Charitable Documentation

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

Setting Up Square Webhooks

Would you like Charitable to receive real-time updates when a payment is completed or refunded through Square? With Square webhooks enabled, your forms can stay in sync with Square so payment statuses are always up to date.

This guide will show you how to easily connect Square webhooks with Charitable, ensuring your website stays in sync with your Square activities.

Before you get started, be sure to install Charitable on your WordPress site. After that, connect your site to your Square account.

Understanding Webhooks

Webhooks are a way for Square to notify Charitable when an event happens in your account, like a payment being updated or refunded. Once enabled, Charitable listens for these events so your site can reflect changes in payment status automatically.

With Square webhooks set up, you don’t need to manually check or update your form entries after a transaction is processed. Whether a payment goes through, is refunded, or partially returned, your Charitable dashboard will stay up to date based on the latest information from Square.

Enabling Webhooks in Charitable

Here are the steps we’ll follow in this guide:

Step 1: Enabling Square Payments

To get started, open your WordPress admin area and go to Charitable » Settings » Gateway Payments tab.

Here, you’ll see a list of available payment gateways that you can enable/disable with just a click. In case Square payments has not yet been enabled, click on the ‘Enable Gateway’ button here.

Once enabled, a green ‘Gateway Settings’ button will appear. Click on it to go to the next step.

Step 2: Connecting to Square

On the Square Gateway Settings page, you’ll see a Connection Status section with a button that reads “Connect to Square Account”. Select it and it will open up the Square login page.

Connect to Square

Enter your credentials and log in to your Square account. You’ll see a page that asks you to grant permission to Charitable.

Select “Allow” and Charitable will sync with Square.

Grant permission in Square

When connected, you’ll be directed back to the Square Gateway Settings page in Charitable.

Charitable will automatically fetch your business locations, and you can select them from a dropdown menu here. This gives you the ability to switch locations as and when you need.

Business location in Charitable Square

Step 3: Enabling Webhooks in Square

We’ve made it as easy as possible to enable webhooks with Square. It’s just a copy and paste. Simply follow the steps below.

First, in the same Square Gateway Settings page, you’ll see an Enable Webhooks section.

Here, there is a webhook URL available. You’ll need to add this inside your Square dashboard. Click on the clipboard icon to quickly copy it.

Grab the webhook url in Charitable

Go to your Square dashboard, and open the Webhooks » Subscriptions tab.

Here, you’ll see all the webhooks you’ve set up.

Webhook subscriptions in Square

Choose the ‘Add subscription’ button to create a new webhook.

Add subscription

Now, you can add a name for your webhook so you can easily recognize it in the future.

Below that, paste the URL you copied.

Add webhook in Square settings

Now there’s one more step here. You’ll see a list of Events below this.

You’ll need to select 5 specific events here:

  • invoice.payment_made
  • oauth.authorization.revoked
  • payment.created
  • payment.updated
  • refund.created
Choose webhook subscriptions in square

You can find the events required inside your Charitable dashboard. Below the webhook URL you copied, you’ll see the list of required webhook subscriptions.

Required webhooks

Once you’ve chosen these events in your Square dashboard, hit the ‘Save’ button at the top to save your new webhook.

Save button in Square webhooks

That’s it! You’ve connected your Charitable account to Square webhooks.

Now you can go to the Webhooks » Subscriptions tab., and you’ll see the webhook you’ve just set up.

Webhook appears in dashboard

Make sure you ‘Save Changes’ inside the Square Gateway Settings page in your WordPress admin panel as well.

We recommend making one or two test donations to make sure your connection is working fine.

Now, when a donor makes a contribution using Square payments, it will appear in the donation receipt like so:

Viewing Square Donations inside Charitable

When a donation is made, the transaction details will be recorded by Charitable.

You can access this under Charitable » Donations.

Here you can see all donations made through all payment gateways you’ve enabled on your site.

Charitable displays the donation details such as the name, email address, amount donated, payment gateway, campaign, and status.

This gives you a bird’s eye view of all donations received.

Square donation record

Any transactions made through the Square payment gateway will also appear in your Square dashboard under the Payments & invoices » Transactions tab, like this:

Square transaction complete

Next, we’ll show you how to issue Square refunds.

Refunding Donations Made With Square

Charitable makes it easy for you to issue refunds on any donation made through Square. Go to Charitable » Donations and edit the donation record you need to refund.

On the right taskbar, under the Donations Actions section, choose the ‘Refunded’ status from the drop down menu.

Donation record

You’ll see a checkbox appear to ‘Refund in Square automatically’. Check this box and click on the ‘Update Status’ button.

Refund Square transaction

That’s it. You’ll see the refund activity appear in the activity log on the same page.

Square donation records

The refund will be issued by Square. You can visit your Square dashboard and see that the refund payment has been made.

Refund inside Square

Now you know how to set up Square webhooks with Charitable.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are answers to some of the top questions we see about setting up Square webhooks in Charitable.

How do I enable Square payments in Charitable?

In your Charitable dashboard, go to Settings » Payment Gateways and enable the Square payment gateway. Then follow our Square Setup guide to complete the connection.

Do I need to set up webhooks for both Test Mode and Live Mode?

Yes, Square provides separate credentials for Sandbox (Test) and Production (Live) environments. Be sure to use the correct access token based on whether Test Mode is enabled in your Charitable settings.

Can I enable multiple payment gateways along with Square?

Yes, Charitable makes it possible enable multiple payment gateways. You can also enable specific gateways for different campaigns.

Next, would you like to learn more about creating campaigns in Charitable? Check out our tutorial on creating your first campaign with Charitable.

Still have questions? We’re here to help!

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ambassadors New

👤 Creator Profiles: Put a Face to Every Peer-to-Peer Campaign

Ambassadors 3.3.0 now provies Creator Profiles — giving your supporters a permanent, shareable public home that turns one-time fundraisers into ongoing relationships.

👤 Public Creator Pages: Give every fundraiser an instant, clean landing page at /creator/their-name/ to showcase their custom avatar, bio, and a browsable grid of their campaigns.

📊 Proof of Impact: Boost donor trust by displaying site-wide milestones on the profile—like total funds raised and total donor counts.

💳 Interactive Hover Cards: When donors hover over a creator’s name on a campaign page, a compact card expands with their bio and social handles right at the moment of decision.

📍 Responsible Location Sharing: Allow creators to safely show local supporters where they are based using only city, state, and country details.

🛠️ Self-Serve Customization: Fundraisers can update their own profiles and link up to six social networks directly from the My Campaigns hub, saving you admin time.

Ready to empower your advocates? Update to Ambassadors 3.3.0 and turn on “Enable Public Creator Page” today!

Improvement Payments

📱 Turn Mobile Scrollers Into Donors: Meet Charitable’s Mollie Upgrade

Losing mobile supporters because they hate typing out long card numbers on their phones? Charitable’s updated Mollie integration features:

⚡ One-Tap Wallet Checkout: Enable donors to complete their gifts instantly using Apple Pay or Google Pay with a simple face scan, fingerprint, or tap.

💰 No Extra PCI Burden: Skip complex domain verification and security compliance since all wallet transactions run safely through Mollie’s hosted checkout.

🛠️ Custom Cancel Routing: Keep the experience predictable by automatically sending donors who back out to your cancellation page, or use developer filters to route them to a custom page.

Visit this page to learn more.

ambassadors improved New

Moderation and Directory Screens In Ambassadors 3.0

Ambassadors 3.0 has new features: moderation and directory screens… now easily see those who are earning donations on your peer to peer network – including campaign creators that might need to be verified – all in one place. Generate reports, email ambassadors and campaign creators directly and more.

🚀 See when campaign creators and ambassadors have updated their campaigns, what donors/donation they have brought in and more.

🎉 Manually add ambassadors and campaign creators, and approve them in one-click!

Visit this page to learn more.

New Payments

⚡ Unlock India-Based Donations: Meet Charitable’s Native Razorpay Integration

Trying to collect donations in India? Charitable’s native Razorpay integration features:

⚡ Instant UPI Integration: Accept fast, local donations directly inside your form via apps like PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, and BHIM without sending donors away from your site.

📲 Auto-Generated Campaign QRs: Instantly render scannable QR codes encoding a UPI deep link directly on your public campaign pages and sidebars for an effortless “scan-to-give” experience.

💰 Dual Local & Global Reach: Headline your campaigns in INR while seamlessly accepting major international currencies like USD, EUR, GBP, and CAD to maximize global support.

🔁 Seamless Recurring Giving: Fully integrates with the Charitable Recurring addon to manage automatic monthly subscriptions directly through Razorpay without extra code.

↩️ Automatic Two-Way Sync: Keep your books perfectly clean with two-way refund syncing—issue a refund inside WordPress or your Razorpay dashboard and both sides update automatically.

🔒 Webhook-Verified Security: Automatically protect your donation records using HMAC-signed webhook verification to ensure every status update represents real money cleared on the rails.

Visit this page to learn more.

Integration New

🎉 New Built-in PushEngage Integration

Struggling with falling email open rates and rising ad costs just to keep your supporters engaged? Charitable’s built-in PushEngage integration features:

🔔 Zero-Fee Direct Messaging: Deliver crisp, instant pop-up notifications straight to your donors’ desktops and mobile devices.

⏱️ Four Smart Automated Triggers: Automatically send updates for immediate donation thank yous, full-list campaign launches, urgent “ending soon” alerts, and goal milestone celebrations.

📈 Group Momentum Broadcasts: Turn private milestones into public wins by automatically broadcasting alerts to your entire subscriber list the moment a campaign hits 50%, 75%, or 100% of its goal.

📊 Automatic Analytics Tracking: Monitor exactly where your incoming notification traffic is coming from with built-in attribution that requires zero complex configuration.

Visit this page to learn more.