Learn about ACH/bank payments via Stripe Financial Connections

Stripe Financial Connections, the Stripe tool that guides the ACH/bank-payment process, partners with thousands of US-based banks and allows donors to instantly access their bank account to make a payment. Importantly, the payment processing fees are low, which allows more of a donor’s money to go toward a nonprofit’s critical work. State-of-the-art encryption and data protection measures ensure that data is safe and secure at all times. 

How do I accept ACH/bank payments from donors?

As a Give Lively member, a nonprofit with a Stripe account in good standing will be able to accept ACH/bank payments from donors through Give Lively’s integration with Stripe Financial Connections.

With Financial Connections, donors don’t need to remember their bank account and routing numbers, and they don't have to wait several days for verifying micro-deposits to hit their accounts. All that’s required is their bank’s web login credentials. 

Are there limits to ACH/bank payments?

Unfortunately, there are limits to ACH/bank payments and donors attempting a payment in excess of a limit will receive an error message.

With Stripe Financial Connections, limits are calculated by Stripe based on several criteria specific to the nonprofit, such as processing volume; however, they are designed to increase as nonprofits scale up. Nonprofits expecting large donations should contact Stripe support immediately to review limits and request increases.

How long does it take for an ACH/bank payment to go through

ACH/bank payments typically take about 5-7 business days to process. Once a donor checks out on a fundraising page, they will receive an email notification from Give Lively indicating that their payment is pending. Then, when their payment is fully processed after approximately 5-7 business days, they will receive an official receipt, indicating that their payment was a success.

How secure is it?

Give Lively's integration only uses the data necessary to set up a donor’s payment for processing through Stripe. Neither Give Lively nor a nonprofit ever has direct access to any donor’s bank username or password. When Stripe Financial Connections prompts donors for this information, donors are interacting with their bank through a secure window in Stripe’s system. Learn about our and Stripe’s security practices, as well as what data we capture and where.

How can I find ACH/bank payments in Give Lively data reports and Stripe?

Even during the payment processing period, ACH/bank payments: 

• appear immediately on a nonprofit’s recent donations lists
• contribute to a campaign’s goal on progress meters
• appear in Nonprofit Admin Portal donation totals
• are included in CSV data exports:
  (1) In Give Lively CSV exports, ACH/bank payments appear in the “Payment Method” column as “us_bank_account” with an initial status of “pending” that, once the payment is fully processed, will change to “succeeded”.
  (2) From the Stripe dashboard, navigate to the “Payments” tab and filter by the “Payment Method” of “ACH Direct Debit”. This displays a list of payments and their corresponding statuses, including failed ACH payments. Learn more about ACH donation errors in the Stripe Developers Logs.

Note: If your Stripe account states that "Bank transfer payments are replacing ACH Credit Transfer," you can ignore the alert. Give Lively's direct integration with Stripe renders these settings irrelevant.