Charitable Documentation

Learn how to make the most of Charitable with clear, step-by-step instructions.

How to Enable Donor Referrals

Donor referrals help expand your fundraising reach by allowing supporters to share their giving with friends and family. This document will guide you on how to set up and manage donor referrals in Charitable.

Table of Contents

Enabling Donor Referrals

Charitable offers a quick and easy way to enable donor referrals. The feature is built into the Chartiable plugin so you don’t need to install any addons.

In your WordPress admin panel, go to the Charitable » Settings page. Open the Donors tab and then choose Donor Referrals from the submenu.

On this page, there is a toggle switch to enable Donor Referrals. Simply click this switch to turn on the Donor Referral feature.

Enable donor referrals

Once enabled, new settings will appear.

Configuring Donor Referral Settings

Charitable lets you customize the Donor Referral Message that contains instructions for your donors.

There is a default message added in for you. You can edit it as you need.

Donor referrals settings

This field will appear in the donation receipt along with their unique referral code.

Make sure you save your changes.

Troubleshooting Donor Referrals

In the same Settings page, you’ll see an option called Maintenance Actions. This dropdown enables you to remove codes for all donors and add codes for all donors.

Add remove donor referral codes

If you need to troubleshoot errors or reset the referral codes, this feature allows you to do that. You must enable Charitable Debug mode to see this menu.

Where Donors Will Find Their Referral Code

When a donor makes a contribution, a receipt will be automatically generated and displayed onscreen right after their payment is successful. The receipt contains details of their donation, such as donation number, date, total amount, and payment method. It will also contain the referral code.

Referral code in receipt

This receipt will also be sent to the email address they entered in the donation form.

They can share this referral code with friends and family to get more donations for your cause.

How New Donors Add The Referral Code

A referred donor can choose the campaign they want to donate to.

When they proceed to make a donation, in the donation form that appears, they will see a field where they can enter the referral code of their friends or family who referred them to this campaign.

Donor referral code in donation form

All they have to do is enter the referral code and complete their donation.

Viewing Donor Referrals Made

Go to the Charitable » Donors page in your WordPress dashboard. Open any donor profile here and scroll down to the section where you can see tabs such as Donations, Campaigns, Comments, Social, Logs, Notes, and Referrals.

Open the Referrals tab, you’ll see the donor’s referral code at the top of this page. You’ll also see any referred donations listed here.

Donor referrals in admins

You can edit the donation records or download the PDF receipt.

Now you know how to use the Donor Referrals feature. Explore Charitable’s Donor Management System here »

Still have questions? We’re here to help!

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Display your causes with style and make it easier than ever for donors to find the right campaign. We are excited to announce the brand-new Campaign Showcase, a powerful, no-code tool designed to help you create beautiful, high-converting campaign grids and carousels.

The Ultimate Discovery Experience

Your mission deserves to be seen. With the Campaign Showcase, you can move beyond simple lists and create dynamic displays that highlight your most urgent needs, helping donors connect with the causes they care about most.

⚡ No-Code Customization: Effortlessly change layouts, columns, and styles with a single click. Whether you want a clean grid or an interactive carousel, you can match your organization’s look without any CSS or JavaScript.

🎯 Advanced Search & Filter: Empower your supporters with real-time filtering. Donors can quickly sort through campaigns by tags, popularity, or “ending soon,” making it easy to find exactly where their help is needed.

💰 Quick Donate Integration: Boost your conversions with instant giving. The Showcase allows donors to contribute via a modal popup directly from the display, featuring pre-selected amounts for a faster, friction-free experience.

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🤯 New Addon: Campaign Updates

Keep your supporters informed and engaged with every step of your progress! Share the ongoing impact of your mission and build lasting trust with your donor community!

The Ultimate Engagement Tool

Fundraising is a journey, not a one-time event. Now, you can easily provide real-time updates directly on your campaign pages, ensuring your donors stay connected to the causes they care about most.

📣 Easy Storytelling: Quickly post text updates, milestones, or field reports to show exactly how donations are being put to work, keeping the momentum alive throughout your fundraiser.

🏗️ Visual Builder Integration: Seamlessly add the Updates block anywhere on your page using our drag-and-drop builder, or use a simple shortcode to display news in widgets and sidebars.

📩 Build Donor Trust: By consistently sharing progress and success stories, you create a transparent giving experience that encourages recurring support and deeper community involvement.

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Build Beautiful Fundraising Pages Visually with WPBakery Integration

We are excited to announce our brand-new integration with WPBakery, one of the most popular WordPress page builders, designed to help you create stunning layouts for your campaigns without touching a single line of code.

The Ultimate Design Experience

Designing your nonprofit’s website should be as simple as your mission is powerful. Now, you can bring Charitable functionality directly into your WPBakery workflow, using native elements to build high-converting donation pages and campaign grids in seconds.

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The Ultimate Storytelling Experience

A picture is worth a thousand words – and now, it’s worth even more for your fundraising. Connect your visual impact directly to your cause by creating stunning, responsive galleries that engage donors and drive contributions.

🖼️ Visual Impact: Easily create beautiful, fast-loading galleries to show your nonprofit’s work in action, from field reports to event highlights.

🔗 Seamless Connection: Link gallery images directly to your fundraising campaigns, making it effortless for inspired visitors to go from viewing a photo to making a donation.

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