How do bank gifts work?

If you utilize Stripe, your donors will have the choice to make their gift with a bank account instead of a credit card.

If a donor wishes to make their gift with a bank account, they have two options: (1) they can verify their bank account information instantly (by logging in with their online banking credentials) or (2)

Donors can manually verify their bank account by entering their routing and account numbers and confirming the deposit(s) that appear in their account. Depending on how Stripe routes the verification, the donor may receive either a single $0.01 deposit—with a 6‑digit code starting with "SM" shown in the deposit description—or two small deposits from ACCTVERIFY that they must confirm. It can take 1–4 business days for these deposits to appear in the donor's account.

If the donor does not confirm the deposit(s) within 30 days, the authorization on their account is cancelled and the donation's state in your reporting changes from "pending_authorization" to "pledged_unpaid."

The donor also receives an email notification on behalf of your school.

If a donor chooses the first option, there is no further action required.  If a donor chooses the second option, the donor must confirm the micro-deposit amount before the gift can be processed.  Here's how the micro-deposit verification process works:

Pending authorization for bank (ACH) gifts

A bank gift enters the pending_authorization state when GiveCampus and the donor’s bank are working to authorize the payment. This can occur during micro‑deposit verification or while the ACH transfer is clearing. The pending_authorization state appears before the gift is fully processed and does not indicate a failure.

Key points:

• pending_authorization is distinct from the general "pending" state used for other payment types; both states should be treated differently in reports and workflows.
• Gifts in pending_authorization are still in process. Once verification or clearing completes, the gift transitions to a paid or authorized state. If the donor does not confirm the micro‑deposits within the allowed window, the gift moves to a pledged_unpaid state.
• This state is a normal part of the bank payment flow and does not signify an error.

Reporting tip:

Add the ach_verified column to your donation reports to track donor verification: false means the gift is still pending verification, while true indicates it has been verified.

• The donor receives an email with instructions on how to verify the micro-deposit.  Until the donor completes this verification, the gift is not processed and the funds are not transferred (this is to prevent fraud and prove that the donor owns the bank account they used).  The donor has 30 days to complete this verification; after 30 days, the gift authorization is cancelled. T
• Donors receive a series of reminder emails (containing the same instructions and link) until they confirm the micro-deposit amount.  If they do not confirm the micro-deposit amount within 30 days, the gift authorization is cancelled.

NOTE: if a donor would like to cancel their gift they will need to wait until the gift has been processed and moved to 'Authorized' or 'Paid' then it can be refunded. 

 

Bank gifts that are set up for manual verification immediately show up in your donation report, with a "state" of "pending_authorization"; at this point, the donor has not confirmed the micro-deposit and no funds have been transferred to your bank.  The "state" of the gift transitions to "paid" when the donor confirms the micro-deposits.  If the donor does not confirm the micro-deposit within 30 days, the authorization on their account is cancelled -- and the "state" of the donation in your reporting will transition from "pending_authorization" to "pledged_failed" or “revoked.”  At this point, that gift is no longer recoverable through GiveCampus.

The vast majority of bank account donors take the required action within five (5) business days.  We recommend that you contact any donor who has not taken the required action (i.e. confirmed the micro-deposit) within 7-10 business days, to ensure the gift can be processed within the 30-day timeline.

FYI: Some of the reasons donors occasionally do not take the required action and confirm the micro-deposit(s) within 7-10 days include: 

• The donor mistyped their email address on the giving form, and thus is not receiving the emails that prompt them to confirm the micro-deposit.
• The emails are being ignored by the donor or are being filtered into Spam.
• The donor has not set up online banking and therefore cannot confirm the micro-deposit until they receive their next paper statement in the mail. 
• The donor does not remember which bank account they used and therefore which statement they need to check.

If a donor enters incorrect micro-deposit amounts and the verification fails, the gift moves to the “pledged_failed” state and cannot be recovered through GiveCampus. This failure process is separate from the 30-day expiration: if a gift remains unconfirmed when the deadline passes, its state changes to “pledged_unpaid.”