Donorfy is one of the most widely used CRMs among UK charities, and its data model is built around constituents, transactions and declarations, which is exactly the shape of a donation. Tinwell writes each donation from your WordPress site into Donorfy through Donorfy’s official API as it happens, so the constituent record, the transaction and the Gift Aid declaration are in place within seconds and reconciled to the payment.
What gets written to Donorfy
- The constituent. Name, email, postal address and phone from the form, matched to an existing constituent by Donorfy’s duplicate rules where one exists, created where not.
- The transaction. Amount, date, payment method, the fund and campaign you have mapped, and the Stripe or GoCardless reference, so finance can reconcile without a spreadsheet.
- Regular giving. A monthly gift creates the regular payment instruction in Donorfy, and each collection is written as a transaction when it is taken.
- The Gift Aid declaration. Recorded against the constituent with its date and wording, so Donorfy’s own Gift Aid reporting agrees with Tinwell’s HMRC export.
- Consent and preferences. The contact choices made on the form, applied to the constituent’s communication preferences.
Matching and duplicates
Tinwell uses Donorfy’s matching so that a known supporter’s online gift lands on their existing record and updates lifetime giving, last gift and frequency. Where a confident match is not possible the constituent is created and flagged, so your database manager reviews a short list rather than untangling merges later.
Timing and reliability
The write happens on successful payment, typically within three seconds, with no batch schedule. If Donorfy cannot be reached the write is retried, unless it timed out and may already be in Donorfy, in which case it is held for you to check rather than sent twice; the donation itself has already been taken by Stripe or GoCardless and is never at risk.
Setting it up
- In Donorfy, create API credentials for Tinwell.
- In Tinwell’s settings, open Integrations, choose Donorfy and enter the credentials.
- Map Tinwell campaigns and fund pots to Donorfy funds, campaigns and products as you report on them.
- Make a £1 test donation, check the constituent, transaction and declaration in Donorfy, then refund it in Stripe.
The docs cover each step. With the free onboarding add-on at checkout our team will connect Donorfy and run the test with you.
Why this matters for Gift Aid
Charities on Donorfy often claim Gift Aid from Donorfy’s reports. Because Tinwell writes the declaration to the constituent as well as keeping its own copy, you can claim from whichever system your finance process uses and the two will agree. The Gift Aid guide explains the declaration rules and Tinwell’s Charities Online export.
Rather see Tinwell than read about it? Open the live demo to try the donation form, the donor portal and the admin dashboard with sample data.
Why keep the form on WordPress
Donorfy has its own web forms, and for a charity without a developer they are a reasonable way to take gifts. The case for Tinwell alongside Donorfy is the donor’s experience and what you can see of it. A Tinwell form is part of your own page, in your own theme, with Apple Pay, Google Pay and GoCardless Direct Debit on the same form, and your analytics see every step of the funnel. The Gift Aid declaration is captured with the HMRC fields and exported for Charities Online, and the trustee report comes out of the same data. Donorfy stays the system of record; the website becomes a better place to give.
Working with your Donorfy consultant
Many charities have a Donorfy partner who set up their funds, campaigns and reports. Involve them for an hour when you connect Tinwell: they will know which codes your finance team reports on and whether any custom fields should be mapped. Tinwell’s mapping screen is deliberately simple so that a consultant can check it in one sitting, and the £1 test donations are the quickest way for them to confirm the records look right.
What is shared, and on what basis
Tinwell sends Donorfy only what the donor entered on your form and what the payment produced: identity and contact details, the gift, the regular schedule, the consent choices and the Gift Aid declaration status. It does not send card or bank details; those stay with Stripe and GoCardless. Your charity is the data controller for both the website and Donorfy, so the transfer is between two of your own processors and should be described in your privacy notice as part of how you process donations. A line such as “we record your donation and contact preferences in our supporter database” covers it; your data protection lead may want the exact wording.
Reconciliation at month end
Because every transaction written to Donorfy carries the Stripe or GoCardless payment reference, finance can tie the CRM to the payout statements without a mapping spreadsheet. The usual month-end routine becomes: export the period from Stripe and GoCardless, compare the totals with Tinwell’s dashboard and with Donorfy’s reports for the same dates, and investigate only the lines that differ, which are nearly always refunds or failed Direct Debit collections. Tinwell marks refunds and failures on the donor record so they are visible in both places.
Before you go live
- Agree which Donorfy funds, campaigns and codes each Tinwell campaign and fund pot maps to, and who owns changing the mapping when a new appeal starts.
- Decide how new, unmatched donors should be handled: created and flagged for review, or created silently. Tinwell’s default is to flag.
- Run a £1 test as a brand-new donor and again as an existing supporter, and check both records in Donorfy before refunding in Stripe.
- Set up a monthly test gift and confirm the schedule appears in Donorfy, then cancel it in the donor portal and confirm that is reflected too.
- Add the website donation process to your data protection records and privacy notice.
Frequently asked questions
The integration writes donations from the moment it is connected. If you have historic online donations in another platform, talk to us about the best way to bring them across; the answer depends on where they are now and how Donorfy is set up.
The donation is already taken by Stripe or GoCardless and recorded in Tinwell. A write Donorfy refused, or never received, is retried automatically. A write that timed out may already be in Donorfy, so Tinwell holds it rather than risk recording the income twice: check Donorfy, then use Resolve on that write in the Actions log under Settings.
Tinwell matches on the details Donorfy uses for duplicates and flags anything it cannot match with confidence rather than guessing. It will not fix existing duplicates, but it will not add to them silently either.
No. Every integration is included in the licence. Donorfy’s own subscription is between you and Donorfy.
See all integrations, the features, or pricing. The Donorfy integration is included in the licence.