About the PayPal & Venmo Add-On

To modernize your fundraising, enable the PayPal and Venmo add-on in Bloomerang CRM.

PayPal and Venmo are payment services that help people send and receive money online. When you enable the add-on, PayPal and Venmo payment buttons appear on your online giving forms. Donors can make a one-time donation and pay with any method saved in their PayPal or Venmo account—credit and debit cards, bank accounts, gift cards, and account balances.

When your supporters can use a favorite, trusted payment service to donate with ease, they’re more likely to give. Additional payment methods can also help attract new donors.

This article explains how the add-on works. To enable the add-on, view Enable the PayPal & Venmo Add-On.

To use this add-on, you must:

If you disconnect the Bloomerang Payments processor, the PayPal & Venmo add-on automatically disconnects, and PayPal & Venmo no longer appear as payment options on your online giving forms.

Donors can use PayPal and Venmo to pay for one-time donations, but not for recurring donations or pledges. For information about recurring donations in existing PayPal accounts, view the Existing PayPal Accounts section on this page.

In Bloomerang CRM, enable the PayPal & Venmo add-on. We’ll prompt you to enter your business information, which we’ll send to PayPal.

PayPal verifies the information you submit, which takes one to three business days. PayPal might require you to upload additional identification documents.

While PayPal verifies your business information, the PayPal & Venmo status in Bloomerang CRM is Pending. After PayPal verifies your business information, the PayPal & Venmo status in Bloomerang CRM changes to Connected. We’ll also email you when the status changes.

For information about how to view the status in Bloomerang CRM, view Enable the PayPal & Venmo Add-On.

While the status is Pending, PayPal and Venmo payment buttons appear automatically on:

If you have existing custom self-hosted forms embedded on your website, you must complete an additional step after PayPal verifies your information: Regenerate the full form code and copy the full form code to your website.

While the status is Pending, you can accept up to $500 in payments from PayPal and Venmo combined. After the status changes to Connected, this limit no longer applies.

PayPal and Venmo buttons appear in addition to other payment methods. You cannot configure your forms to accept only PayPal and Venmo payments.

Donors visit your website and click to donate.

On your online giving form, donors select PayPal or Venmo from the payment method list. They can also select to help cover processing fees if you enabled that option in the form settings.

To pay with PayPal or Venmo, donors must make a one-time donation. If a donor selects Show my support by making this a monthly donation and pays with PayPal or Venmo, the donation is processed as a one-time donation. A recurring donation schedule is not created.

To complete the payment, donors click either PayPal or Venmo

Donors who click PayPal see a prompt to sign in to a PayPal account. Donors can also create a new PayPal account and pay for their donation at the same time.

If donors click Venmo on a mobile device:

If donors click Venmo on a computer:

Bloomerang CRM processes PayPal and Venmo payments. To understand how the connection to PayPal works, view the Bloomerang CRM Connection to PayPal and Venmo section on this page.

If you enable email receipts, Bloomerang CRM emails a transaction receipt to donors.

PayPal sends daily payouts to your organization. You can view the payout date and total in Bloomerang CRM.

For information about how to view payouts, view Bloomerang Payments Payouts.

To change the bank account on record, email [email protected].

PayPal and Venmo transactions appear on the constituent timelines in Bloomerang CRM. In the donation details, Processed by PayPal or Processed by Venmo appears.

You can also run reports to view PayPal and Venmo transactions processed in Bloomerang CRM.

For example, create a transaction report. Add the Method filter and select PayPal and Venmo.

Add the Online Form filter and select one or more of your online giving forms. The report results show constituents who used that form to donate, and who used PayPal or Venmo to pay.

In the report list, add the Method column to see the payment method.

For more information about how to run reports, view Create Reports.

You can refund PayPal or Venmo transactions directly in Bloomerang CRM.

The refunded amount returns to the original PayPal or Venmo payment method. In Bloomerang CRM, the constituent’s transaction history reflects the refund.
For information about refunds, view Refund or Delete Donations.

When you enable the PayPal & Venmo add-on, Bloomerang CRM manages the connection to PayPal and Venmo for you. Bloomerang CRM acts as the Merchant of Record, the intermediary between your organization and PayPal/Venmo.

With this add-on, you do not create separate PayPal and Venmo business accounts. This means you can easily accept payments without spending time on PayPal and Venmo account management.

PayPal owns Venmo. When you enable this add-on, Bloomerang CRM connects to both PayPal and Venmo so your donors have both options. You cannot connect to only PayPal or only Venmo.

Bloomerang CRM manages the PayPal connection for you, which means you cannot connect to an existing PayPal or Venmo account in Bloomerang CRM.

If you continue to process donations outside of Bloomerang CRM in an existing PayPal or Venmo account, including fundraising through QR codes, you can:

For more information about entering historical transactions, view Payment Methods.

If you have an existing PayPal business account that includes recurring donation schedules, you cannot migrate those schedules to Bloomerang CRM at this time.

Fees for PayPal and Venmo transactions are calculated per transaction. For information about transaction fees, view Payment Processing Pricing.

There is no cost to enable the PayPal & Venmo add-on.

PayPal security measures help protect your organization and constituents. Take advantage of PayPal fraud monitoring and prevention, buyer and seller protections, encryption, and PCI compliance.

For more information about security, view PayPal Security Technology on the PayPal website.