Error creating donations

[pastor-ben]

Related Product
Which product is this question related to?
API for Giving

Describe the question
I'm getting the following error on my test batch: "You do not have access to this resource","meta":{"description":"User with id XXXXXXXX cannot create a Donation."

The reply from PCO help desk was:
It looks like you are trying to submit a donation while passing your ID through as your giving number when you need to use your profile ID from People. Since the ID that is being passed through doesn't match what the database is expecting, you are getting that 403 error.

However, the ID isn't in the code, I assume it is in the token? Which I have no control over?

I can create a batch, but not donations. I am the organization admin and have full access/control.

What have you tried that worked?

What have you tried that didn't work?

Additional context

I have..

• Reviewed the documentation found at https://developer.planning.center/docs
• Searched for previous issues answering this question
• Removed all private information from this issue (credentials, tokens, emails, phone numbers, etc.)
• Reviewed my issue for completeness

[github-actions]

Potentially Related Issues

I found some existing issues that may be related to this one. Please check if any of them address your question before waiting for a response:

🟣 #1432 — 403 Forbidden when creating pledge via Giving API despite administrator permissions (Closed)

Summary: User received 403 Forbidden when creating pledges via Giving API despite having administrator permissions. This is similar to the new issue but involves pledges rather than donations, though both show the same permission-related error pattern.

Key discussion points:

• User had successful authentication and could read Giving data including /giving/v2/me showing administrator permissions
• Error message was identical pattern: 'You do not have access to this resource' with 'User cannot create a Pledge'
• Issue affected multiple users with administrator permissions using Personal Access Tokens
• Read operations succeeded but create operations failed with same credentials

Resolution: This was a duplicate of issue #1431 and was resolved by the same fix - a permissions bug on the Planning Center side that required a deployment to fix. The issue was not related to incorrect API usage but rather a backend permission check problem.

🟣 #1431 — Unable to create pledges via API – POST /giving/v2/people/{personid}/pledges returns 403 (Closed)

Summary: User unable to create pledges via POST /giving/v2/people/{person_id}/pledges receiving 403 errors. This issue demonstrates a similar authentication/permission problem in the Giving API that was caused by a backend bug rather than incorrect API usage.

Key discussion points:

• User confirmed authentication worked - People API and Giving API read requests returned 200
• Tested with multiple admin users and tokens, all receiving same 403 error
• PCO staff member @sheck acknowledged seeing a potential issue and needed to discuss with team
• The bot initially suggested issue Unable to Post donations via API, 403 error #1360 about donations, but user clarified they were working with pledges not donations

Resolution: PCO deployed a fix on 2026-03-17 that resolved a backend permissions bug preventing pledge creation. The fix also simplified the API - users no longer need to include the Person in the relationships object as it's now grabbed from the URL path. Multiple users confirmed the fix worked successfully after deployment.

🟢 #1433 — Calendar API Event Creation — ownerid Required But Cannot Be Assigned (Open)

Summary: User attempting to create Calendar events via API encountered a paradox where owner_id is required but cannot be assigned through any method. While this is a different product (Calendar vs Giving), it illustrates another permissions-related challenge in Planning Center's API.

Key discussion points:

• User has Event Administrator permissions and authentication works via Personal Access Token
• Creating event without owner_id returns 422 'can't be blank' error
• Attempting to provide owner_id in any form (attribute, relationship, or query parameter) returns 422 'cannot be assigned' error
• User expected owner_id to auto-populate from PAT credentials like in web interface
• Existing events show null owners, but API won't allow creating events without owner

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This comment was generated automatically. If none of these match your issue, no action is needed — a team member will review your issue soon.

[pastor-ben]

Ah! 1431 got me where I needed. Resolved by bug fix deployed 3/16. I had not retried my script since that date, not being aware of the fix.