In this article, I’ll show you how to accept donations in WordPress or Elementor for free using GiveWP.
GiveWP is an amazing WordPress plugin that enables users to easily create donation pages and intuitively accept donations online on your WordPress site with a variety of payment methods available in numerous countries.
GiveWP offers both a Free and a Pro version with multiple functionalities like customizable donation forms, recurring donations, configurable fundraising goals, and so much more.
In this case, we will be using with the free version of GiveWP, so let’s get started.
Ps: Below is a step-by-step video tutorial you can follow along with.
Video: Accept donations in WordPress or Elementor
On your WordPress dashboard go to Plugins and Add New, search for the GiveWP plugin, and install and activate it.
Installing and activating GiveWP will add a new set of pages to your website, and a new menu item on your dashboard called Donations.
Tip:
By default, when you install the GiveWP plugin, most settings are ready to use, but you may want to make some unique changes to your particular donation page, which is what I’ll be showing you how to do.
On the Donations option, go to Settings.
Under General, you can set up a Donation success page so that when someone’s donation goes through they are redirected to this page,
You can also set up a Donation failed page which will show if a donation fails.
And the Donor dashboard option is where recurring donors’ details are found.
You can also set up your Base Country and Base State, which is where your website operates from.
Under the Currency tab, you can set up your currency as you want it to look on your page.
Under Access Control, you can limit how long a session will take after a donor initiates a donation. You can set it from 24 hours up to a week.
Under Sequential ordering; you can enable and set a unique donation number or id that will be assigned to your donations.
GiveWP Payment Gateways
On the Payment gateways options, GiveWP gives you 3 options that you can use to receive donations on your website. That is Stripe, PayPal, and Offline donations.
#1. Offline Donations
With Offline donations, someone can just go to your website and initiate a donation, then get the donation details and they can go to the bank and pay the money to your account or write a check.
After you confirm that the offline donation has been made, go to Donations on your website’s dashboard, on that particular donation go to View/Edit and you can change its Status from Pending to Complete, then click Save Donation
Under Settings > Payment gateways > Offline Donations, make sure you add clear Offline Donation Instructions for people to follow.
#2. Stripe
Back in Settings > Payment Gateways, under the Stripe option, you’ll be able to connect your website to your Stripe account and start receiving your donations.
#3. PayPal
On the PayPal tab, you can set up your Account country then click the Connect with PayPal button to connect your website to your PayPal account. Make sure you check the Donation option.
GiveWP Default Options
Under the Default Options tab, you can enable Title prefixes (Mr., Mrs…) if you want.
You can also set which Form fields you want to be either required or optional on your donation page, like the Last name, Company, etc.
GiveWP Email Settings
The Emails tab comprises the email communications between you and your donor (Donor Emails) and Admin Emails.
You can choose to edit these email templates to your liking.
Under Email Settings, you can either use the default email template or you can just have plain text with no template.
You can add your website’s name and logo, as well as your From email.
There’s also a Contact Information section where you need to set up the right contact information to give to your donors.
Remember to Save changes when you’re done making your edits.
The last Tab is the Advanced options, here you don’t need to change much, just go to the Script Loading Location and make sure the Footer is selected, this will make certain that your scripts load from the footer, not the header, to limit interference with your website’s running.
GiveWP Donation Forms
When you go to Donations > All Forms, there’s a list of all the forms you create for this page/website.
Click Add Form, give your form a name/title, and then you can choose which form you want it in, for example multi-step, classic or legacy.
Select the Multi-Step Form option, add a Primary Color of your choice, and on Primary Font select User’s System Font.
You can add a Headline of your choice, and a Description for your donation campaign, you can also add an Image.
On Donation Options, you can add the levels of donations.
#1. Donation Levels
This means that you can add different amounts that people can donate, for example here we have $10, and $50, and you can enable the Custom amount option as well, for someone to add in their preferred amount to donate.
When you go to Add level option, you can add any other amount you want to be included ($100 for example).
When you’re done click the Update button, then go to your form preview and reload the page to see your changes.
On the Donation Limit option, you can set the minimum and maximum amount you want your donors to give.
If you choose the Set Donation option, on the other hand, everyone will donate only that amount that you have set, but you can still enable the Custom amount option as well.
#2. Form Fields
On the Form Fields option, you can choose which Form Fields you want global, required, optional or disabled.
For example, you can enable Anonymous Donations so that donors can be able to hide their identity if they want.
You can enable Donor Comments so your donors can leave a custom comment.
You can enable Guest Donations so that donors don’t have to log into your website to make their donations, this will come in handy for one-time donors.
#3. Donation Goal
Under the Donation Goal option, you can choose to display the amount (Goal Amount) you want to reach by the end of your campaign and have details of the donation status.
Or you can leave this option disabled to keep the goal open-ended.
#4.Terms & Conditions
On the Terms & Conditions option, you can require your donors to accept terms and conditions before completing their donation, or you can just disable this option.
Under Offline Donations, you can enable the Global Options since you already have information set up under Payment Gateways > Offline Donations, or you can add Custom information for the form.
On Email Notifications, you can make further customizations for New donations, Donation receipts, etc.
Remember to save/update your changes when you’re done.
When you’re done creating and customizing your donation form, it’s now time to add it to your website.
#5. Add Donation Form to Gutenberg
Under Donations > All Forms, go to the form you created and copy the Shortcode
Go to Pages and open up your Donation page in WordPress then paste your shortcode.
When you’re done click the update button and preview your page.
#6. Add Donation Form to Elementor
If you don’t want to use Gutenberg to display your donation forms, or if you have an Elementor website and you’d prefer another style for your donation pages, you need to download another GiveWP plugin called GiveWP Donation Widgets for Elementor.
After downloading your plugin, go to Plugins on your WordPress dashboard and install and activate it.
You can create a form using Figma and then open it up with Elementor to add the Widgets.
In the Elementor widgets area, you should find a new section called GiveWP, with a bunch of donation widgets that you can add to build your custom donation page.
Add the Give Form Widget, then under Edit Give Form, go to Content > Form ID, and add the ID of the form you created under Donations > All Forms.
You can choose to show or hide the form title, and the goal, and under Form Display Style you can show the full form or modal reveal or other available options depending on your preference.
You can go ahead and make further styling and customization using Custom CSS to make your donation page match the design and layout of your Elementor website.
Also read: The Truth About Elementor and Site Speed: Does Elementor Slow Down Your Site?
#7. Make Donations Recurring
If you would like to collect recurring donations on your website, you can do this by buying an add-on from GiveWP. This will enable you to collect weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual donations.
This addon will cost you $149 per year as a standalone addon.
Alternatively, you can purchase a GiveWP package with this addon and other addons and features.
In Closing
That’s how you can use GiveWP to collect donations on your WordPress or Elementor website.
For any comments or questions use the comments section below. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter and Youtube channel for more tips and tutorials.
