DAFpay for Donation Forms
What is DAFpay?
DAFpay (powered by Chariot) lets donors give directly from a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) on your donation forms. It adds a “DAF Pay” button next to your other payment options on the billing step.
At a Glance (the 4 things you must do)
Enable DAFpay in Payment Gateways (Digital Wallets → DAFpay).
Note
You can enable DAFpay alongside other Digital Wallet options (e.g., Stripe for Apple/Google Pay and PayPal).
Claim your Chariot account (watch for an email to the contact you entered).
Assign DAFpay to the forms you want (recommended: set at Defaults so it shows on all donation forms; you can still override per form).
Verify the button appears on a test donation form (meets “DAF button shows” conditions).
Before You Begin
You will need to be an admin with Payment Gateway Admin permissions to control Payment Gateway setting. You can also contact Encompass support to help with your configuration.
Have your organization’s EIN and a contact email ready. Chariot uses these to match/verify your nonprofit. The claim/activation workflow depends on whether you already have a Chariot account for that EIN.
Decide if you want DAFpay on all donation forms by default or just on specific ones. (We recommend enabling it at Site Defaults or Community Defaults so it isn’t “one-form-only.”)
Configuration
Step 1: Enable DAFpay
In Encompass, select Payment Gateways from the Gold Key menu.
Select Create Payment Gateway Account.
Gateway Account Name: choose something clear (e.g., “Digital Wallets – Chariot (DAF Pay)” if you are only using DAFpay for your needs).
Payment Gateway: select Digital Wallets.
In the Digital Wallets section, select Chariot (DAF Pay).
Enter the Contact Email and the EIN and select Save.
This creates the connection to your Chariot account and tells Encompass you want to use Chariot (DAFpay).
Step 2: Claim Your Chariot Account
If your organization is new to Chariot (no existing account for that EIN/email):
Chariot sends a claim/activation email to the Contact Email you entered.
Open that email and complete the claim steps to activate your Chariot account.
If your organization already has a Chariot account (same EIN/email):
No claim email is sent.
In Payment Gateways ▸ Accounts ▸ Edit (your Digital Wallets – DAFpay entry), you’ll see the connection status.ted/Linked state or a manage link).
Step 3: Make DAFpay Appear Where You Need It
You have two ways to assign a gateway. Pick one (or combine them) based on your rollout plan.
Option A: Community default (Recommended)
Use this to avoid the “only on one form” problem.
Go to Payment Gateways.
In Default Donations Gateway Account, ensure your primary donations gateway is set.
Add/enable your Digital Wallets (Chariot / DAFpay) so it’s available for donation forms.
Select Update.
Why this matters: Setting defaults ensures every new or existing donation form uses DAFpay automatically unless you intentionally override a specific form.
Option B: Form-by-form assignment (for pilots or exceptions)
Go to Payment Gateways ▸ Donations.
Choose your Donation Campaign (form).
Gateway Account: select your primary gateway and ensure Digital Wallets (Chariot / DAFpay) is assigned for that form.
Click Add (or Save) to apply.
Tip
Use Option A for broad coverage and Option B to fine-tune special forms.
Step 4: Verify the DAF Pay Button Appears
Open a donation form and check the billing step. The DAF Pay button appears when all of the following are true:
The form is a donation form (not merged with an event form).
The form is assigned to use the DAFpay-enabled Digital Wallets gateway (via defaults or per-form assignment).
The gateway is set as a Primary or Secondary option for that form.
One-time payment is selected (DAFpay does not show for scheduled/perpetual).
The primary gateway is not hosted.
The DAF Pay button will not appear if;
A commerce item is added to the form.
Scheduled or perpetual payments are selected.
The donation form is merged with an event form.
The primary gateway is hosted.
Additional Details
I only see DAFpay on one form.
You likely assigned it only on that form. Set it in Site Defaults (or Community Defaults) so it applies everywhere by default.
Button missing on a particular donation form.
Check the four “shows when” conditions above; most misses are due to scheduled payments, commerce items, or hosted primary.
Didn’t receive the claim email.
Confirm the Contact Email in the gateway account is correct and check spam. If needed, temporarily change to an alternate admin email and re-save to trigger a resend.
Site controls vs Communities.
If you set Site Defaults but a community overrides donations gateways, configure Community Defaults for that community as well.
Other Support Pages That May Be Helpful
Explains Gateway Admin rights, Accounts, and how to set Site/Community Defaults or per-form assignments. Use this when you need to add/edit the gateway and assign it broadly.
DAFpay is enabled inside the Digital Wallets gateway account. That page explains Digital Wallet concepts, primary vs. secondary assignment, and general wallet behavior. Use it for gateway setup patterns and system requirements.