So Tell Me,

Why PayPal Payments Pro?

When you decide to take credit card payments on your website, you need two things:

A Merchant Account (a business account that supports credit card transactions)
A Payment Gateway (the financial service that actually processes the payment)

PayPal Payments Pro includes both things in one account, for a very reasonable price. Plus, PayPal is one of the most familiar, reliable and secure financial institutions on the internet.

Wait a Minute,

I Already Have a Merchant Account!

Payflow Gateway is a separate service that can be used with merchant accounts from other providers. If you already have a merchant account through your bank or another vendor, contact your provider and ask to be switched to Payflow Gateway. Visit PayPal Payflow Gateway online for more information.

NOTE: If you would like to see Friend Tree Fundraising support another gateway, drop us an email to let us know!

THE BOTTOM LINE*

Friend Tree Fundraising requires a merchant account gateway in order to function. Payflow Gateway is included with PayPal Payments Pro accounts, or is available separately to be used with other merchant accounts.

* Except for the other lines below this one.

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Alright Already...,

What Do I Have To Do?

If you already have a Payflow Gateway account, skip directly to step 5.

Visit PayPal Payflow Pro to sign up. We recommend that you speak directly to a customer service rep by calling this phone number: (1-877-455-1505). Remember, you can also upgrade an existing free PayPal account to PayPal Payments Pro.
Tell your rep that you want a PayPal Payments Pro business account, and that you want to use Payflow Gateway to host a custom payment solution on your own website.
Be prepared with banking information for your organization. PayPal will want know how you plan to pay the monthly fee and where they should deposit your donations. If you are a non-profit organization, you qualify for a lower transaction fee, so let your customer service rep know and be prepared to answer PayPal's additional questions!
It may take 24 to 48 hours for PayPal to approve and activate your new account. Proceed to the next step only when your account is active.
Visit the Account Administration tab in your PayPal Manager and add a new user account authorized for "API_LIMITED_TRANSACTIONS". Take note of the User Login Name and User Password.
Login to your Friend Tree Member portal. Scroll to the section labeled "PayPal API Credentials". Enter your PayPal Merchant Login - the same one you use to login to PayPal - and the User Login and User Password for the PayPal "API_LIMITED_TRANSACTIONS" user account you created. Click the "Save Info" button to commit your changes.

It is a good idea to run a test transaction using a real credit card to make sure everything is working the way it should. If you don't actually want to make a real donation, it's easy to subsequently void or refund the transaction using your PayPal manager!

Once your credentials have been entered and tested successfully, you are ready to start taking donations!