How to Connect PayFast with Pipedrive for South African Non-profit & NGO Businesses
South African Tool
PayFast
South Africa's most widely used payment gateway, supporting EFT, credit cards, SnapScan, and more.
Referral incentives for developers and platforms — contact PayFast directly
Global Tool
Pipedrive
Sales CRM and pipeline management tool designed for small and mid-size sales teams.
Why this matters in South Africa
South African non-profits manage grant reporting, donor communication, programme delivery, and compliance reporting to the DSD simultaneously — often with a small team and limited systems budget. The average NPO spends 30% of admin time on manual grant reporting that could be automated.
Compliance note: NPOs must be registered with the Department of Social Development. PBO status for tax exemption requires SARS registration under Section 18A. Organisations receiving foreign funding must comply with the NPO Act and applicable SARB exchange control regulations.
South African NPOs often lose 30% of their operational capacity to manual data entry, manually reconciling PayFast donations against donor records in Pipedrive. By connecting these platforms via an automation middleware like Make or Zapier, you transform your CRM into a central hub for donor lifecycle management. When a donor completes a payment in ZAR via PayFast, the integration automatically creates or updates a Pipedrive Person and Deal, tagging them with the specific campaign or grant project. This flow eliminates the manual capture of donor contact details, ensuring your team spends less time on administrative data entry and more time on programme delivery and DSD compliance reporting. Furthermore, by automating the logging of these transactions, you maintain a clean, POPIA-compliant audit trail of donor history, which is essential for verifying Section 18A eligibility and streamlining your annual SARS tax-exemption reporting.
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How to add PayFast to Pipedrive
- 1
1. Create a free account on an automation platform like Make or Zapier to act as the bridge between PayFast and Pipedrive. This middleware is necessary because neither platform offers a native, direct integration for transactional data syncing.
- 2
Generate your PayFast API Merchant ID and Merchant Key from your PayFast dashboard settings. Ensure you have enabled the "Instant Payment Notification" (IPN) feature, as this is the trigger that alerts the automation platform when a donation is received.
- 3
Set up a "Webhook" trigger in your automation platform to listen for incoming PayFast IPN data. Configure the webhook to capture the donor’s name, email, transaction amount in ZAR, and the unique PayFast payment reference number.
- 4
Add a Pipedrive "Search Person" module in your automation workflow to check if the donor already exists in your CRM using their email address. If the donor is not found, configure the automation to create a new Person record, ensuring you capture their physical address for future Section 18A tax receipting requirements.
- 5
Create a "Create Deal" action in Pipedrive linked to the identified Person record. Map the PayFast transaction amount to the Deal value field and set the Deal stage to "Donation Received" to keep your pipeline accurate for grant reporting.
- 6
Use a "Custom Field" in Pipedrive to store the PayFast transaction ID and the payment method (e.g., SnapScan, Credit Card, or EFT). This creates a verifiable link between your CRM records and your bank statement, simplifying the reconciliation process for your annual audit.
- 7
Implement a filter in your automation workflow to tag the Pipedrive Deal with the specific project or grant name based on the PayFast "item_name" or "custom_str1" field. This allows you to generate real-time reports on funding progress for specific NPO programmes or DSD compliance reviews.
- 8
Review your Pipedrive data privacy settings to ensure all donor information is handled in accordance with POPIA. Periodically export your Pipedrive deal reports to your accounting software to generate the official Section 18A certificates required for your donors’ tax deductions.
Free calculator
Are you still doing admin manually?
Calculate what it's costing your business in rands
Frequently asked questions
Is PayFast compatible with Pipedrive?
Yes. PayFast and Pipedrive can be connected via their APIs or through automation tools like Zapier. This guide covers the exact process for South African non-profit & ngo businesses.
How long does the setup take?
Most businesses complete the initial setup in 1–3 hours. If you already have active accounts on both platforms, you can have a basic automation running in under an hour.
Do I need a developer?
Not for basic Zapier-based integrations. Custom API integrations will need development support. Melamu Tech Ventures builds these — get in touch if you need a tailored solution.