, centrally from the Email Templates screen of Settings, and on a per-Campaign basis using the controls in each Campaign's Emails tab.

Donors giving via SEPA will always receive the "Bank Mandate" email containing the details of their mandate, as an email containing this information is required by regulators. It also includes legal text (sourced from Stripe) below their agreement, outlining the donor's entitlements in regards to their SEPA payment. The mandate details are added below the content configured in the Bank Mandate email settings tab.

The "Donation in progress" email is separate and can be turned off if desired. To configure and view this text, navigate to the Email Templates page of Settings and click "Donation in progress" in the left-hand menu.

Donors will only receive the applicable "Receipt" email templates once their Donation is marked successful in Fundraise Up.

As such, for new Donations and first Donations of Recurring Plans, receiving the applicable "Receipt" email can take up to eight business days, as the initial charge can only be run two days after authorization, and then a six business day gap where the donation can either succeed or fail.

For subsequent installments of Recurring Plans, receiving the "Recurring installment receipt" email can take up to five business days, shorter because the initial authorization was already done.

If, at any point in time, the donor has the bank remove their Direct Debit permission associated with a Recurring Plan, Stripe will receive notification within a few days, notify Fundraise Up, and the plan will then be marked as failed (as the associated payment method has been revoked). At that time, the donor will receive the "Plan failed" email if it is enabled, notifying them that their recurring donation can no longer be processed and that they can reactivate their donation by providing new payment information if desired.

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