Emails your donors receive
Together emails your donors for you - a receipt when a gift clears, a heads-up while a bank debit settles, a notice if a payment fails, and word when a regular gift ends. Here's exactly what each one says and how to brand them.
When a donation comes through one of your forms or checkout links, Together handles the donor-facing email itself - you don't wire up anything in Stripe. Each email is tied to a moment in the payment's life, and all of them carry your branding.
| When it sends | Is it a tax receipt? | |
|---|---|---|
| Donation receipt | Once the gift is confirmed - instantly for card, once the bank clears for BECS/PayTo | Yes |
| Processing notice | The moment a bank-debit gift (BECS Direct Debit or PayTo) is set up | No |
| Payment failed | If a bank-debit gift is declined, or a regular gift's payment doesn't go through | No |
| Regular gift ended | When a regular gift stops - cancelled, or after repeated failed payments | No |
| Bank transfer instructions | The moment a donor chooses to pay by bank transfer | No |
A donor paying by bank transfer first gets the bank transfer instructions - the amount, the BSB and account number, and the reference to quote - then the receipt once the funds arrive. Your team can resend the instructions from the donor's page; see How a bank transfer gift works.
A card or wallet payment settles immediately, so the donor gets the receipt and nothing else. A BECS Direct Debit or PayTo payment takes a few business days to clear, so the donor first gets the processing notice, then either the receipt (it cleared) or the payment-failed notice (it didn't).
The donation receipt
Subject: Donation receipt - your organisation.
Sent automatically the moment a donation is confirmed, and only once per gift - a donor never gets a duplicate receipt, even if the payment system retries behind the scenes. It contains:
- A greeting and your intro message (see Customising the copy).
- The amount, the date, the payment method (card, BECS Direct Debit, PayTo, or a wallet), and a Receipt ID the donor can quote if they ever need to.
- Your organisation name and ABN, and a line reminding the donor to keep it for their records.
If the donor typed contact details on the form that differ from what you already hold, the receipt also shows a single Update my details on file button, so they can confirm the change in one click. Nothing is changed on your records until they do.
The processing notice (BECS and PayTo only)
Subject: Your direct debit to your organisation is being set up (BECS), or Your donation to your organisation is processing (PayTo).
Bank debits don't settle on the spot, so this email sets expectations: it tells the donor the gift amount is on its way, that it usually takes a few business days to clear, and - in bold - that this isn't a receipt and the receipt will follow once the payment clears.
For a BECS Direct Debit it also restates the Direct Debit Request the donor authorised - account-holder name, BSB, and the last four digits of the account - followed by the standard direct-debit service-agreement wording. Card and wallet donors never see this email.
The payment-failed notice
Subject: There was a problem with your payment to your organisation.
If a bank debit is declined after it was set up, Together lets the donor know plainly: the gift didn't go through, no money has been taken, and they're welcome to try again - with a link straight back to your website when you've set one in branding. It's reassuring by design, so a failed debit doesn't read as a charge the donor needs to chase.
Regular giving: what a regular giver hears
A donor who set up a regular gift gets the same receipt on every successful payment, exactly as they would for a one-off. Six more emails cover the rest of the life of that gift - the last four only when the donor changes something themselves in Your giving.
When a regular payment doesn't go through - subject We couldn't process your regular gift to your organisation - the donor is told what happened, that the payment will be retried automatically over the next few days, and that there's nothing they need to do. This one deliberately gives them nothing to click: a retry is already scheduled, so inviting a second gift now would risk charging them twice. If the gift has already ended by the time the final attempt fails, the donor gets only the regular gift ended email below - never a payment-failed notice after they've been told the gift has stopped.
When the regular gift ends - subject Your regular gift to your organisation has ended - the wording depends on why:
- It was cancelled (by you, on the donor's behalf): a short confirmation that nothing further will be charged, and a thank-you. No pressure to give again.
- The payments kept failing: the donor is told the gift has stopped because the last payment couldn't be collected, and this one does carry a Give again button back to your donation form - the donor didn't choose to leave, so it's the one moment where re-starting is the helpful offer.
If the reason isn't clear, the donor gets the neutral "your regular gift has ended" wording rather than a guess.
When the donor changes the card themselves - subject The card on your regular gift to your organisation was updated - a short notice to the gift's own donor saying which gift now charges the new card, and that the amount and timing have not changed. No card number, brand or last four digits appears in it. Your team gets nothing: the change is on the audit log.
When the donor pauses the gift themselves - subject Your regular gift to your organisation is paused until 21 November - the date it restarts, and that nothing needs doing. Again only the donor; the pause is on your audit log with the same date.
When the donor changes the amount themselves - subject Your regular gift to your organisation is now $60.00 - it states the new figure, the one it changed from, and when the new one starts. Both figures are there on purpose: the donor's own check is whether that is the number they typed and whether the old one was what they thought. When a payment is already on its way it says so instead of promising the next one. Again only the donor; the change is on your audit log with both amounts.
When the donor changes how the gift is paid themselves - subject Your regular gift to your organisation is now paid by direct debit (or paid by card) - it names the KIND of payment method the gift now uses and says the amount and the timing have not changed. When the gift was already on direct debit and only the ACCOUNT changed, the subject is The bank account on your regular gift to your organisation was updated instead: saying it is "now paid by direct debit" would describe a move that did not happen. No BSB, account number, card brand or last four digits appears in it, and nothing about the direct debit authority is stored outside Stripe. Again only the donor; the change is on your audit log with the rail it moved from and the one it moved to.
All four of those are second-channel notices: Your giving is reached with an emailed link, so the inbox is what tells the real donor about a change somebody else made. None of them carries a button - see the Callout below.
Stopping a gift yourself. Open the donor, choose the Giving tab, and hit Cancel gift in the Regular gifts panel on the one you want to stop. It takes effect straight away - no further payment is ever taken - and the donor gets the confirmation email above once Stripe confirms the cancellation. Donations already received are untouched, and the gift can't be restarted: the donor sets up a new one from your donation form. You need Editor access or above; a Viewer sees the panel without the control.
Together never emails a donor a link that acts on their gift - not "update your card", not "undo this pause". A URL onto someone's billing details in an unauthenticated email is the shape a phishing message wants, so these notices state the fact and stop. A donor who wants to change the card, or who did not ask for a pause, signs in to Your giving with their email address - where they can update the card themselves - or contacts you. The "See all your giving" line below is not an exception: it opens the sign-in form with the address already typed in, and the donor still has to ask for a link and open it from their inbox.
The "See all your giving" line
Four of these emails end with one line offering the donor their own record: See all your giving, followed by a sentence saying it is every gift they have made through Together, in one place, and that we will email them a link to open it.
It sits under everything else - under your ABN, under the receipt's own closing line - because it is Together's line, not yours. It carries no token: tapping it opens the sign-in form at alltogether.giving/giving with the donor's address already in the box, and nothing happens until they ask for a link and open it from their inbox.
| Carries the line? | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| Donation receipt (form, checkout link) | Yes | The gift is confirmed, so the donor's giving is there to open |
| Donation receipt for a recommended gift | Yes | Every receipt carries it; the line sits under your ABN, outside the receipt itself |
| Recommended-gift summary, first send | Yes | It is sent once the payment clears, and each organisation's gift lands moments later |
| Recommended-gift summary, re-sent later | Yes, once a gift has reached an organisation | Until one has, there is nothing for the donor to open |
| Regular gift ended | Yes, if the gift ever ran | A gift that stopped before its first payment cleared left nothing to show |
| Payment failed, regular gift | Yes | The gift is still live while the payment is retried |
| Payment failed, one-off bank debit | No | The gift did not go through, so there may be nothing under that address at all |
| Processing notice | No | The gift is still clearing and the portal shows nothing for it yet |
| Bank transfer instructions | No | Same - the gift is not paid until the funds arrive |
| The four donor-change notices above | No | They are notices about a change the donor just made in the portal, not a way in |
| A receipt you re-send by hand | Same as the original | A re-send is the same document; it does not gain or lose anything |
The pattern is one rule: the line appears only where the gift it sits under is something the portal can already show. A bank debit takes a few business days to clear, and a donor who followed the link while their gift was still settling would be told no giving was found under their address, minutes after giving.
One consequence worth knowing. A donor who gives only by direct debit sees no "See all your giving" line until their first receipt arrives - the processing notice, which is the email they get inside that waiting window, deliberately does not carry it. They can still reach the portal from the Your giving link in the footer of alltogether.giving.
The two recommended-gift summary rows are the same rule, a day apart. The first send goes out the moment the payment clears, before the gifts have been passed on to each organisation - they land moments later, so by the time a donor opens the email their giving is there. A summary you re-send days or weeks later is in a position to check, so it does: if none of the gifts ever reached an organisation - the rare case where every one of them fails and the money is held while your team sorts it out - the re-sent summary carries no line, because there is nothing behind it yet.
Offline gifts you record yourself send no email at all, and a receipt you send by hand for one carries no line either: Together did not process that payment, so the portal holds it as a gift record rather than as giving it can receipt.
Branding every email
Every one of these emails inherits the look you set at Settings → Branding:
- Your logo and primary colour in the header.
- Your website as the link a donor follows back to you.
- Your ABN in the footer, where you've entered one.
So once your branding is set, these emails already look like they came from you.
Customising the copy
The receipt's intro paragraph - the line under the greeting - is yours to set at Settings → Branding. Leave it blank to use Together's default wording. You can drop in {{ORGANISATION_NAME}} and {{AMOUNT}} and they'll be filled in per donation.
A separate message for regular gifts. Under it sits a Regular gift message. When a donation is part of a donor's regular gift, that's the wording they get instead - so a renewal can say something different from a first gift. Leave it blank and regular gifts use your receipt message above.
A different message per Stripe account. If you run more than one connected Stripe account - a legal fund, a campaign account - each one carries its own pair of messages, on the same panel. An Applies to dropdown appears above the fields listing your organisation default and every account; pick one and the two fields below switch to it. A donation through a form or link pinned to that account gets that account's wording. Only an ADMIN sees the dropdown: an EDITOR can set your organisation's two messages but not an account's.
A line under the dropdown tells you whether the account you're on has its own wording or is inheriting your organisation's, and every option in the open list is marked the same way. With one Stripe account there is no dropdown at all - your organisation's two messages are the whole panel, unless that account already has wording of its own, in which case the dropdown stays so you can still reach it.
Together works down the list and uses the first message it finds:
- The account's regular gift message (regular gifts only)
- The account's receipt message
- Your organisation's regular gift message (regular gifts only)
- Your organisation's receipt message
- Together's default wording
You never have to work that out yourself. Leave a message blank and its Preview shows exactly what a donor would get instead, captioned with where it came from - "Inherited from your organisation's Receipt message", or "Together's default wording". The greyed-out text in the empty box is the same wording, so the box and the preview always agree.
That rule is printed under the Applies to dropdown, so you don't have to go looking for it. Switching the dropdown mid-edit is safe: Together keeps what you typed on each account separately, so you can move between them and come back to it. It is still unsaved until you press Save changes, and leaving the page drops it.
A form or link with no account pinned uses your organisation's message, not your default account's. It still takes payment through your default account - the account only decides the wording when you've pinned it deliberately.
The processing, payment-failed and regular-gift-ended notices use fixed wording; you brand them, but you don't edit their text.
The thank-you message on the donation form is a different thing - it's the text shown on the success page right after a donor pays, set per form in the form editor, not an email.
Donations you record by hand
Offline gifts you enter yourself - cash, cheque, a bank transfer - don't trigger any of these emails. You're recording a gift that already happened, often one the donor was already thanked for, so Together doesn't email them on your behalf.
Donors can fetch a receipt themselves
A donor who has lost a receipt does not have to ask you for it. Every donor who has given through Together can sign in at alltogether.giving/giving with their email, open any gift's receipt and have it emailed again, or print it - the two controls sit side by side above the document. A gift they made through your recommendation gets the same treatment for its summary email. See What donors see in Your giving.
What to do next
- Set your branding so every email looks like you: Brand your donate pages.
- Understand the payment states behind each email: Donation statuses and sources.
- See the donor's own view of these emails: What donors see in Your giving.