Charitable Blog

Everything you need to know about Charitable and our team.

Accept Donations in South African Rand with PayFast

Last updated on

  • By
Eric Daams

Our goal is for Charitable to be a donation plugin for organizations every everywhere — not just in currencies that are supported by PayPal.

That’s why we created our PayUMoney extension last year; it’s why we built out our Easy Digital Downloads integration; and it’s why we just made it possible for you to accept donations in South African Rand with our PayFast plugin.

What is PayFast?

PayFast is a popular South African payment gateway that provides a secure, easy way for organizations to accept donations in their local currency.

With PayPal, you could still accept donations but the transactions take place in US Dollars, which then have to be converted to ZAR. PayFast processes all transactions in South African Rand, so your donors can give in their own currency.

No wonder PayFast’s popularity has exploded in South Africa!

Our PayFast integration comes just in time for the Cape Town Hackathon later this month, which we are contributing to as sponsors.

Charitable PayFast is available to purchase on its own, or you can purchase either of the Charitable Plus or Charitable Pro packages, which offers great savings for non-profits who need some of our other extensions.

Not in South Africa and still looking for a gateway that suits you? We would love to hear from you. Leave us a comment below or get in touch via our Support form.

author avatar
Eric Daams
See Full Bio

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. We only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.

2 responses to “Accept Donations in South African Rand with PayFast”

  1. Dimitri Dhuyvetter Avatar
    Dimitri Dhuyvetter

    The nice thing about PayFast is that they accept Bitcoin as well, which is automatically converted to Rand by BitX, South Africa’s biggest Bitcion exchange. So the calculation of Bitcoin price and transferring Rand to a South African bank account is all handled by PayFast.

    Reply
    1. ericnicolaas Avatar
      ericnicolaas

      Great point Dimitri! I also like their Instant EFT method, which allows you to do internet banking transfers immediately. Like doing a credit card payment, without the credit card 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get free tips and resources right in your inbox, along with 60,000+ others

Join our Newsletter

We won’t spam you. We only send an email when we think it will genuinely help you. Unsubscribe at any time!

Follow Us

Featured Video:

Watch more videos on our YouTube channel.

Popular Resources

Recurring Donations

Donor Management

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Integrations

Extensions

What's New In Charitable

View The Latest Updates
🔔 Subscribe to get our latest updates
📧 Subscribe to Emails

Email Subscription

Join our Newsletter

We won’t spam you. We only send an email when we think it will genuinely help you. Unsubscribe at any time!

Improvement Migrations

↔️ Importing From GiveWP, Donorbox, GiveButter… even CSV!

Whether you’re migrating from another platform or consolidating your records, moving your data to Charitable is now faster and more flexible than ever. We’ve streamlined the process so you can bring over your entire fundraising history in just a few clicks.

🔄 Native GiveWP, Donorbox, & GiveButter Support: Switching from a major platform? Our dedicated migration tools handle the heavy lifting, automatically mapping your donors and donations directly into Charitable—no technical skills required.

📂 Universal CSV Import: Moving from a custom system or a specialized CRM? If you can export it to a CSV, you can import it here. Our smart mapping tool lets you align your columns to Charitable fields like names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses in seconds.

⚡ Instant Donor Profiles & Custom Tags: Automatically create rich donor profiles and bring in custom tags to keep your data organized. Segment and engage your supporters from day one with a clean, professional database structure.

Ready to make the switch?

Check out our GiveWP Migration Guide

Learn more about our Import Tools

author avatar
Eric Daams
See Full Bio
Improvement Payments

💳 New Braintree Features For Your European Donors

With the release of Braintree addon version 1.3.0, you can now empower your European donors with the payment methods they trust and prefer, making giving seamless for international supporters.

🌍 Six New European Payment Methods: Support popular local options like iDEAL (Netherlands), Bancontact (Belgium), BLIK (Poland), and more to meet donors where they are.

⚡ Frictionless Donor Experience: These bank-based methods allow donors to authenticate directly with their own bank in a secure popup… no credit card numbers required.

⚙️ Automatic Currency Sync: No complex setup needed. The builder automatically displays the correct payment buttons based on your site’s currency (EUR or PLN), ensuring a relevant experience for every visitor.

author avatar
Eric Daams
See Full Bio
Campaigns New

🖼️ Campaign Featured Images: Pro-Level Visuals Made Simple

With the new Campaign Featured Image setting in our visual builder, you now have a single, dedicated place to manage how your fundraisers look across your entire site and beyond.

🖼️ One Image, Everywhere: Set a primary thumbnail that automatically syncs to campaign grids, lists, and shortcodes—no more relying on layout order.

📱 Social Sharing Optimized: Easily upload images at the perfect size to ensure your campaigns look stunning and professional when shared on social media.

🔍 SEO & Accessibility Ready: Add custom alt text directly within the builder to improve search rankings and ensure your mission is accessible to every supporter.

author avatar
Eric Daams
See Full Bio
Improvement receipts

🗓️ Annual Receipts 2.0: Send Year-End Receipts to Every Donor in Minutes

You can now send annual receipts in minutes with a few clicks to all your donors.

📧 One-Click Bulk Send Wizard that guides you to sending to hundreds of donors simultaneously directly from your WordPress dashboard.

🔍 Smart “Dry Run” Mode: See exactly who will receive a receipt and who will be skipped (and why) before a single email leaves your server.

🛡️ SMTP-Aware & Limit Protection: Charitable now detects your email setup and automatically adjusts batch sizes and pauses for daily limits to ensure your emails land in inboxes.

✅ Complete Audit Trail: Dedicated system log and on the individual donor’s profile, giving you a clear history for every fiscal year.

Stop dreading tax season and start spending that time on your mission. Update to Annual Receipts 2.0 and automate your year-end reporting today.

author avatar
Eric Daams
See Full Bio
Addon Donations Improvement

🎈Recurring Donations 2.0: Smarter Automation, Better Recovery, and More Control

We’ve completely rebuilt our Recurring Donations system to help you grow your reliable income stream while giving you (and your donors) more powerful tools than ever before.

What’s New:

🔒 Recurring-Only Campaigns: You can toggle “Recurring Only” mode in the campaign builder to hide the one-time option entirely, ensuring your supporters stay focused on long-term commitment.

📧 Automatic Payment Recovery: Our new Payment Failed Email fires automatically the moment a subscription fails.

🛠️ Self-Service Donor Control:The new Cancel Subscription Button appears directly in the donor dashboard, allowing supporters to pause or end their recurring gifts on their own terms—reducing your admin burden and payment disputes.

📊 Real-Time Revenue Insights: Track your growth, monitor active subscriptions, and see exactly how much predictable support is coming in each month at a glance.

Our new Recurring Donations addon gives you the professional-grade tools you need to grow your mission.

author avatar
Eric Daams
See Full Bio
View All Announcements