PayPal as option for recurring/sustaining gifts

Sarah Estell

I am in an endless loop with PayPal and Blackbaud support. We have PayPal enabled as an option on our LO donation pages. However, it is NOT an option for a monthly gift. Blackbaud says PayPal has to update our account to allow this. PayPal says we are already enabled to receive recurring gifts - and we do receive them through a schedule set up by donors outside of our LO donation page.


Any thoughts?

Philip Nawrocki

Hi Sarah,


When we setup PayPal we had to do the following:

You can contact PayPal support directly at (888) 221-1161, to request that they enable reference transactions on your PayPal Business Account. For a quicker experience, get a “One-time passcode” before calling.
 
Here's how to find the One-Time Passcode:
 
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click Contact Us at the bottom of any PayPal page.
3. Click "Call us" and to see the One-Time Passcode (6 digits).


I am assuming you did this, hence the "PayPal says we are already enabled to receive recurring gifts".


Once they put PayPal gateway on our merchant account we were good to go.


You might have to get all of them on the phone together to get this figure out...


Thanks,


Phil

Arlene Vo

Hi Sarah,


Was this resolved for you. I have similar issue. Paypal works for onetime but not monthly option. 

Can you share how you resolved this.


Thanks

Robin Anderson

I second what Phil said. PayPal will need to update your Business Account to allow reference transactions - that's how PayPal refers to recurring gifts. And from my experience, this can only be enabled by a representative at PayPal. It's not a feature that is accessible to the users who log in and manage their PayPal account (unfortunately). So, your best bet is to call them and talk to someone in person. PayPal doesn't understand Luminate, so they won't be able to answer any questions related to LO at all, but as long as you tell them that you need to allow reference transactions, they should understand that (and if the representative you're speaking to doesn't understand what that is, then request another representative who does!). I would also confirm that it is your organization's business account that needs updating.


I hope this helps!

Robin

Kate Coleman

Hi Sarah,

Were you ever able to get this working? And if so, what steps did you take to get this working for you?