Let’s face it, rescues cannot live on adoption fees alone and donations are our life blood! But then there’s the tedious part of getting a donation — sending receipts, tracking the donations for end of year receipts, and all that fun stuff. Well, Buzz makes it easy to track donations, send receipts and much more – all automatically! So, let’s get the various sections of the Donation Module set up and make your life just a little easier!

First, you need to go to your Dashboard and choose Donations >Settings.

1. The first screen which automatically pops up is General. Pick your country and state (for multi- state rescues, pick your “home base). Then click Save Changes.
2. Since the object is to get money into your account, next click on Payment Gateways to set up the link to your receiving account. Generally, this is your PayPal account, although the site does support Stripe. (If you don’t have PayPal and/or use Stripe, please contact support for assistance.)
3. Under Payment Gateways:
   • Under Test Mode click Disabled. This will ensure your donations go to the real account and don’t get stuck in PayPal’s sandbox (no, not the kind we played in as kids, but a “dead zone” in the gateway. If enabled here, it allows you to test a payment processor without having to pay the transaction you have submitted. Use this option to test the behavior of your payment gateway (e.g. PayPal, Stripe) after submitting your form and find the settings best suited to your needs.) You may need to turn it on later, but disable it for now.
   • Under Enabled Gateways, it should read PayPal. Just click on the Default button to – gee- make it your default method of receiving donations. Then make sure the Enabled box is checked.

   Remember to click the Save Changes button before moving on to the next screen. If you don’t click Save Changes, you will get a gentle reminder:

Now you can consider yourself a computer programmer since you have now mapped where to send the donations sure to be generated through your website!