Seeking Guidance: Custom Donation Flow Using Blackbaud API

Brad Larson · June 26

Hello Blackbaud Community,

I'm working on a new implementation for our site and I’d appreciate your insights and guidance on how best to approach this within Blackbaud’s capabilities.

Vision for New Donation Flow

As part of our new website redesign, we aim to modernize and streamline the donation experience. Here's what we're envisioning:

Custom Donation Form on Our Site

We build and host a fully custom donation form that allows us to design the UX and layout as we like.

This form would collect donation amount, donor info, and other metadata.

Submission via Blackbaud API

On form submission, we use the Blackbaud API to:

Create the donation transaction

Generate a session or redirect URI

Redirect the user to Blackbaud’s hosted payment page to securely complete the transaction

Post-Payment Redirect

Once the payment is completed, the user is redirected back to our site using a predefined redirect URI.

We’d like to append query parameters (e.g., ?success=true) or handle a webhook so we can:

Show a custom thank-you message

Optionally display donation details or confirmation

❓ Questions / Areas Where We Need Help

API Capabilities

Does Blackbaud’s API support initiating a donation/payment session from an external form, and returning a payment page URL for redirect?

Are there any examples or documentation for this “external-to-hosted” flow?

Security Requirements

What authentication/token flow is recommended for securely handling this redirection process?

Return & Confirmation

Can the Blackbaud hosted payment page redirect back to our site with information about the transaction?

Are there recommended practices for tracking donation success or failure in this flow?

Customization / Styling

If we must use an embedded form, is there an advanced way to custom-style it or pass dynamic data?

? Why We're Doing This

Our goal is to improve usability and branding consistency, while still leveraging Blackbaud’s secure infrastructure for payment handling. This hybrid approach would give us the best of both worlds—full UX control plus secure, compliant processing.

I’d love to hear from others who’ve implemented similar custom flows—or from Blackbaud developers who can advise whether this approach is supported.

Thanks so much in advance!