Making Heaven Crowded
How to give by PayPal to Making Heaven Crowded
Any amount, PayPal’s own buttons on our giving screen, and a receipt as soon as PayPal confirms.
Choose PayPal, press the PayPal button, and approve in PayPal’s window
To give by PayPal, open the giving page, choose any amount, enter your details, and select PayPal as the method. The next screen shows PayPal’s own checkout buttons. Pressing one opens a PayPal window where you sign in, or pay with a card, and approve the gift. You start and finish on the Making Heaven Crowded site.
PayPal is the most flexible of the digital methods here. It takes any amount rather than only the five presets, it needs no reference code, and once PayPal reports the payment complete our side marks the gift received straight away.
What you need ready
You need either a PayPal account or a card that PayPal will accept. The giving page describes the method as paying with your PayPal balance or card. You also need an amount. The giving page accepts anything from $1 up to $100,000, whether you tap a preset or type your own.
As with every method, the giving page asks for your name, email and mailing address first, because the receipt is written to them. Have those handy so the PayPal step is the only thing left to do.
The five steps, in order
- Open the giving page and pick an amount, or type your own in the box for another amount.
- Tick the monthly box if you want the gift to repeat. The monthly section below explains how that works with PayPal.
- Enter your name, email and mailing address and continue.
- Choose PayPal from the list of methods.
- On the next screen, press the PayPal button. PayPal’s window opens so you can sign in or pay with a card, then approve the payment.
- When the payment completes you are sent to a thank-you screen with your gift summary.
What happens inside PayPal’s window
The sign-in and approval happen in PayPal’s own popup or redirect. That is how PayPal keeps your login and card details off the Making Heaven Crowded site, so we never see them. You begin and end on our page, but the middle step belongs to PayPal.
When you approve, the page asks PayPal to capture the payment and checks that the captured order matches the reference code of your gift. Only then is the gift marked received and the receipt email sent. If the capture does not complete, the screen shows the message “That didn’t go through. Please try again.”
The fee on each preset gift
PayPal takes about 2.9% plus 30 cents of each gift. These are estimates worked from that rate, not figures from a statement. Compare them with Zelle, where the full amount arrives.
- A $25 gift loses about $1.03 to fees.
- A $50 gift loses about $1.75.
- A $100 gift loses about $3.20.
- A $250 gift loses about $7.55.
- A $500 gift loses about $14.80.
A fixed 30 cents weighs more on a small gift than a large one. If that matters to you, the page on ways to donate lists which methods carry a fee and which do not.
The backup link
The giving screen waits about six seconds for PayPal’s buttons. If they do not load, it switches to a backup. Your reference code appears under the words “Put this in the payment note,” along with a button reading “Open PayPal and send your gift,” which opens a PayPal.me link with your amount filled in.
On the backup route, add the code to the PayPal note, send the gift, then come back and press “I’ve sent my gift.” Unlike the embedded buttons, the backup does not tell us automatically, so the team matches the gift by its code, usually within a day.
Making a PayPal gift repeat
Tick the monthly box on the giving page before you continue. After your first PayPal gift, the giving page says the team will email you a link to set up the automatic monthly gift, so use an email address you check. Because PayPal takes any amount, a monthly gift can be a number like $35 that card checkout could not offer.
The walk-through of how each method handles repeating gifts is on the page about giving monthly to Making Heaven Crowded.
Your gift summary and receipt
With the embedded buttons the gift is marked received once PayPal confirms, so the thank-you screen can show an official receipt rather than a pending summary. A copy of the receipt is emailed to the address you entered. What each line on it means is covered in the guide to your donation receipt and reference code.
Your gift may be tax-deductible, and the page on whether a gift is tax-deductible explains how to confirm the organization’s 501(c)(3) status for yourself. Questions go to Makingheavencrowdedtampa@gmail.com or (941) 718-2867.
Related pages and sources
Prefer another route? Compare every option on the page about ways to donate to Making Heaven Crowded, or start a gift on the giving page. To pay by card instead, read about giving by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Giving by PayPal
- Can I give any amount through PayPal?
- Yes. The giving page accepts any amount from $1 up to $100,000, whether you tap one of the five presets or type your own. That makes PayPal one of the two digital methods that work for a custom amount, along with Zelle.
- Do I need a PayPal account to give?
- The giving page describes the method as paying with your PayPal balance or card. Whether PayPal lets you check out by card without an account is PayPal’s decision and can vary. If it does not, card at a preset amount or Zelle are the sure alternatives.
- Do I need a reference code for PayPal?
- Not with the embedded buttons, because PayPal confirms the payment to us directly. You only need the code on the backup route, where you add it to the PayPal note so the team can match the gift.
- What does PayPal cost the organization?
- About 2.9% plus 30 cents of each gift. On a $100 gift that is about $3.20. Zelle and a mailed check carry no fee.
- What if the PayPal buttons will not load?
- After about six seconds the screen switches to a backup link that opens PayPal with your amount filled in, plus a reference code to put in the note. Press the sent-my-gift button when you are done.
- Can I make a PayPal gift monthly?
- Yes. Tick the monthly box before you continue. After your first gift, the team emails you a link to set up the automatic monthly gift.
Questions? Email Makingheavencrowdedtampa@gmail.com or call (941) 718-2867.