CoolPay is CoolFocus's built-in online giving and payment-processing feature. Signing up connects your organization to CoolPay's payment partner, JustiFi, so that you can accept card and ACH gifts directly into your CoolFocus donor records.
To start, go to Settings > Give Settings > CoolPay Sign-up and begin the onboarding application.
Preparing for CoolPay onboarding: Document expectations
Before the JustiFi application loads, CoolFocus shows a notice explaining what to expect:
JustiFi may ask for organization verification documents, nonprofit status details, and information about your authorized representatives as part of payment underwriting.
This is not always a quick task. Gather the following before beginning:
Your organization's most recent nonprofit filing (such as your latest IRS Form 990)
State and IRS registration records
Information about the people authorized to sign on behalf of your organization
If you are unsure what documentation applies to your organization, contact WayCool support before starting the application so you know what to expect and can plan the time needed.
Why this information is requested
JustiFi collects these details for underwriting and to help protect both your organization and your donors. In most cases, providing your most recent nonprofit filing along with basic registration information is enough to satisfy verification, so it's worth checking with WayCool if a request seems more extensive than expected.
Plan your donor migration
If your organization already has recurring donors giving through another processor, the onboarding checklist includes a Plan your Donor Migration step. Use it to tell CoolFocus how you want to move those recurring donors over:
We are new to online giving: choose this if you do not have existing recurring donors to migrate.
Ask donors to update payment info in the donor portal: donors re-enter their payment method themselves in the donor portal.
Import saved payment tokens from your current processor: your saved payment methods are transferred provider-to-provider, without asking donors to re-enter anything.
If you choose the donor portal option or the token import option, you must also select your current payment processor (for example CDM+ or Stripe) so CoolFocus and JustiFi know where the migration is coming from. See "Transferring from CDM+ to CoolPay" or "Transferring from Stripe to CoolPay" for details on those transfers.
Before saving, check the box confirming you understand the migration expectations. If a required field is missing, such as the current processor or the acknowledgment, CoolFocus shows a message telling you exactly what to fix. Once everything is filled in, Save migration plan saves your selections and moves you to the next onboarding step.
Review and approve migrated recurring gifts
Importing a recurring gift from your old system, including when you import saved payment tokens, does not turn on billing by itself. Each imported gift waits in a Migration Review queue under Settings > Give Settings > CoolPay Sign-up > Migration Review until someone on your team checks it and approves it.
Matching a migrated recurring gift to the right donor is based on name, not a shared account ID between systems. That works correctly most of the time, but a shared card across a household, such as spouses who give from the same card, can land on the wrong donor record. Migration Review is the one place to catch that before a donor gets billed under someone else's name.
Each row in the queue shows:
The donor's name, gift amount, and frequency.
The payment method attached to the gift, formatted for a quick check, such as "Visa ••••8812 · exp 01/27" for a card, or the bank name and last four digits for a bank account. This is the fastest way to catch a card that a name-matching import attached to the wrong donor.
The donor's last payment date with your previous processor.
Check that the card or bank account shown actually belongs to the donor named on the row before you approve it. If a migrated gift has no payment method attached, the row says so plainly ("No card attached to this gift") instead of leaving the field blank.
To approve a gift, confirm it was canceled in your old system and enter that last payment date. Approving then:
Turns the gift on for billing going forward.
Schedules the next payment on the donor's original day-of-month cadence, so a gift that was due on the 15th of each month keeps billing on the 15th. The gift is picked up the next time CoolPay Hub looks for periods to bill.
Never schedules that next payment in the past. If the handoff or review took a while and the calculated date has already passed, CoolFocus moves it forward to today instead of charging for every period missed during the migration. It does not charge for periods the donor already paid through the old processor.
CoolFocus requires the gift to have a usable payment method before it will let you approve: a tokenized card or bank account that belongs to your organization and is visible to the donor's account. Approving a gift with no attached, usable payment method fails with a clear message telling you to attach a card or bank account first. Attach a valid payment method to the recurring gift, then approve it.
After you submit
Once your application is submitted, you'll see a confirmation, and JustiFi will begin reviewing your submission. Depending on the outcome of that review, the onboarding page will show one of the following statuses instead of the original application form:
Application Submitted: your application is complete and awaiting JustiFi's review. No further action is needed from you at this point.
Additional information needed: JustiFi has your application but needs follow-up details before it can finish underwriting your organization (for example, clarifying a document you already provided). Payments stay in preview mode, meaning live gifts are not enabled on your donation form, until the missing underwriting details are resolved with WayCool support. Watch for an email from JustiFi describing what is needed, or contact WayCool support if you are not sure what to provide.
CoolPay Approved: JustiFi has approved the account, live gifts are enabled on your donation form, and you can return to the setup checklist to finish any remaining configuration.
CoolPay application needs support: JustiFi declined or rejected the application in its current state. Contact WayCool support so they can review the JustiFi status and next steps for your organization.
CoolPay account inactive: the JustiFi account has been disabled or archived and is not currently available for payment processing. Contact WayCool support before attempting to collect live gifts for this organization.
If your organization's status appears stuck on the original application form days after you completed it, that usually means JustiFi has moved your application into one of the states above, most often that additional information is needed, rather than the application having failed to submit. The onboarding page now shows the matching status message in that case instead of continuing to display the original application form. Check for a status message on the onboarding page and any email from JustiFi before contacting support.