Test mode

Fundraise Up offers a Test mode that allows you to simulate donations. In this mode, transactions go through the donation process but do not charge real money or create actual financial records. Instead, they provide a realistic view of how the platform processes payments, sends emails, and updates reports.

You may need to test donations in the following scenarios:

• Before launching a campaign. Verify that all donation forms, checkout flows, and automated emails work as expected.
• When setting up integrations. Ensure your CRM, email tools, and other integrated systems receive donation data correctly.
• After adding payment methods. Confirm that new payment options process transactions properly.
• During troubleshooting. Investigate and resolve unexpected behaviors in your donation process.
• To review donor experience. Walk through the complete donation flow to understand what supporters will see and receive.

Your test activities never affect live supporter data or real transactions, making it ideal for training, testing, and configuration validation.

While both features help you validate your setup, they serve different purposes:

• Test mode creates an interactive environment where you can process donations and verify functionality. It replicates the complete donation flow, including payment processing and integration syncing.
• Preview lets you see how your campaign will appear to supporters. Use it to verify visual elements during campaign setup, but note that preview mode doesn’t allow you to process transactions or test functionality. You can preview your campaign at any time during setup by clicking Preview.

Fundraise Up maintains two separate data environments:

• Live data contains your actual supporter transactions and donation records.
• Test data includes all simulated transactions and records created in Test mode.

By default, your Dashboard shows only live donations to keep your data clean. Test donations remain hidden and won’t appear in your reports or statistics. To view test donations:

1. Click your organization name in the top-right corner of the Dashboard.
2. Toggle on Test data.
   

   Test data toggle in the Dashboard

3. Toggle off Test data to return to live data.

This separation keeps your test activities separate from real donation data, so you can experiment without impacting your reports.

You can process test donations through your Dashboard in two ways: using your campaign or Virtual Terminal. Both methods require a Stripe connection.

You don’t need to wait for your Stripe account activation to start testing. While live donations require a fully activated Stripe account, you can begin exploring Fundraise Up features right away:

1. Go to Settings > Payment methods > Stripe.
2. Click Set up test account.

This lets you test all donation features while your main Stripe account activation is in progress.

Settings for Stripe test account

To test donations through both the Checkout Modal and Campaign Page:

1. Go to Campaigns > [Your campaign] > Settings.
2. Find the Campaign format section. Make sure the Checkout Modal, Campaign Page, or both are enabled.
   

   Campaign format selector

3. Return to the Overview tab.
4. Click Make a test donation under your chosen format.
   

   “Make a test donation” feature in Campaign Overview

Virtual Terminal lets you and your staff practice processing donations just like you would during telethons, phone campaigns, or any offline event that involves using Virtual Terminal. Follow these steps:

1. Enable Virtual Terminal:
   • Go to Settings > Virtual Terminal.
   • Click Enable Virtual Terminal.
2. Make sure you have at least one campaign, or you won’t be able to use Virtual Terminal. If you don’t have an existing campaign, follow these steps:
   • Go to Campaigns.
   • Click New campaign.
   • Select New campaign with default settings.
   • Click Create a campaign.
3. Enable Test mode:
   • Click your organization’s name in the top-right corner of the Dashboard and toggle on Test data.
     

     Test data toggle in the Dashboard

4. Access Virtual Terminal:
   • Press T on your keyboard from anywhere in the Dashboard, or go to Donations and click Virtual Terminal.
   

   Test mode in Virtual Terminal with test card credentials visible in the top-left corner of the screen

5. Use test credit card details to simulate transactions. You’ll find these details in your Virtual Terminal.

When you enable Test mode on your website, a toolbar appears at the bottom of the page. This toolbar includes localization tools for testing how your Checkout Modal, Campaign Pages, and other elements display across different languages and regions.

Test mode on a website with a toolbar for testing UI localization

Test mode requires the Fundraise Up installation code on your website. Once you have it installed, activate Test mode using one of these methods:

Add this code to activate Test mode by default:

1<script>
2window.fundraiseup_livemode = false;
3</script>

This approach works well for pre-production environments such as test sites.

Add this parameter to your URL for temporary Test mode activation:

1?fundraiseupLivemode=no

Example: https://example.com?fundraiseupLivemode=no

Fundraise Up integrations allow you to sync test donations with connected platforms for testing. To enable this:

1. Go to your integration settings in Settings > Integrations.
2. Check the Sync test data checkbox to enable test donation syncing.
3. Make test donations to confirm the data flow is working correctly.

Use these test card credentials to simulate different payment scenarios:

Using this card will not initiate real transactions.

You can find more test credentials in Stripe’s testing documentation.

In Test mode, you’ll receive the same emails as in live mode, with a few exceptions. Fundraise Up will not send the following email notifications for recurring donations made in Test mode:

• Installment receipt.
• Installment failed.
• Recurring failed.
• Plan fulfilled.
• Mastercard reminder.
• ACH verification reminder.
• Expiring card reminder.

This limitation helps avoid confusion between test and live notification systems.