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Introducing Charitable 1.8.4 – New Onboarding, Auto-Color Constract, Donation Form Templates and More!

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We are proud to announce Charitable 1.8.4 (and the newest update 1.8.4.2) – and with it we are making this the go-to tool for non-profits and organizations to run campaigns and get donations!

We have been working hard to improve the Charitable plugin, aiming to make it more accessible for new WordPress users while simultaneously incorporating substantial updates for advanced users and developers. Our recent updates include features that our customers—many of whom are just concluding a busy holiday and charity season—have been requesting.

Now, let’s delve into what’s new.

First-Class Onboarding

When users install Charitable, they are eager to get started. I would be too! The goal of Charitable has always been to get you from new plugin install to having a campaign in 5 minutes or less. And thanks to the new onboarding tool, that’s now possible! 🎉

The new onboarding tool allows you to set up the following quickly:

✅ Activate donor and admin emails.

✅ Confirm currency and country settings.

✅ Add addons with license, and download recommended third-party plugins.

✅ Create a campaign by selecting a template and entering the title, description, goal, and end date!

In combination with the Charitable Checklist, even if you have never used Charitable before you can build a campaign and start accepting donations in just a few minutes.

Auto-Color Contrast For Campaigns

Often when you are customizing the look of your campaign, you want to change the basic colors and build your campaign… but at the same time, you want the text to be easily readable. This is especially true for donation buttons. In Charitable 1.8.4.2, Charitable will automatically adjust the text on donation buttons to whatever has the best contrast (and CSS in your theme or custom CSS can still override).

We hope to roll this feature out to more elements in the campaign builder, so stay tuned.

Donation Form Templates

Donation form templates

For the first time, you can now select a different layout for donation forms – right from Charitable settings with no code. While we offer the standard layout, there is a new “minimal” layout that (along with the setting to remove non-required fields) will make your donation form more compact (perfect for modal donation forms or if you need to fit the form into a tighter space). More layouts are coming – but try these beta features and let us know what you think!

Credit Card Fields Format

If you use Stripe, you’ll be happy to know that you can try our new multiple forms setting which will show the credit card form in four textboxes. This has been a big request from customers! This is currently in beta.

Other Updates

Outside of what was mentioned above, here’s a sampling of items that have been addressed and included since Charitable 1.8.4.

  • NEW: You can now opt-in to data collection to improve Charitable. See “advanced settings” screen for details.
  • FIX: Visual Campaign Builder: Updated documentation links.
  • FIX: Visual Campaign Builder: Adjustments and tweaks to campaigns in Visual Builder (admin and frontend).
  • FIX: Resolved issue involving sanitization of non-english dates in some scenarios resulting in incorrect “days until” calculations.
  • FIX: Resolved an issue involving the “Use This Template” button in a visual campaign when choosing campaigns in some scenarios.
  • FIX: Minor adjustments and tweaks to campaign templates including word breaking and word wrapping in the visual builder.
  • UPDATED: Revised output of the “Your Donations” title that was causing issues for those adding HTML via the ‘charitable_donation_amount_legend’ filter.
  • FIX: Minor translation, misc CSS, UI, and PHP coding updates.

And There You Have It!

Excited to take advantage of the latest Charitable features for your nonprofit organization? Update to the newest version of Charitable on your WordPress site today to optimize your fundraising efforts and simplify the donation process.

If you haven’t started using Charitable yet, there’s no better time to begin! Upgrade your WordPress site with Charitable Pro to elevate your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts with the top donation and donor management plugin available.

We must express our gratitude to our incredible community, comprising diverse charitable organizations, for making this update possible. We sincerely appreciate your ongoing support and feedback. Your commitment to fundraising continues to inspire us.

If you haven’t already upgrade to Charitable Pro – there’s never been a better time. Check out which plan is best for you.

(Want more? We’ve got more updates and surprises coming up for you, so stay tuned!)

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.

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Improvement Payments

💰 Accept Recurring Donations with Windcave and Charitable

A donor sets their gift up once on Windcave’s secure payment page, and Charitable bills every renewal after that on schedule. Why this is important:

🏦 Organizations banked in New Zealand or Australia: monthly giving on the gateway your bank already set you up with, with no second processor to onboard.
⛪ Churches taking regular tithes and offerings: congregants set their own schedule once, which is the simplest way to launch recurring church giving without a separate platform.
🌏 Groups with donors in several currencies: Windcave handles more than 20, so a supporter can give in the currency they actually hold.
📅 Operating funds rather than one-time campaigns: switch on Recurring Only mode and the one-off option disappears, so every gift to that campaign is a subscription.
🧾 Teams with no developer on staff: 3 sets of credentials pasted into a settings page, and no code anywhere.

Check out our announcement here.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
automation update

⚡ Visual Automation Builder: Drag and Drop With No Code!

Charitable Automation Connect 2.3.0 introduces the Visual Automation Builder, a full-screen canvas that lays each automation out as a flow of connected cards: a trigger, optional conditions, and a list of actions that run in order.

🧩 Many actions, one trigger: Tag a donor, send an email, add a note, and fire a webhook from a single event, dragged into any order.

✉️ Act inside Charitable: New Send Email, Tag Donor, and Add Donor Note actions run with no external service required.

🔤 Merge tags: Personalize emails and notes with live fields like {first_name}, {total}, and {campaign_name}.

🔁 Apply to existing donors: Run Tag Donor and Add Donor Note against the donors you already have.

🖥️ Canvas or Simple: Switch views anytime, and automations built before 2.3.0 keep working unchanged.

Read more here.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
Integration updated

📬 Introducing Brevo for Charitable: Turn Donors into Subscribers Automatically

The moment a supporter makes a gift is when they are most engaged. With the new Brevo integration for Charitable, you can automatically turn those one-time donors into long-term subscribers without touching a single spreadsheet.

Simply collect donor consent right on your donation form and start your welcome series immediately.

What’s New:

🔄 Automated Subscriber Sync: New donors who opt in are added straight to your Brevo contact list as soon as their payment clears—no manual exports or CSV imports required.

🎯 Granular Consent & Opt-In Control: Customize your checkbox label, choose whether it defaults to checked or unchecked, or turn on Brevo double opt-in to keep your list clean and compliant.

📋 Per-Campaign List Mapping: Route supporters to your global email list or map specific campaigns to targeted Brevo lists to tailor your follow-up messaging.

⚡ 5-Minute Setup: Connect instantly by pasting your Brevo API key into the Newsletter settings, map your contact fields, and start building your email list on autopilot.

Ready to grow your mailing list? Brevo is available now starting on the Charitable Plus plan—connect your account today!

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
recurring donations updated

💳 Introducing Card Updates: Fix Expired Cards Without Losing Subscriptions!

newExpired or updated credit cards are one of the biggest silent leaks in recurring fundraising. With Card Updates in the Recurring Donations extension, donors can now refresh their payment details directly—keeping their subscription, schedule, and giving history completely intact.

No canceled plans, no lost history, and zero administrative headache for your team.

What’s New:

⚡ 30-Second Self-Service: Donors get a dedicated “Update Card” button in their dashboard that opens Stripe’s secure, PCI-compliant Customer Portal to update card details instantly.

🔒 Scoped & Safe Access: Scoped exclusively to card updates by default, donors can’t accidentally cancel or alter their plans from inside the portal, keeping your webhooks and data in sync.

🤝 Admin-Assisted Support: Helping a donor on the phone? Open their secure Stripe portal in one click from your admin screen or generate a single-use update link to email them.

📋 Automatic Audit Trail: Every payment method update is recorded automatically with a timestamp in both system-wide logs and the individual donor’s profile.

Ready to protect your recurring revenue? Get the Plus or Pro plan and update Recurring Donations to 2.3.0+ and enable “Update Payment Method” under your Settings today!

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
Integration page builder

Divi Fans Rejoice! Native Divi 5 Campaign Progress Bar Module!

With our new native Divi 5 module, you can anchor your microsites with real-time fundraising stats directly on the visual canvas. Here’s how it works, and why it’s worth turning on today.

Create campaign updates that are VISUAL AND LIVE. You can also:

📊 Campaign Progress Bar: Drop a live progress bar into any Divi 5 layout and show goal progress in real time.

🎨 Deep styling controls: Easily customize the bar and track color, height, and radius to match your brand perfectly.

👁️ Visual Builder ready: Configure and preview everything directly on the Divi canvas as a first-class module.

🔁 Identical rendering: The same exact engine powers this module, meaning consistent design without legacy shims.

✅ Faster launches: Never leave the Divi 5 interface to configure shortcodes or guess how your goal labels will look.

Learn more here.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.