How to Accept and Track Interac e-Transfer Donations

For many Canadian donors, Interac e-Transfer is the easiest way to give. There is no form to fill out and no card to enter, just a transfer from their banking app. For charities, though, Interac e-Transfer donations can create a quiet headache: every gift arrives as an email, and someone has to log it by hand.

This is one of the problems that led us to build a specific feature into DonorsBase. Here is how to handle e-Transfers well.

Why Interac e-Transfer donations are popular

Donors already have them in their banking app

There are no card numbers to share

Money usually arrives quickly

Many donors, especially in faith communities, are used to giving this way

The tracking problem

This came up in almost every conversation we had with Canadian charities. Staff and volunteers told us they were copying and pasting information from e-Transfer notification emails and bank statements, one gift at a time, and that it was taking far too much time.

The routine went like this: a notification arrives, "You've received $100 from…". Someone opens a spreadsheet, types in the name and amount, guesses which fund it was for from the message, checks the bank statement, and later tries to match the sender to an existing donor for their year-end receipt.

With a few gifts a month, this works. With dozens a week, especially at year-end or during a campaign, gifts get missed, duplicated, or recorded under the wrong name. Donors then receive the wrong receipt, or none at all.

Step 1: Set up Autodeposit

Autodeposit lets e-Transfers go straight into your account without a security question. It saves time for both donors and your team. Interac's guide to setting up Autodeposit walks through it, and your bank will have its own instructions. You can also read about Interac e-Transfer for Business.

Step 2: Give donors clear instructions

On your donation page, tell donors:

• The email address to send e-Transfers to
• What to write in the message, such as the fund name
• That they will receive a tax receipt, and when
• Sample wording for your donation page
• You can adapt this for your website:
• Give by Interac e-Transfer

Send your gift to donate@yourcharity.ca. Autodeposit is enabled, so no security question is needed.

In the message, please include the fund you would like to support (for example, "Building Fund") and your mailing address if this is your first gift, so we can issue your tax receipt.

Official tax receipts are issued for eligible gifts. Thank you for your generosity.

Step 3: Use one dedicated inbox

Send all e-Transfer notifications to one email address that is used only for donations. This makes it far easier to process them consistently and to protect that inbox.

Step 4: Stop retyping with Donation Magnet

This is why we built Donation Magnet. Instead of copying each notification by hand, you connect the inbox where your notifications land and set simple rules for which emails to read and what information to pull from them, such as emails with "e-Transfer" in the subject line.

Matching notifications flow into a log. From there, your team assigns each one to a donor in DonorsBase and records the donation. The information is already there, so the work that used to take hours takes minutes, and a person still makes the final call on every match.

Donation Magnet is not limited to e-Transfers. It works with other payment notification emails our customers receive, in Canada and the US.

Every gift then lives in the donor's record alongside their card and PayPal donations, so their year-end receipt includes everything. You can see Donation Magnet on our features page.

When an e-Transfer arrives without a message

Some donors will not include a fund or a note. Record the gift to your general fund, and if the donor is new, send a short thank-you asking for their mailing address so you can issue a receipt. Over time, clear instructions on your donation page will reduce these cases.

A month-end check for e-Transfers

Once a month, compare the e-Transfers recorded in your donor system with the e-Transfer deposits on your bank statement. The totals should match. If they do not, look for:

• Notifications that did not match your rules, such as a different subject line
• Transfers from a donor using a different name or email than the one on file
• Deposits that were not donations, such as refunds or vendor payments

Adjust your rules if a pattern keeps appearing, so next month is cleaner.

Step 5: Receipt and thank promptly

Once e-Transfers are recorded, they can be receipted like any other gift. Make sure your receipts meet the CRA's requirements for official donation receipts. Our guide to CRA donation receipt requirements covers the details, including a labelled sample receipt.

Offering e-Transfers alongside cards

E-Transfers work well for one-time gifts, but they do not support automatic recurring charges the way card or bank payments do. Offer both options. Our post on turning one-time donors into monthly sustainers shows how to encourage monthly giving.

If you are evaluating software for a Canadian charity, see what DonorsBase includes on our page for charities.

Frequently asked questions

Can charities accept Interac e-Transfer donations?

Yes. Many Canadian charities do. Setting up Autodeposit makes it easier for donors and staff.

Do e-Transfer donations get tax receipts?

Yes, if they are gifts to a registered charity. They should be receipted like any other eligible gift.

How do I track e-Transfer donations automatically?

Use a dedicated inbox and a tool like DonorsBase's Donation Magnet, which reads notification emails based on your rules and places them in a log for your team to assign and record.

Does Donation Magnet only work with e-Transfers?

No. It can read other payment notification emails too, in Canada and the US.