Venmo/Paypal with Blackbaud Checkout

Alicia Searfoss

We have used Luminate since 2006 - when it was Convio. Is there anyone out there who has as well and have used PayPal for many years? We are looking at activating Venmo/Paypal with Blackbaud Checkout, but are concerned about doing negative harm to our existing set up.

We actually have 9 different PayPal accounts which was an integration that Convio/PayPal set up a very long time ago. There is one primary (parent) PayPal account and the other 8 are considered child accounts. As PayPal transactions via a Luminate process, they go through the specific account that was selected when setting up the form. Each PayPal account reflects the specific transactions, but the actual funds are swept into the parent account from the child accounts. The only bank account connected to PayPal is on the parent account, so those are the funds that are deposited into our bank.

If we change to Venmo/Paypal with Blackbaud Checkout, our concern is that it will make reconciliation for Finance more challenging. It could be that it makes it easier, but would really appreciate some more feedback. BBMS support said: "PayPal transactions are processed through the PayPal account connected to the BBMS account that the form is using." So, they didn't think it would be swept into the parent account anymore.

But I'm thinking the “sweeping” of funds from the child account to the parent account happens at the PayPal level, so wouldn't be impacted.

I would really appreciate feedback from anyone who has made this transition.

Thank you in advance!

Alicia

Will Hull

Hey there, @Alicia Searfoss.

Thanks for your question. It is true that you will need to reconcile at PayPal for all PayPal and Venmo transactions once they come in, but with a Report Writer report, on the filter step while setting up the report, you can filter down to Payment Method > Tender Instance Name and then set it to "Contains PayPal" or "Does not contain PayPal" for two separate reports. One for PayPal and one for all other payment methods.

To connect your PayPal Business account to your BBMS (Blackbaud Merchant Services)/BBIP (Blackbaud Integrated Payments, BBMS was rebranded to BBIP in April '25), log into your BBIP portal and go to Control Panel > Settings. From there, on the right is the PayPal configuration. You enter your credentials there and once you do, if you have BBIP connected to Luminate Online, it will then show up on your donation forms in the "Checkout Embedded" or "Checkout Modal" data element when you have the "Digital Wallets" checked to be included in payment options on the form.

Additionally, while you are still in your BBIP portal under Control Panel > Settings, you can also, if you have a custom SSL in use with your Luminate Online instance (e.g. instead of seeing https://secure2.convio.net or https://secure3.convio.net you have your own domain there with something where the www would normally be), you can add that domain here without a forward slash at the end (it won't accept it with a forward slash at the end). It will also ask for a file to be imported to your FTP. That is something that Blackbaud Support can help with or someone like myself in Professional Services if you don't have access to your Luminate Online's underlying FTP to import the file. Just set up a Blackbaud Support case and ask them if they can help import this "validation file" at https://support.blackbaud.com and they should be able to assist in doing that. This will then enable Apple Pay on your donation forms if you don't already have Apple Pay enabled.

Here is some information on this in the Blackbaud Knowledgebase, in case you are interested in learning more at https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/articles/Article/196074

I hope you find this information helpful.

Thanks, and have a great week ahead.
Will