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

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!)

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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