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I have a website that allows my users to donate to charities via PayPal. I want to track the donations that a user makes, but I don't have direct access to the charities' PayPal accounts.

This is kind of a follow-up to this question, which provides a good explanation of IPN tracking, but I think it relates to tracking payments made to an account which I own.

Is it possible to send confirmation of a donation to a third party back to my website so that I can track it?

P.S. I really hope this isn't the wrong way to post a follow-up question, and that it doesn't count as a duplicate...

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Nic Peck
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1 Answers1

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If you use notify_url / NotifyURL in your Payments Standard code or API requests you can override the PayPal account profile and have it send the IPN to whatever URL you specify in that parameter.

Drew Angell
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  • Thanks for your answer. I might be still missing something though, because to set up the NotifyURL on a button I have to log in to my PayPal account, and once I'm logged in, it seems to only be able to donate to me - not the 3rd party charity accounts... – Nic Peck Mar 13 '14 at 00:15
  • I think you must be confused about what IPN does. It's just a call back after a transaction is completed. It has nothing to do with the transaction itself. If you want to make calls on behalf of 3rd party users you'll need to have them grant permission for your app and then add the SUBJECT parameter to your API requests. You could also use the permissions API. – Drew Angell Mar 13 '14 at 01:56
  • So it's possible using the API, but not standard payments? – Nic Peck Mar 13 '14 at 04:57
  • Well, you could setup a standard payment form and just replace the business parameter with the email address of the person you'd like the money to go to. That should work. – Drew Angell Mar 13 '14 at 07:25
  • I think I was getting tripped up by the option to save the button in the PayPal account - the method you're suggesting seems like it will work if the button is not saved, and if there is no encryption. Thanks! – Nic Peck Mar 24 '14 at 01:35