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Happie Pingol
Community Manager
January 21, 2025

Understanding Designations and Gateways

  • January 21, 2025
  • 7 replies
  • 428 views

In order to process contributions or create Custom contribution forms, your organization must first be set up with at least one Designation and one Gateway. 
   

 

Designations 

Every organization will have at least one Designation that will allow you to manage your contribution data. If your organization is set up with multiple financial entities, such as when you have a c4 lobbying arm and a c3 nonprofit arm, you can add additional Designations that will help you keep these contributions separate. Contact Support if you need to set up additional Designations for your account. 
   

Gateways 

Gateways are for required payment processing and must be set up prior to creating a Custom contribution form. You won't be able to save or publish a form until you set up at least one gateway. 
 
Bonterra Payments is the recommended payment solution, offering quick setup, free credit card updating, and an expanding list of payment methods. Paragon Payment Solutions setup instructions are provided for organizations that already use it and need to add additional gateways or payment methods. Setting up any payment gateway requires information about your organization, including its federal tax ID and business address.  
 
Access menu of resources for our Payment Processing solutions:

  

If you are planning to process contributions in non-US currencies, you will need to set up a Stripe gateway. Neither Bonterra Payments nor Paragon accept contributions in these currencies.  

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7 replies

Julie
First Timer
January 21, 2026

This article is helpful. However, one link is not working. The link below leads to an invalid page in the Help Center. I found an article at another link https://help.bonterratech.com/everyaction/s/article/2962061-setting-up-stripe-connect

Happie Pingol
Community Manager
January 26, 2026

HI ​@Julie. Thank you for flagging this. We’ve successfully fixed the invalid page. It should now direct you to the correct help article page.

Happie at Bonterra
audra friend
March 12, 2026

@Happie Pingol The link to the setting up a paypal gateway also doesn’t work https://community.bonterratech.com/miscellaneous-132/s/article/How-do-I-set-up-a-PayPal-Gateway

audra friend
March 12, 2026

@Happie Pingol the other paypal link in this article doesn’t work either https://community.bonterratech.com/miscellaneous-132/s/article/2983269-enabling-paypal

Happie Pingol
Community Manager
March 13, 2026

Hi ​@audra friend. Thank you so much for flagging. We’re now working on this.

Happie at Bonterra
Happie Pingol
Community Manager
March 13, 2026

Hi ​@audra friend, all broken links are now fixed. Please, do not hesitate to reach out if you need help. Thank you!

Happie at Bonterra
audra friend
March 13, 2026

thank you, ​@Happie Pingol !