Is making a donation through Firstgiving secure?

Our site provides the highest level of e-commerce security in order to protect your credit or debit card information at every step of the donation process.

In partnership with NatWest Streamline, we use industry standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology that encrypts all of your personal information, including card details, so that it cannot be read as it travels over the Internet.

This technology makes our site one of the most secure ways of making donations to charity. In fact, you run a far greater risk of becoming a victim of credit-card fraud by giving your card details to an unknown person over the telephone than by making an Internet payment using SSL.

For more information, please visit Firstgiving Security Policy.

How do I make an anonymous donation?

After you have submitted your credit card information, the next page titled Please confirm your donation has a text field located at the bottom of the screen titled display name. If you do not want your name to display on your friend's fundraising page, type anonymous and click confirm to submit your donation.

Please note - Your real name will be shared with the page owner in their secure online account and also with the organization for which they are raising funds. For more information, please visit Firstgiving Privacy Policy.

If you already made your donation and wish to have it display as anonymous, please contact us at support@firstgiving.com to change this for you.

What causes a card validation error?

There could be a number of reasons why you are unable to proceed. Please check all of the following:

1. Have you entered spaces in the card number box? If so, please remove them.
2. Does your card have a valid expiry date?

If you have looked into these possibilities and are still unable to make a donation, please try another credit card or contact your credit card company and let it know you want to make the donation. Sometimes for security reasons credit card companies put a charge on hold until the card owner confirms the charge is legitimate. Once you have confirmed you want to make this donation, return to your friend’s page and try again.

My company provides matching gifts, what do I need to do?

If your company runs a matching gift program, here's how to make sure that your company pitches in and matches your donation:

Ask your Human Resources Department for their instructions regarding matching gifts (they may have a paper form for you to fill out or a web address for you to visit). Look at the instructions to make sure you know what information you'll have to fill in.

Contact the friend you donated to and ask him/her for the charity’s contact information (charity name and address, contact name and phone number).

Fill in the charity information according to your HR instructions, along with information about the amount of your donation and proof that you actually donated (Firstgiving sends you an email titled Donation Acknowledgment after your donation has been processed, and this should be sufficient proof. If not, please contact the charity directly.).

I live outside the USA, can I make a donation?

Yes, One of the perks of raising money through Firstgiving is that friends from around the world can easily donate to Personal Fundraising Pages. Please note all funds are raised in US dollars and donations must be made with VISA or MasterCard charge cards. Our system is not set-up to take international debit cards.

When I make my donation, what form of payment can I use?

To make a donation to a Firstgiving online Personal Fundraising Page, you can use either VISA or MasterCard charge cards. Unfortunately, our US system is not set-up to take international debit cards.

How do I make an offline donation?

If you prefer to make an offline donation, please contact the fundraiser first. The fundraiser may prefer to have the checks sent to his/her home, so that s/he can track donations. Also, s/he might need to write certain information (e.g. their name or the event name) in the memo line.

Can I get a receipt for tax purposes?

Once your donation has processed, you will receive an e-mail titled Donation Acknowledgment.
You can print this e-mail for your records. However, please note that Firstgiving is not an accounting, taxation or financial advisor, and you should not rely on information given on this site to determine the accounting, tax or financial consequences of making donations to charity. We strongly recommend that you consult your own advisor/s about any accounting, taxation or financial consequences that may affect you.