Volunteer deposits and payments

How deposits are paid, tracked and chased, all without opening Stripe.

How volunteers pay

The deposit link opens a branded payment page where the volunteer chooses to:

• Pay in full, or

• Pay in three monthly payments, taken automatically a month apart, with a reminder when a payment is due within the next 3 days. Only offered when the plan finishes before your deposit deadline.

A card processing fee is added at checkout. It isn't part of the deposit and isn't refunded.

The pass rule

An approved volunteer's pass is created straight away but stays pending until the deposit is paid in full, or they're exempt. Only then can it be collected.

The Deposits tab

Every approved volunteer and where their deposit stands: Awaiting payment, Payment plan, Paid, Exempt or Expired, and after the festival Refunded, Partially refunded or Kept.

• Expiring in 3 days shows exactly who to chase.

• Paid but not set up finds volunteers who've paid but haven't activated their portal. Use Send setup link to nudge them.

Bulk actions

Select volunteers to extend their payment window by 1 to 120 days, mark them exempt (a reason is required, and only if nothing has been paid) or export the selection to CSV.

When a payment fails

A failed instalment is retried automatically over the following days (0, 2, 3 and 5 days, up to four attempts), with the volunteer told each time and able to pay from Portal → Payment. If it keeps failing, it's flagged for the team to follow up.