Receipts and refunds
What your donors receive after they give, when a receipt is tax-deductible, and how to refund a gift.
Every successful donation gets a receipt, emailed automatically with a PDF attached. You don't have to send anything.
The receipt comes from your organisation, not from RaffleLink: your name is the sender, your logo leads the PDF, and replies go to your contact address. RaffleLink appears on it only as the payment processor.
Tax-deductible or not
This is the part worth understanding, because the wording changes and you can't override it.
When a donation is made, RaffleLink checks your ABN on ABN Lookup for a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) endorsement, and stamps the answer onto that donation. The receipt is then written to match:
| Your DGR status | Subject line | What the receipt says |
|---|---|---|
| DGR endorsed | Donation Receipt for your org | The donation is tax-deductible, names your ABN, and confirms no goods or services were provided in return. |
| Not endorsed | Thank You for Your Donation to your org | A thank-you and a record of the gift, without a deductibility claim. |
Two things follow from this.
Your ABN has to be on file. Without it there's nothing to check, and receipts go out as thank-yous. Add it under Settings → Organisation Details. The Donations settings tab warns you if it's missing.
The status is fixed at the moment of the gift. It's a snapshot, so a donation made before you were endorsed keeps its original wording even after your endorsement comes through. That's deliberate: a receipt has to reflect what was true when the gift was made.
Where the processing fee sits. If a donor chose to cover the card processing cost, the receipt says plainly that only the donation itself is deductible, and that the fee was paid to RaffleLink. Their deduction is the gift, not the total on their card statement.
RaffleLink checks ABN Lookup, but it can't give tax advice. If you're unsure whether your organisation is DGR endorsed, or what your donors can claim, check with the ATO or your accountant.
Resending a receipt
Donors lose emails. From the Donations tab, open the row and choose Resend receipt: it goes to the same address, with the same wording and the same PDF.
The Receipt column tells you where each one stands. If it reads Not sent, use Resend receipt.
You can also use Download receipt to get the PDF yourself, which is the quickest way to answer a donor who's asked for a copy while you're on the phone.
Refunding a donation
Donation refunds are full only. There's no partial refund: a gift is either kept or returned. Open the row's menu in the Donations tab, choose Refund, then confirm with Refund in full.
You can only refund a gift that hasn't been paid out yet. Once a donation has been included in a payment to your bank account, Refund is greyed out and tells you why: the money is with you at that point, so returning it is something to arrange directly with the donor. Email support@rafflelink.com if you need a hand.
Only a paid donation can be refunded or have a receipt sent, so the menu items stay greyed out on one that's still pending or already failed.
Refunding is an Admin-level action, the same bar as seeing the section at all.
Once refunded, the donation shows as Refunded with the date, and it drops out of your totals.
If a donor disputes a payment
Sometimes a donor's bank raises a chargeback rather than asking you for a refund. RaffleLink doesn't contest these: the donation is marked as returned and the money goes back.
If the gift had already been paid out to you, we'll be in touch about recovering it. You don't need to watch for these, and there's nothing to action at your end unless we contact you.
Where the money goes next
See Donation payouts for when gifts reach your bank account, and the statement that itemises them.