# Your "Not Enrolled for E-Pay" Status Is Costing You Donors > Electronic payment enrollment with your major DAF payers is not a technical upgrade—it's a fundraising strategy. It removes friction at the exact moment a donor is ready to give, gets gifts and data into your hands faster so you can steward relationships while they're warm, and—with Fidelity Charitable's July 2026 deadline—will soon be the difference between receiving grants from the country's largest DAF sponsor and not. - Canonical: https://givechariot.com/resources/insights/your-not-enrolled-for-e-pay-status-is-costing-you-donors - Published: 2026-05-07 --- What donors see when they try to give from their DAF—and why your electronic payment enrollment matters more than you think. There's a small piece of information sitting in donor portals for major DAF sponsors that most nonprofits have never seen. It shows up at the moment a donor is ready to make a grant recommendation. And if your organization hasn't set up electronic funds transfer \(EFT\) with that DAF, it looks something like this: **"Not Enrolled for E\-pay"**—sometimes with a warning icon next to it. It might seem like a minor administrative detail, but to a donor mid\-transaction, it's a real signal that can introduce doubt. ## What donors actually see and what they think Picture the experience from the donor's side. They log into their DAF portal, search for your organization, and get ready to recommend a grant. Next to your name, where other organizations have a clean checkmark or a green "enrolled" status, yours shows a warning message. Now they're wondering: - *Is this the right organization?* - *How long will this take to arrive?* - *Will a check get lost?* - *Didn't USPS just have budget issues again?* And just like that, their attention has drifted. The moment of giving intent, which is the hardest thing in fundraising to create, is slipping away over a piece of operational infrastructure that your team controls. This friction isn't accidental. DAF platforms intentionally surface enrollment status to nudge nonprofits toward e\-pay adoption. They want fewer checks to process and mail. The warning is designed to create a moment of hesitation—and if your organization triggers it, you absorb the consequence. ## It also slows down how you process and steward those donors A DAF donor initiates a gift in their portal. The check ships. It arrives two to four weeks later, or sometimes longer. By the time it's deposited, coded, and reconciled, the window to reach out and acknowledge the gift promptly has passed. You're thanking a donor sometimes over a month after they gave. Organizations using [DAFpay](https://www.givechariot.com/dafpay) solve this differently. [Blood Cancer United](https://www.givechariot.com/resources/customer-stories/lls-case-study), for example, receives gift intent data the moment a donor completes their DAFpay transaction—before the check ever arrives—giving their team the opportunity to steward that donor right away, while the giving moment is still fresh. E\-pay enrollment doesn't just reduce friction for the donor at the moment of giving. It gets the gift and the data into your hands faster, so your team can act while the donor's attention is still on your organization. **Action item:** Confirm that your organization [claimed your Chariot account](http://dashboard.givechariot.com/signup) so that you show up as “enabled for e\-pay” for a fast\-growing list of [Disbursement partners](https://help.givechariot.com/disbursements/for-nonprofits?utm_campaign=37186927-Product%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9PJizAzger2wgL3S41vkd1hLynhav2iMu1W7OZyl6PPMpHM-HTnqkHctUatL4xQtBJRMh_2OchqFuV4M4vvUdSu5DKdw&_hsmi=2&utm_content=2&utm_source=hs_email#dozens-of-grantmaker-partners.-hundreds-of-millions-in-grant-payments-through-chariot) including Daffy, Groundswell, Founders Pledge, and more. ## Fidelity Charitable is moving to electronic\-only disbursement in July 2026 If the donor experience and stewardship arguments haven't moved the needle internally, this one should. Fidelity Charitable—the largest DAF sponsor in the country, with nearly 400,000 active donors who recommended $18.3 billion in grants in 2025—is moving to electronic\-only disbursement in July 2026. After that date, organizations that haven't enrolled in EFT will not be able to receive grants from Fidelity Charitable at all. In 2025, 67% of Fidelity Charitable's 3 million grants were already distributed electronically. The remaining 33% \(roughly 1 million grants\) are still arriving by check. Every one of those organizations has a hard deadline to act. **Action item:** If you haven't already, enroll in ACH disbursements through [Fidelity Charitable's EFT Enrollment Form](https://charitablegift.fidelity.com/public/fc-npo-enrollment/#/ach). You'll need your organization's legal name, EIN, banking information, and primary contact. ## If you're figuring it out for Fidelity, audit all your DAF payers Fidelity Charitable has the most visible deadline, but the same enrollment gap exists across the broader DAF ecosystem. Many DAF providers—large financial institutions, community foundations, and others— surface your payment method status to donors at the point of grant recommendation. The organizations with a clean "enrolled" checkmark are building quiet, ambient trust every time that moment happens. The ones that aren't are introducing doubt. If you're already going through the process for Fidelity, it's worth treating this as an opportunity to close the gap everywhere you can. **Action item:** Audit your EFT enrollment status across your top DAF payers. If you have a Chariot Growth or Enterprise subscription, you can [link additional payers directly in your dashboard](https://dashboard.givechariot.com/sign-in). If you’re interested in learning more about our paid plans, visit our [Events](http://givechariot.com/events) page to join our next group Q&A. ## Still holding onto checks for operational simplicity? Here's what's changed. For many nonprofits, checks stuck around because they were operationally manageable—sender details and funds are received at the same time, in the same place, even if it was slow and carried risk. However, nonprofits are more vulnerable than ever to check fraud. If your team wants the full picture on what's at stake, Chariot's [report on the state of check payments to nonprofits](https://www.givechariot.com/resources/insights/all-checks-no-balance-a-report-on-the-state-of-check-payments-to-nonprofits) is worth reviewing before the June 30 Fidelity enrollment deadline. Electronic payments—especially through a platform like Chariot—are safer and more secure than checks. In addition, DAF giving has gotten more complex. Gifts now arrive from dozens of providers, each with different formats, disbursement timelines, and data quality. Checks, workplace giving platforms, electronic disbursements—managing that fragmentation manually isn't simple, especially for already under\-resourced nonprofit teams. [Chariot gift processing](https://www.givechariot.com/gift-processing) handles the entire lifecycle of a DAF gift—from receipt through reconciliation, enrichment, and syncing—consolidating DAFs, workplace giving, and other complex payment sources into one place. Your team spends less time chasing down check deposits and manually coding transactions, and more time on the work that matters. **Action item:** If your organization is still processing a meaningful volume of DAF gifts manually, [get in touch with our team](https://www.givechariot.com/contact) to learn more about Chariot Gift Processing. Or, if you haven't yet, [claim your free Chariot account](https://dashboard.givechariot.com/signup) to start receiving electronic payments from our growing list of [partner DAF providers](https://help.givechariot.com/disbursements/for-nonprofits#dozens-of-grantmaker-partners.-hundreds-of-millions-in-grant-payments-through-chariot) at no cost. ## The bottom line Electronic payment enrollment with your major DAF payers is not a technical upgrade—it's a fundraising strategy. It removes friction at the exact moment a donor is ready to give, gets gifts and data into your hands faster so you can steward relationships while they're warm, and—with Fidelity Charitable's July 2026 deadline—will soon be the difference between receiving grants from the country's largest DAF sponsor and not. --- **Ready to simplify how your organization receives and processes DAF gifts?** [Get in touch](https://www.givechariot.com/contact) with our team to learn more about Chariot gift processing.