Sending Pay Links
In Engage, Copy Pay Link needs the Process Donations or Act In Accounts permission, and Send Pay Link needs Process Donations. The action that emails the link is set up in the Admin area, so that needs someone with administrator access.
A pay link lets a donor pay a donation that is still waiting for its money. It opens your My Account page on that donation, where the donor sees what they owe and pays it at checkout. You can copy a link and send it yourself, have Engage email it to the donor, or put it in any email template on the Donation model.
Which donations have a pay link
A donation has a pay link when it belongs to an account, its status is Awaiting Payment or Payment Failed, and some of it is still to be paid. A donation with no account, such as an anonymous one, has no pay link. Pay links also need your platform pages to be published with a domain.
The pay link options appear only on a donation that has a pay link, and only to someone with the permission each one needs.
Copying a pay link
- Open the donation's details page, by searching for the donation or from the Giving section of the donor's account.
- On the Donation Details card, select the ⋯ button, then Copy Pay Link.
- Engage copies the link and says "The pay link has been copied to your clipboard." Paste it into your message to the donor.
Each time you copy a pay link you get a new one, which works for 14 days from then.
Emailing a pay link
Send Pay Link asks Engage to email the link to the donor. Engage does this through an action, so set one up first, as described below. Without an action, nothing is sent.
- On the Donation Details card, select the ⋯ button, then Send Pay Link.
- Engage asks you to confirm, naming the amount awaiting payment: "The donor will be sent a link to pay the £50.00 awaiting payment." Select Send.
- Engage says "The pay link is being sent to the donor.", and your action sends the email.
Setting up the action
- In Engage, select Admin, then Communication, then Actions, and select + Add Action.
- Give the action a Name.
- Under What kind of entity is this action related to?, choose Donation.
- In Select Signals, choose Single Donation Pay Link Requested, Regular Donation Pay Link Requested and Scheduled Donation Pay Link Requested. Engage raises the one that matches the kind of donation, so choosing all three sends the email whatever kind it is.
- Choose your template under Email. Set its Template Models to Donation, and include the pay link field described below.
- Select Save.
The rest of the Actions screen is described in Actions, and creating a template in Email Templates.
The pay link merge field
The pay link is a merge field on the Donation model, so any email template on that model can include it, not only the one your action sends. In the template editor it is Links, then Pay.
| Field | Syntax | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Links › Pay | {{donation.links.pay}} | A link that opens My Account on this donation |
Use it as the address of a link or button, for example <a href="{{donation.links.pay}}">Pay now</a>.
The link is made when the email is generated, so each email carries a link that works for 14 days from then. An email sent from a list of donations connected to correspondence, as described in Sending Out Templates Automatically in Bulk via Lists, uses the same model, so it can include the link too.
The field is empty when the donation has no pay link, as described above, or when your platform pages are not published with a domain.