NGP VAN Payments in ActionKit

Overview

NGP VAN Payments offers great rates out of the box, 3.25%, and we're working hard to make it the most competitive fundraising platform available to your campaigns.

Unlike other payment processors supported by ActionKit such as Braintree, you create and manage your NGP VAN Payments account entirely within ActionKit. Create an account through the ActionKit admin and start accepting donations on the same day.

NGP VAN Payments is powered by Stripe.

Get Started

To get started with NGP VAN Payments on ActionKit:

  1. Create an NGP VAN Payments account for your organization.
  2. Make sure your templateset supports VGS.
  3. Create a donation page that uses the new account.
  4. QA your page.
  5. Start fundraising using NGP VAN Payments on ActionKit!

Account List

The NGP VAN Payments Account List shows the accounts that already exist in your instance. It's also where you start the process of creating a new account.

Navigate to the account list from the Pages tab, click the Donations drop-down on the sidebar, and then "NGP VAN Payments".

For each account, you'll see the account name in ActionKit, and the following details about the account:

  • Bank Account - The external bank account of your organization that receives payouts.
  • Charges Enabled - Whether this account can be used to collect donations. For accounts that are incomplete, charges will not be enabled.
  • Payouts Enabled - Whether this account can pay out to the bank account of your organization. For accounts that don't have an external bank account configured, payouts will not be enabled.
  • Account Status - 'OK' if there are no issues with the account, otherwise lists any issues will be listed.

Onboarding

To create an NGP VAN Payments account, go to the NGP VAN Payments Account List.

Click "New NGP VAN Payments account". You'll then be asked for some basic details, such as your organization's name and address. To complete the process, a representative of your organization, such as an Executive Director or Senior Manager, must provide their personal details and confirm their identity. You'll also need to provide your organization's bank details for payouts from your NGP VAN Payments account.

If you'd previously started to sign up for an account, click "Finish account setup" to pick up where you left off.

Once you've finished account setup, you can click "Update account" to change contact or address details.

Payouts

Donations, less processing fees, are added to the balance of your NGP VAN Payments account.

Payouts are made from your NGP VAN Payments account to your bank account on a 2-day rolling basis.

Reporting

Balance, reconciliation, and payments-list reporting gives you a clear view of what's happening with your donations.

With each report type, specify the dates and select an account.

The balance and reconciliation report pages both start with the same Balance Summary.

Reconciliation

The reconciliation report then has sections on payout reconciliation and ending balance reconciliation.

  • Payout reconciliation: breaks down the balance summary's total payouts, including a downloadable list of the charges that went into each payout during the dates of the report.
  • Ending balance reconciliation: breaks down the balance summary's ending balance, including a downloadable list of charges that haven't been paid out yet.

Balance

The balance report then has sections on balance change from activity and payouts.

  • Balance change from activity: breaks down the balance summary's account activity, including a downloadable list of each action (charge, refund, transfer) except payouts.
  • Payouts: breaks down the balance summary's total payouts, including a downloadable list of payouts during the dates of the report.

Payments List

Use the Payments List to see details on all payments that happened between the dates of your report. This screen shows basic details about each charge, including date, status (succeeded, refunded), amount, and basic details of the donor.

Click a row for more details about the donation and the donor, or to initiate a refund.

Page Configuration

If you've created an NGP VAN Payments account through the ActionKit admin, you'll be able to configure your donation pages to use this account.

Donation pages using NGP VAN Payments work the same as other donation pages, however, only US / USD donations are supported at this time.

Templateset

NGP VAN Payments on ActionKit uses VGS for PCI compliance, so your page's templateset must support VGS. If your templateset is less than ~2 years old, or is used with Payflow Pro, then it should already support VGS. If you're unsure about whether your templateset supports VGS, please contact ActionKit support.

An upcoming release will include a new donation template exclusive to NGP VAN Payments. NGP VAN Payments is powered by Stripe, and the new template will use Stripe Elements for the donation form and Stripe.js for PCI compliance, these pages will take advantage of Stripe's functionality and optimizations.

If your templateset doesn't already support VGS, consider waiting for the new donation template to be published later this year.