Refunds and Chargebacks on GiveCampus

 

GiveCampus allows you to manage refunds for donors directly in your fundraising administrative dashboard. While issuing a refund is straightforward, it's important to understand how refunds and chargebacks work, and how they may impact your subscription and financial reporting.

 

How to Issue a Refund

 

 

Step-by-Step Process

Go to your Online Giving dashboard > Manage Gifts Find the gift you'd like to refund Click the Refund button in the Refund column Follow the instructions to confirm the refund

 

 

Important Notes About the Refund Process

👉 Each time you issue a refund, the system will:

• Provide warnings about fees
• Ask you to select a refund reason
• Require you to type "PROCESS REFUND" to confirm

These safeguards ensure that gifts are not refunded by accident.

 

 

Who Can Issue a Refund?

• Fundraising Superadmins 
• Finance Admins

Partial Refunds

Partial refunds are only supported for Event registrations. Currently, a donation cannot be partially refunded. The entire gift needs to be refunded and the donor would make a new gift for the correct amount if needed.

 

 

Understanding Deposit Reports and Refunds

 

Stripe

How Refunds Appear in Deposits

Stripe deposits the amount of the refund from a positive balance if available, or will directly debit your bank if not. Refunded amounts in deposit reports appear as negative numbers. When calculating your total deposit: Add all positive amounts (donations, event registrations, etc.) Subtract all negative amounts (refunds)

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Bank debit authorization required for some Stripe refunds

When Stripe cannot cover a refund from an available positive balance, it attempts to debit your connected bank account. For those debit transactions to succeed, many banks require that specific Stripe "Company IDs" be pre‑approved on the account for incoming debits. If those Company IDs are not approved, the bank can block the debit and the refund will fail with an authorization error (for example: "Debit transactions are not approved on the destination bank account. Stripe requires bank accounts to be set up for both credit and debit transfers.").

Which Company IDs to approve

• 3270465600 (Stripe Inc)
• 2270465600 (Stripe Inc)
• 1800948598 (Stripe Payments Company)
• 4270465600 (Stripe Payments Company)
• WFMSTRIPE1 (Stripe Inc)

What your school should do

1. Ask your Business / Finance office or whoever manages your bank relationship to add the Company IDs above to the bank’s approved list for debits to your account. Provide the full list and the exact spelling/format shown here so the bank can match properly.
2. Confirm the bank has enabled debits for those IDs (sometimes called "merchant IDs", "company IDs", or "originator IDs" depending on the bank).
3. Once the bank confirms approval, retry the refund in the GiveCampus admin dashboard if it previously failed.

When this is required

• This bank setup is required for processing refunds when there isn't sufficient positive balance to cover the refund amount. In other words, if Stripe must create a debit to your bank to fund a refund, your bank needs to accept debits from the Stripe Company IDs listed above.

Troubleshooting tips and common gotchas

• If a refund fails with an authorization/decline error, share the bank's rejection message with your finance team and ask them to verify the Company IDs are approved.
• Some banks use different internal labels for these IDs (merchant ID, originator ID, or company ID). When in doubt, provide the exact numeric/text IDs above and ask the bank’s merchant‑services or ACH/clearing team to confirm they are permitted for debit transactions.
• Approval must be on the receiving bank account that is connected to Stripe for deposits; approving on other accounts or at a different level in your banking portal may not resolve the issue.

Why this matters

Approving these Company IDs prevents unexpected debit authorization failures and ensures refunds that require a bank debit can be processed automatically, avoiding manual reconciliation steps or delays in donors receiving refunds.

Example Calculation

If your deposit report shows:

• Donations: $15.48
• Event registrations: $45.00 + $39.50 = $84.50
• Refunds: -$54.50

Total deposit = ($15.48 + $84.50) - $54.50 = $45.48

 

PayPal

PayPal issues the refund to the donor immediately and sets your account to a negative balance, they do not debit your bank immediately. 

When an account has a negative balance, no deposits will be made to your connected bank account, and therefor no deposit reports will be generated. Once the balance is cleared, the next positive deposit to your bank will generate a deposit report which will include all the donations used to cover the refunds.

Understanding PayPal negative balance handling

When you issue a refund through the admin dashboard, PayPal processes the refund immediately and adjusts your account to a negative balance. Future PayPal/Venmo donations automatically offset this negative balance over 21 days. If incoming donations do not fully cover the balance, PayPal may attempt to recover the remaining funds from your connected bank account. No action is required on your part during this process.

Common questions

Why don't I see deposits while my PayPal balance is negative?

Deposits are not made to your connected bank account, and no deposit reports are generated until the negative balance is cleared by incoming donations.

Why are my deposits lower after a refund?

Incoming PayPal/Venmo donations are first applied to cover the negative balance. This reduction in funds received causes the deposit amount to appear lower until the balance is fully restored.

How do I track when the negative balance is cleared?

Monitor your deposit reports. The report generated after the negative balance is fully offset will detail the donations used to cover the refund.

PayPal: Insufficient funds error when issuing a refund

If you attempt to refund a PayPal or Venmo donation and the connected PayPal account lacks sufficient funds, GiveCampus displays the error:

"The PayPal account does not have sufficient funds to issue this refund. Please add funds to the account and try again."

To resolve this error:

1. Navigate to Online Giving > Manage Gifts and click the Refund button for the selected gift.
2. If the refund attempt fails, add funds to your managed PayPal account so the balance covers the refund amount.
3. Once funds are added, return to Online Giving > Manage Gifts and click the Refund button to retry the refund.

Additional details:

• This error occurs only when using the GiveCampus admin refund process.
• The same message applies to Venmo refunds, as they use the PayPal processing infrastructure.
• Administrators can resolve this issue directly without waiting for extra processing.
• If the refund still fails after adding funds, try the refund action again to prompt another attempt.

 

Here's the flow for how this works: 

- A Venmo or PayPal gift is refunded though GiveCampus. 

- Your managed PayPal account is set to a negative amount for the value of the refund.

- For the next 21 days future Venmo and PayPal gifts will be used to cover the negative balance. 

- If, after 21 days, the balance is not funded, PayPal will attempt to withdraw the remainder from your connected bank account. 

- If that is successful, then you will receive a deposit report with all gifts used to cover the refund in the next report, which will be generated after the next successful Venmo or PayPal donation. 

- If the withdrawal is unsuccessful then the balance will be transferred to GiveCampus and we will invoice you for the remainder. 

 

Refund Timing

Refunds are taken from the next positive deposit if the original transaction has already been deposited. Check the stripe_deposit_id and datetime_of_deposit columns in your reports to see when transactions were originally deposited.

Stripe gifts can be refunded for 90 days from the gift date. 

PayPal gifts can be refunded for 180 days from the gift date. 

 

 

Common Questions About Refunds

 

Why don't refunded amounts add to my positive deposits?

Refunded amounts appear as negative values because they were previously deposited. You don't add refunded amounts to your positive transactions—only subtract them as negative amounts.

 

Can refunds be included in previous deposits?

If a transaction was refunded on the same day it was processed, it might be netted out of that day's deposit. However, if it was already deposited, the refund will appear as a negative amount in the next deposit.

 

 

Chargebacks

 

What are Chargebacks?

A charge back is different than a refund in that it is initiated by a donor (or a donor's bank) when they mark a transaction as fraud. This can happen if a donor forgets they made a donation, or if there has been fraudulent activity outside of the intended donation.

When a chargeback occurs, the payment processor immediately withdraws the donation amount, a $15 chargeback fee, and the processing fee from GiveCampus's bank account. Our team is automatically notified of these chargebacks and we immediately dispute this charge on your behalf - submitting all the evidence we have of the donation. We receive this around the same time as the email you received as an administrator. No funds are removed from your account at the initiation of the chargeback. These are only recovered from your account if you lose the chargeback. 

The best course of action we recommend is to have the donor complete the following steps:
-Contact their credit card company and tell them that they want to drop the dispute.
-The dispute itself can take up to 90 days before a decision is finalized. However, there are two outcomes that may occur; either you will win or lose the dispute.
-If you win the challenge, the donation remains in your deposit and you are not assessed the $15 chargeback fee.
-If you lose the challenge, GiveCampus will cover the $15 chargeback fee, so you only have to focus on the donation itself. The donation will be addressed depending on the processor: 

Stripe:  The donation will be withdrawn from a pending Stripe Deposit, or a new debit will be made to your bank for the funds if there is not a pending deposit available.

PayPal: Your PayPal balance will be debited the amount, putting the balance negative if needed. The negative balance is then paid through future PayPal donations made to the platform.  

 

Gift states

• Disputed: the gift is in arbitration between the issuing bank and the payment processor (Stripe or PayPal)
• If the chargeback is found in favor of the donor the gift is moved to the state 'Charged Back' 
• If the chargeback is found in your favor the gift will move back to 'Paid'

Chargeback Notifications

• Chargeback emails are automatically sent to all administrators who have enabled donation notifications
• It is not possible to designate a specific individual to receive only chargeback-related notifications
• These emails are system-generated and cannot be customized

  when a donor confirms chargeback withdrawal

  If a donor indicates they will drop a chargeback dispute, ask them to contact their card issuer directly to confirm the withdrawal.

  recommended steps

  1. Ask the donor to call their card issuer and, if possible, request a written confirmation (an email is acceptable).
  2. Save the written confirmation in your school records as supporting documentation.
  3. Monitor the gift status in your admin dashboard to verify when the dispute is resolved.

  if the dispute remains active

  • The issuer and processor control the dispute timeline, which can take several weeks to resolve.
  • The gift will continue to display as "Disputed" until the processor confirms the dispute is withdrawn.

How Chargebacks Affect Your Account

Chargebacks are treated similarly to refunds in your reporting and will appear as negative amounts in your deposit reports.