Donation receipts — how they work and how to customize them

Every successful donation on Pledgix can generate a professional PDF receipt, emailed to the donor automatically. Here's how the flow works and what you control.

The automatic receipt flow

When a donation completes:

1. Pledgix generates a PDF receipt with a unique receipt number, the donor's name, the amount, the date, and your organization's details.
2. The receipt is emailed to the address the donor entered at checkout, with the PDF attached (named like Donation-Receipt-XXXX.pdf).
3. Donors who have a Pledgix donor account can also see their full donation history and use Download Receipt in their own portal at any time.

Receipts are sent for donations whose payment actually succeeded — Approved donations. Pending, failed, and refunded donations never trigger a receipt.

Anonymous donations get a receipt too — anonymity hides the donor's name from the public, not from their own inbox.

When a receipt is NOT sent automatically

• No email on file — manual or imported donations without an email address can't receive one.
• Phone donations — gifts made through the automated phone line don't collect an email, so no email receipt is sent. Instead, the phone line offers the donor a receipt by text message right after the donation (press 2 in the after-donation menu).
• Silent entries and spreadsheet imports — donations recorded with the silent-entry option, and imported rows (imports are silent by default), never trigger receipts or notifications.
• Auto-send turned off — if you've disabled automatic sending in your receipt settings, receipts are only sent when you trigger them manually.

Customizing your receipts and thank-you email

Your campaign's thank-you email and receipt settings let you shape what donors receive:

• Auto-send toggle — turn automatic receipt emails on or off for the whole campaign.
• Organization Name — the name that appears on the receipt.
• Tax ID — shown on the receipt for donors who need it for tax purposes.
• Organization Logo — upload your logo to brand the receipt and email.
• Primary Brand Color — matches the receipt design to your branding.
• Email subject and body — write your own thank-you message.
• Legal footer text — add any required tax-deductibility or legal language.

A live preview shows exactly how the email will look before you save.

Resending a receipt

Donors lose emails; addresses get typo'd. To resend:

1. Open your campaign's Donations tab and find the donation.
2. Open the row's actions menu and choose Resend Receipt.
3. You'll see a confirmation like "Receipt queued for donor@example.com" — the fresh PDF and email go out within moments.

Resending works even if auto-send is disabled for your campaign — a manual resend always sends.

A resend isn't possible when:

• The donation isn't in a successful status (you'll see why — for example, you can't send a receipt for a pending donation).
• The donation has no email address on file. Add the donor's email by editing the donation first, then resend. Anonymous gifts with an email on file can be resent like any other donation.

Tip: If a donor typed the wrong email at checkout, edit the donation to correct the email address, then use Resend Receipt — the new email goes to the corrected address.

Team notifications

Separately from donor receipts, team members can be notified by email or text message when a donation comes in for their team, if you've enabled those notifications. These are informational congratulations, not tax receipts — the donor's receipt is always the attached PDF described above.