How do refunds work?
We ask all donors to contact you directly if they'd like a refund, so it's your choice whether you offer refunds on donations. We also suggest that fundraisers email their donors to explain this situation before asking for a refund, and normally donors don't mind their donation staying with the charity.
Refunds through JustGiving
Please be aware that we can only refund donations made via Debit/Credit card, PayPal, or Google/Apple pay*. We also cannot refund donations made over 6 months ago, these will need to be refunded by the charity directly.
Here's how it works:
- If you’d like us to refund the donation on your charity’s behalf, please contact us with the donation reference number, donor name and donor email address. If the donation is over £500, please let us know a brief reason for the refund.
- If, for example, a fundraiser is no longer taking part in an event and has requested that all donations to their page are refunded, you can give us their fundraising page web address rather than supply each and every donor’s details. We can then use the web address to access the information we need to arrange the refunds.
- The funds are paid straight back onto the donor’s card and we normally process our refunds on Tuesdays and Fridays. If we’ve already paid the donation to you, the refund will be taken from your next donation payment. It will appear with a minus sign in red on your payment report.
- UK ONLY - If the Gift Aid was paid to you from the refunded donation, this will be taken from your next Gift Aid payment. At the same time, we'll also refund you the fees relating to that donation.
*We're currently unable to refund donations made through "Secure bank transfer". We are working to get a secure process in place, which may allow us to do so in the future.
What does a minus sign against a donation mean in our payment reports?
A minus sign appears next to a donation when the donation has been refunded.
Refunded donations appear in your charity payment report with the same donation reference numbers as the original donations. This means you can cross reference them with the initial payment reports they appeared in.
If you’d like to confirm why a donation was refunded, please contact us and we’ll be able to check using the donation reference number.
Why am I seeing a refunded Direct Debit donation in our payment reports? (UK Only)
If JustGiving is unable to process a Direct Debit donation, providing the bank informs us in time, we'll do our best to ensure your charity is not paid the funds. However, on some occasions the donations may have already been paid across which may result in us having to take a refund from a subsequent donation payment. Your donor will receive an email notification that we were unable to process their monthly donation.
How do refunds work for BBMS users? (US Only)
You will process refunds through your BBMS account, when you deem it is appropriate. When you do, you must also contact us with the JustGiving donation reference number, donor name and donor email address in order to also remove the donation from your donation history in your BBP2P account. This Blackbaud Knowledgebase article explains how to refund a donation in BBMS in more detail.
Refund Report
Your donation refund report shows you all the information you need to know about the donations made to your charity on JustGiving, but have since been refunded at the donor’s request, over a certain time period. Visit this help article for more information on this report.