Donor portal

Find it: Donors sign in at thankfirst.com/portal · Who can use it: Your donors (this page describes what they experience). Staff don't log in here — you approve the changes donors submit from the Agents review queue.

Why the portal exists

Giving donors a clean, self-service window does two things at once: it cuts the data-entry your staff would otherwise do by hand, and it builds trust by letting supporters see their own history and correct their own details. Crucially, it does this without letting anyone overwrite your system of record — every change a donor makes still respects your consent rules and passes through staff review.

How a donor signs in

The portal uses a magic link — there is no password to create or forget.

1. The donor goes to thankfirst.com/portal and enters the email they used when donating.
2. ThankFirst emails a secure, short-lived sign-in link. (For privacy, the confirmation message is the same whether or not the email matches a record — the app never reveals who is in your database.)
3. The donor clicks the link on the same device and they're in.

What a donor can see

Once signed in, the donor sees a page grouped by each organization they support:

• Their giving summary — lifetime giving, gift count, last gift date, and in-kind totals.
• Giving history — every recorded gift, with fund, tribute (in honor / in memory), and recurring badges.
• Tax receipts & statements — their gift receipts and year-end statements, each with a Download / Print link. This is self-service tax documentation — donors pull their own paperwork instead of emailing your office at year end. See Receipts.
• Give again — an option to make another gift. This opens once your organization has online giving turned on; until then donors can still give through your public give page (see Donations).

What a donor can change — and the guardrails

Donors can edit their own contact details (preferred name, language, phone, address) and their communication preferences (which channels you may use, plus "no solicitations" and "do not contact"). Two safeguards keep this from ever damaging your data:

Changes go to a review queue, not straight into your CRM

When a donor updates their phone or address, the change does not silently overwrite your record. It lands in your review queue on the Agents page for a staff member to approve. Why: a donor fixing their own address is genuinely helpful, but your team stays the authority on the record of truth — you decide what gets accepted.

Email changes must be verified

If a donor changes their sign-in email, the new address doesn't take effect until they click a confirmation link sent to that new address. Their old email keeps working until they confirm. Why: verifying the new inbox prevents account takeover and makes sure tax receipts keep going to an address the donor actually controls.

Updating a card after a failed payment

A monthly donor whose card fails receives an email with a secure card-update link (see the dunning section in Donations). Clicking it brings them to a portal page that:

1. Confirms they're signed in and that the recurring gift is genuinely theirs.
2. Hands off to Stripe's hosted billing page to enter a new card.

ThankFirst never sees or stores the card — the whole update happens on Stripe. Once the card is fixed, the follow-up alert on your side clears automatically (see Alerts).

Good to know

• No password, ever — access is by magic link, which is both easier for donors and safer for you.
• Consent rules always win — preferences a donor sets in the portal (do-not-solicit, do-not-contact) apply the same as if your staff had set them.
• Deceased records are read-only in the portal — they can't be edited through self-service.
• You stay in control — every donor-submitted profile change waits for staff approval in the Agents review queue before it touches your data.

See Also

• Donations
• Receipts
• Ai agents
• Alerts
• Stripe onboarding guide