# Before your first real donation

> The checks worth making before you accept money from the public.

Source: https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/getting-started/go-live-checklist/

**Who can do this:** Owner, Admin

Run through this before you share your donation page with the public — each check is something that's easy to leave on a default and expensive to notice later.

## Before you start

Work through [Setup Health](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/getting-started/setup-checklist/) first — everything below assumes the essentials it checks are already green.

## Steps

1. **Confirm your payment gateway is on Production, not Sandbox.** A gateway connected in Sandbox mode processes donations that never touch real money. Open your gateway's settings and check which environment tab your live credentials are saved under. See [Connect your payment gateway](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/finance/connect-your-payment-gateway/).

   *Screenshot: the Sandbox/Production tabs on the payment gateway settings page.*
2. **Set your own receipt numbering.** Until you do, receipts go out under DonorCARE's generic prefix instead of a series that's clearly yours. See [Set your receipt numbering](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/receipts/set-your-receipt-numbering/).

3. **Verify your sender domain.** Receipt and donation emails sent from an unverified domain are more likely to land in spam, and some donors' mail providers reject them outright. See [Set up your sender domain](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/email/set-up-your-sender-domain/).

4. **Set tax-deductibility correctly, if it applies to you.** A campaign only issues tax-deductible receipts when both your organization's tax exemption status is approved and the individual campaign has opted in — missing either one means donors who expected a tax-deductible receipt won't get one. See [Make a campaign tax-deductible](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/campaigns/make-a-campaign-tax-deductible/).

5. **Clear your sample data.** Sample campaigns and their donations count in your dashboard totals and finance exports until you remove them — a real donation sitting alongside sample figures makes both look wrong. See [Your sample campaign](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/getting-started/your-sample-campaign/).

   *Screenshot: the sample-data banner with Remove sample data.*
6. **Check who holds which role.** Confirm the people who should be able to void a donation, publish a campaign, or run an export actually hold a role that lets them — and that nobody who shouldn't still has Admin from setup. See [Roles and permissions](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/team/roles-and-permissions/).

## If something goes wrong

| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A donation appears to succeed but never shows up in your bank account | The gateway is still in Sandbox mode. | Switch to your Production credentials and re-test with a small real donation. |
| A donor says their receipt email never arrived | Your sender domain isn't verified, or the email landed in spam. | Verify your domain, then ask the donor to check spam before assuming the email never sent. |

## Related

- [Work through Setup Health](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/getting-started/setup-checklist/)
- [Connect your payment gateway](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/finance/connect-your-payment-gateway/)
- [Your sample campaign](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/getting-started/your-sample-campaign/)
- [Roles and permissions](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/team/roles-and-permissions/)