How To Create a Donation Form In WordPress (For Non-Profits)

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Thinking of creating a non profit donation form and start collecting donations on your WordPress site?

You’re at the right place

In this step-by-step guide, I’m going to show you how to easily create and add a donation form in WordPress

What Are The Benefits Of Adding A Donation Form In WordPress?

You might be wondering why you should add a donation form on your website instead of simply adding a PayPal button, what’s the benefit?

Well, I must admit it’s easy to add a PayPal button on your site but it’s not the right solution and here’s why you need a donation form:

1. Easily gather information – You’ll be able to customize your form fields and get the information you need
2. Easy to share – Your donors will likely donate because donation forms are quick and easy
3. Easy integration – You can easily use other third-party software such as Cloudflare or CRM and a payment processor like Stripe
4. Easy to collect emails – You can easily ask for your donors to subscribe to your newsletter

I’m sure you can agree with me now that there are more benefits in using a donation form on your website than redirecting your donors to PayPal

In short, if you use the PayPal button it’s all about you getting the donations but if you use a donation form it’s about building a professional relationship with your donors

And in this world we live in, building relationships is essential for the success of your non profit

Convinced? Now lets create a donation form for your WordPress site

How To Create A Donation Form In WordPress

Some links in this section are affiliate links. I may earn a small commission to buy toys for my kids if you use these links. You will not be charged extra. I only recommend high-quality products and I don’t recommend them based on the small amount I earn if you decide to make a purchase

There are different types of plugins that you can use to create donation forms but most of them are poorly coded and they can give your donors a poor experience which will result in fewer donations

And some are way too expensive

You don’t want that

I’m going to show you how to create your donation form using WPForms, the best contact form plugin which is lightweight, affordable and obviously provides the best user experience

That said, to create a donation form using WPForms you’ll need to install and activate WPForms pro

Don’t know how to install a plugin? Follow this step-by-step guide on how to install plugins in WordPress

Now let’s get started

Step 1: Create A Donation Form

First, go to WPForms >> Add New to create your form

Name your form on the setup screen and then hover over to the donation form template >> click Create A Donation Form to build your form

WPForms will automatically create your donation form

Step 2: Customize Your Donation Form Fields

As you can see the donation form has only four fields which are Name, Email, Donation Amount and the Comment or Message fields

I know they might not be enough for you

You can easily add more fields on your form by simply dragging them from the left-hand panel and dropping them to the right-hand panel

That’s not all, you can also add a multiple-choice payment field with several donation amounts that your donors can choose from and you’ll also be able to give them an option to enter a different amount

To add a multiple choice payment field:

On the left-hand panel, go to Payment Fields and click Multiple Items then drop the field to the right-hand panel

Next, click on the Multiple Items field to make some changes

Here’s what you can change:

• The Label– Change the label to something that’ll make sense to your donors something like “Donation Amount”
• Item – Change each item to show a different amount
• Add another item – Add an “Enter amount” option

Now that our new field is all set, the next thing we need to do is to change the Single item field to only display when the “Enter Amount” option is selected

Now click the “Donation Amount” field to make changes

Make sure that the required field isn’t checked to ensure that the donors will be able to submit the form if they select a donation amount

Next, scroll down to the menu labelled Conditionals to enter the display settings for this field

Check the “Enable conditional logic” checkbox and select the option to Show this field if Donation Amount is Enter Amount

Click Save once you’re done

Step 3: Set Up The Payment Processor

In order to accept donations, you’ll need to set up a payment processor for your donations

WPForms integrates with Authorize.net, PayPal and Stripe

For this tutorial’s sake, we are going to set up PayPal as our payment processor

Now click on the Payments tab on the left and click the PayPal Standard button

Next you’ll need to :

• Check the Enable PayPal Standard payments checkbox
• Enter your PayPal email address
• Select Donation in the Payment type dropdown
• Choose the Production mode
• Select your preferred shipping settings
• Send your site visitors to a certain URL if they cancel the checkout process

Remember to click Save when you’re done

Step 4: Customize Your Notifications

Your form is ready to go live on your site but first, we need to make sure that your donors receive a confirmation email when they donate

To customize the email notifications:

Click Settings >> Notifications

There’s a default notification that’ll be sent to the site admin

Now click the Add New Notification button to create a separate notification for the donors

Name your notification in the pop-up window and click OK

Then, next to Send to Email Address click Show Smart Tags and choose Email in the list that pops up

Now scroll down and customize the message you want your donors to receive

Don’t forget to click Save, now we’re going to the final step. Yay!

Step 5: Add Your Non Profit Donation Form To Your WordPress Site

Now that your form is ready you need to add it to your WordPress site so that you can start receiving your donations

WPForms allows you to add your forms anywhere you can think of, be it inside your blog posts, pages or even on sidebar widgets

That said, in this tutorial we are going to add our donation form to a page

Head over to your WordPress dashboard and click on Pages >> Add New

I assume you’re using the WordPress Block editor

Now click the plus icon >> Widgets >> WPForms and select your donation form

Hit Publish and you’re done!

Voila! your non-profit donation form is now live on your WordPress site

Enjoy Receiving Donations On Your WordPress Site

Now you know how to create a non-profit donation form in WordPress

What’s left is for you to take action, Get the best user-friendly WordPress plugin and enjoy receiving donations on your site

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