Tap to Donate
Accept in-person contactless donations using a smartphone — no card reader required.
Tap to Donate is Fundraise Up's in-person donation solution — it turns an iPhone or Android phone into a donation terminal. It works through the Fundraise Up mobile app: your team member opens the app, selects a campaign, and presents the device to the supporter, who taps a card, phone, or watch to give. No card reader or additional hardware is required.
Use cases
Tap to Donate works wherever a staff member or volunteer can be present with a smartphone. Common scenarios include:
- Fundraising events — galas, auctions, and community gatherings.
- Door-to-door campaigns — canvassers collecting donations in the field.
- Volunteer drives and on-site collection — any location where a dedicated terminal or kiosk isn't practical
It complements online giving rather than replacing it. Organizations already using Fundraise Up can apply the same campaigns and supporter experience to in-person contexts without additional systems.
How it works
Four roles can collect donations through the Fundraise Up mobile app: Organization Administrator, Campaign Administrator, Configuration Manager, and Tap to Donate Specialist. They download the Fundraise Up app and log in with their Fundraise Up credentials.
At the collection point, the team member selects a campaign and enters the donation amount. Organization Administrators, Campaign Administrators, and Configuration Managers see every active campaign in the account. Tap to Donate Specialists see only the campaigns the Organization Administrator has assigned to them.
The supporter then taps their physical credit or debit card, or a digital wallet — Apple Pay, Google Pay, or any NFC-enabled wallet — against the team member's phone to complete the payment.
A receipt is automatically generated; the supporter receives it by email or scans a QR code on the confirmation screen.
In addition to one-time donations, Tap to Donate supports recurring giving. Supporters can choose any frequency enabled on the campaign: daily, weekly, biweekly, every 4 weeks, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually.
Reporting
Donations appear in the Fundraise Up Dashboard alongside all online giving — in Insights, CRM integrations, on the Donations page, and in exports. Each donation is attributed to a "Tap to Donate" source so in-person results can be filtered and reported separately from online channels. In exports, each donation includes the Created By User fields — ID, first name, last name, and email — identifying which team member accepted it.
If a supporter chose not to share their details, the donation is recorded anonymously — no name, email, or contact information is attached. Anonymous donations can only be identified in the Dashboard by their date and amount, and cannot be linked to a supporter profile.
Security
Payment processing is handled by Stripe. When a supporter taps, card data is encrypted instantly and transmitted directly to Stripe — it never passes through the staff member's phone or Fundraise Up's systems.
Fundraise Up never stores card numbers or CVV codes, and Tap to Donate Specialists never see sensitive card data at any point during the transaction. For recurring donations, the app does not store card data or payment tokens — Stripe holds the payment method for future charges.
Tap to Donate meets PCI DSS compliance standards.
Tap to Donate is also designed with personal device use in mind. Tap to Donate Specialists work within a tightly scoped permission set. Each specialist can only access the campaigns the Organization Administrator has assigned to them. In the app, specialists can collect donations, review the donations they accepted, and update those supporters' contact details. Specialists cannot access the Fundraise Up Dashboard beyond their own profile settings, cannot view donations or supporter records from the rest of the account, and cannot cancel or alter a completed transaction.
The app also protects supporter data from capture on the device. On the screen that shows a supporter's personal information, the app blocks screenshots and screen recording, so those details cannot be copied.
The app supports two-factor authentication (2FA). Users with 2FA enabled enter a verification code at login, in addition to their password. Organization Administrators can require 2FA for all users in the account — see Two-factor authentication (2FA).
The app also supports single sign-on (SSO). If an organization sets SSO to required in its account security settings, app users sign in through the organization's identity provider instead of a password. See Set up Tap to Donate.
When a team member first opens the app, it asks for permission to access the device location. Stripe requires location access for in-person payments. The app does not track the device location and does not send location data to Fundraise Up.
For more on how Fundraise Up handles security and supporter data, see PCI compliance for organizations using Fundraise Up, and Supporter information security FAQ.
Requirements
- Android: Android: 11 or later, NFC-capable, with Google Play Services installed and screen lock enabled. The device must not be rooted.
- iPhone: iPhone: iOS 16.4 or later, iPhone XS or newer. A device passcode and Apple ID sign-in are required.
- Internet connection on the device.
- Location access granted to the app.
- An Organization Administrator, Campaign Administrator, Configuration Manager, or Tap to Donate Specialist role in Fundraise Up.
- A connected Stripe account — see Set up Tap to Donate.
Tap to Donate is not supported on iPads, Android tablets, or external terminals.
Get started
- If you are an organization administrator: see Set up Tap to Donate.
- If you are a Tap to Donate Specialist: see Accept in-person donations with Tap to Donate.