Create Donation Form using WordPress (2022) An Easy Guide

Do you want your non-profit website to be able to take donations? Non-profits may construct a contribution form. And collect money from their website using WordPress.

We’ll teach you how to use WordPress to create a donation form for charity organizations.

Why Create Donation Form Using WordPress?

Adding a PayPal contribution button to your website is the most straightforward approach to request money. But it is not the best option for everyone.

Instead of using a contribution button, you may create a custom donation form on your website. That allows you to:

• Customize the form fields to collect the data you require.
• To provide a more professional experience, keep donations on your website.
• Ask donors whether they wish to subscribe to your email newsletter in the same form.
• Other payment processors, such as credit cards, can be used in addition to PayPal (Stripe).
• Finally, integrate with third-party applications like a CRM or cloud storage.

There are several advantages to keeping contributors on your website rather than sending them to Paypal.

Setting up a donation form on your website may appear to be a difficult task. But there are WordPress plugins for non-profits that make it simple.

After that, let’s look at how to make a custom contribution form in WordPress.

Using WordPress to Create a Custom Donation Form

WPForms is the most excellent WordPress drag-and-drop form builder. It offers an easy-to-use interface and contains pre-built form templates.

It includes a contribution form template to expedite the process. WPForms is a premium WordPress plugin. It Was developed by Syed Balkhi, the inventor of WPBeginner.

You’ll need the Paypal or Stripe plugin for WPForms. That creates a contribution form that accepts payments. The WPForms Pro license includes both add-ons.

Step 1: Install, and activate WPForms.

The first step will be to install the WPForms plugin on your website.

After activating the plugin, navigate to WPForms » Settings and enter your license key. This information is available in your WPForms account section.

WPForms connects with many payment providers. It provides PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net, to collect donations.

Then, in WPForms, enable the payment add-ons of your choice by going to WPForms » Add-ons. And selecting the ‘Install Addon’ button.

Step 2: Create a Donation Form

Now that WPForms has been installed and activated. You can get started by clicking WPForms » Add New.

You’ll now see a range of pre-built form templates from which to choose.

Give your form a name. Then mouse over the Donation Form template and hit the ‘Create a Donation Form’ button.

A window will appear reminding you to ‘Don’t Forget: Click the Payments tab to configure your payment provider.’ Finally, click the ‘Close’ button to finish.

The contribution form template has the following fields:

• Name
• Email
• Amount of Donation
• Message or Comment

The Donation Amount field is a Single Item field that allows users to enter any amount they choose to give. Instead, you may use multiple choice or dropdown fields.

We’ll teach you how to create a multiple-choice payment field with numerous contribution amounts to select from. And the ability to enter a different amount in this tutorial.

Click the ‘Multiple Items’ option under Payment Fields to add the multiple-choice payment field. You may reorganize the Multiple Items field fields above the Donation Amount field by dragging and dropping them.

Then, click on the Multiple Items area to alter the selections in the form builder.

Change the title to ‘Donation Amount’ and save it. Then you may input any amount you like. And there is an ‘Enter amount’ option.

You may now have the Single Item field appear only when the ‘Enter Amount’ option is chosen.

To do so, change the choices in the Single Item box. Check that the ‘Required’ checkbox is not selected.

Alternatively, if users choose a contribution amount in the multiple-choice section above, it will prohibit them from submitting the form.

Following that, choose the Enter Donation Amount field. And go down to the ‘Conditionals’ tab to configure the display settings for this field.

After that, choose the ‘Enable conditional logic’ checkbox. Then choose the Show this field if ‘Donation Amount’ is the ‘Enter amount’ option.

Click the Save button in the top right corner to save your changes.

Step 3: Setup Payment Integration

Following that, you must configure the payment processor for your donations. We’ll guide you through the process of integrating with Paypal in this tutorial. It’s pretty similar to setting up credit card payments using Stripe.

From here, choose the Payments tab on the left, followed by the ‘Paypal Standard’ option.

You may now enter your settings on the right side of the screen. To begin, tick the ‘Enable PayPal Standard Payments’ box. And enter your PayPal email address.

Then, in the Payment Type field, select ‘Donation.’

Below that, you may specify a URL to send visitors if they cancel the checkout process.

This may be an excellent chance to re-engage with consumers by directing them to a relevant blog article or encouraging them to follow you on social media to keep in contact.

You may also change the delivery address choices. And ask contributors to submit a message during the Paypal checkout process.

You do not need to apply conditional logic for this contribution form. However, if you wanted to add a donation option to another form, such as a survey, you could do so.

The money would then be processed only if the user chose the donation option.

After you’ve customized all of your preferences, make sure to click the Save button.

Step 4: Customize Your Notifications

Following that, you must ensure that donors receive a confirmation email after donating.

To modify your form’s email alerts, navigate to the Settings > Notifications page.

You will see that a default notification will be issued to the site administrator. However, you may create a separate message for the donor by clicking the ‘Add New Notification’ option.

Now, give your new notification a name in the popup box and click the ‘Ok’ button.

Following that, you must ensure that this notice is sent to the donor’s email address, which they provided in the form.

To do so, select the ‘Show Smart Tags’ option next to the Send To Email Address field.

Click Email in the list that displays. You’ll see an intelligent tag like field id=” 1” emerge.

You may now scroll down to personalize the message that the donor will receive.

When you’re finished configuring your alerts, don’t forget to click the Save button.

Step 5: Customize the Donation Form Settings

When building a contribution form in WordPress, you have a few more choices to set. We’ll begin with the standard settings.

To begin, navigate to Settings » General.

You may configure the following here:

• Form Name — Here, you may change the name of your online donation form.
• Form Description — Describeomize the wording on the submit button with the Submit Button Text option. For example, you might replace this with a Donate button.
• Spam Prevention — Use the anti-spam tool, hCaptcha, or Google reCAPTCHA to prevent contact form spam. On all new forms, the anti-spam checkbox is activated by default.
• AJAX Forms – Enable AJAX settings without reloading the page.
• GDPR Enhancements – To comply with GDPR standards, you can deactivate input information storage. In addition, user information such as IP addresses and user agents are collected.

Check out our step-by-step guide for adding a GDPR agreement field to your basic contact form.

• Offline Mode – Allows users to submit their forms even when they are not connected to the internet.

When you’re finished, click Save.

Step 6: Configure Your Donation Notifications

Notifications are an excellent method to send an email anytime someone donates your website.

You will be notified anytime someone donates your site.

So, if you utilize intelligent tags, you may also notify a site visitor when they make a gift. Let them know you received it, and you will contact them shortly.

This ensures that site visitors’ forms are correctly processed.

Step 7: Include a Donation Form on Your Website.

Now that your donation form is finished, you must publish it on your websitYouyou can add a WPForms block or embed your form in any post or p using a shortcode. Using the plugin, you can even include a contribution widget in your sidebar or bottom.

Modify an existing page or post to add your form. You may also make a new post or page specifically for your contribution form.

Once in the WordPress editor, click the addition (+) sign in the upper left corner to create a WPForms block.

Then, in the WPForms block, pick your contribution form from the dropdown menu.

You may see the contribution form in action by publishing your post or page.

How to Send a Receipt for a Donation

Do you wish to provide a receipt to your donors once they submit a payment?

Form alerts may send an email receipt for each donation received. However, you can also use form entries to build custom receipts.

To send a donation receipt to each contributor, print their form submission to a PDF.

If you want to create individual receipts, you may export your form entries to CSV. You may then import the data into your layout.

Maintain Contact with Donors

You may use your contribution forms to collect contact information. You can use several popular email marketing platforms for this work. Such as:

• Constant Contact
• Sendinblue
• Drip
• ConvertKit
• AWeber
• GetResponse
• Mailchimp
• Campaign Monitor

As a result, you will be able to add donors to your email list. Also, keep them informed about your organization’s happenings.

And because your form is currently live on your website. It’s simple to leverage WordPress’s social sharing capabilities to drive more attention to it.

Check out these great social networking plugins for some inspiration.

CONCLUSION

Donation forms are critical for non-profit groups collecting donations. However, it is also quite simple to construct and add one to a WordPress site. Fortunately, fantastic form builder plugins are available, such as Everest Forms. That allows you to construct contribution forms quickly.