About donations

The owners of Premium and Enterprise groups can set up donation requests to ask their members to donate to the group. Members in groups that have open donation requests will see a Donations entry on the left menu (desktop browser) or More menu (mobile device) when they visit that group. They can select the Donations entry to view the donation requests and make donations.

Groups.io uses Stripe to accept credit card payments. To accept donations in your group, you need to have a Stripe account, which is free, and connect to it from your group. Then you can create donation requests in your group, and your members can donate using credit cards.

The Groups.io processing fee is 2% in addition to Stripe’s credit card processing fees.

Note: Members who donate do not need to have Stripe accounts.

Setting up a Stripe account for donations

1. Desktop browser: In the left menu on the group’s website, select Admin > Preferences > Donations.
   Mobile device: At the bottom of a group page, tap the More icon and select Admin > Preferences > Donations on the More menu.
2. On the resulting Donations page, click or tap the Connect with Stripe button, which takes you to the Stripe website. 
3. To set up a new Stripe account for your group, complete the fields on the Stripe page.
   Tips:
   • Use your group’s name as the account name, legal business name, and in the statement descriptor (for example, “groupname Donations”).
   • Provide your group’s website (https://groups.io/g/groupname) as the business website.
   • Add/attach a bank account and set up a Direct Debit, then set up a payment schedule.
4. At the bottom of the Stripe page, click or tap the Authorize access to this account button. You are then returned to the Donations page in Groups.io.

Creating a donation request

1. Desktop browser: In the left menu on the group’s website, select Admin > Preferences > Donations.
   Mobile device: At the bottom of a group page, tap the More icon and select Admin > Preferences > Donations on the More menu.
2. On the Donations page, click or tap the Create a Donation Request button.
   Note: The amount you enter in the Ask Amount field is the amount of the total donation, not an individual donation amount that you are requesting from each member. If you want to leave the total open-ended (not provide a specific amount), leave the dollar amount as 0.
3. Click or tap the Create button at the bottom of the page.

The donation request is now open, and members can submit donations.

Closing a donation request

When donations are complete, you can close the donation request:

1. Desktop browser: In the left menu on the group’s website, select Admin > Preferences > Donations.
   Mobile device: At the bottom of a group page, tap the More icon and select Admin > Preferences > Donations on the More menu.
2. On the Donations page, click or tap the donation request you want to close.
3. On the Donation Request page, click or tap the Close button.

All funds, including any excess above the requested amount (if one was specified), are forwarded to the Stripe account that was set up for the group.

Reopening a closed donation request

To reopen a closed donation request so members can donate to it again:

1. Desktop browser: In the left menu on the group’s website, select Admin > Preferences > Donations.
   Mobile device: At the bottom of a group page, tap the More icon and select Admin > Preferences > Donations on the More menu.
2. On the Donations page, click or tap the Open button at the top, and select Closed from the dropdown list.
3. Locate and click or tap the closed donation request that you want to reopen.
4. On the Donation Request page, click or tap the Reopen button.

Viewing open and closed donation requests

Desktop browser: In the left menu on the group’s website, select Admin > Preferences > Donations.

Mobile device: At the bottom of a group page, tap the More icon and select Admin > Preferences > Donations on the More menu.

The Donations page lists open donation requests by default. To see a list of closed donation requests, click or tap the Open button at the top of the page and select Closed from the dropdown list.

Reviewing donation request and payment activity

1. Desktop browser: In the left menu on the group’s website, select Admin > Activity.
   Mobile device: At the bottom of a group page, tap the More icon and select Admin > Activity on the More menu.
2. On the Activity page, click or tap the All Activity button and select Payment Activity on the dropdown menu. All activities related to donation requests are listed.
   Note: If the group allows sponsorships, the Payment Activity page lists sponsorship activities as well.
3. If you want to filter the activity results for donations, select one of the Donation options from the actions dropdown list:
   • Donation - Failed by member
   • Donation - Made by member
   • Donation - Request closed
   • Donation - Request created
   • Donation - Request reopened
   • Donation - Request updated
   • Donations - Stripe account disconnected