Charitable Documentation

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

How to Enable Direct Reply to Thank Your Donors in WordPress 

Do you want to personally thank donors without the hassle of copying and pasting email addresses?

If you run a nonprofit or charity website, you know how frustrating it can be when someone donates and you want to send a quick thank you, but you can’t simply hit “reply” on the notification email.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you exactly how to enable this feature and start building stronger relationships with your donors in just a few clicks.

Don’t have Charitable yet? You’ll need to install it first. The Reply to Donor feature is available in both the free and premium versions.

Step 1: Accessing Charitable Email Settings

First, log into your WordPress admin dashboard.

Once you’re logged in, go to Charitable » Settings page and open the Emails tab.

Set up automated email for pdf receipt

On this page, you’ll see a list of all the different emails Charitable can send. These are divided into two main categories:

Donor Emails (sent to people who donate), for example:

  • Donation Receipt
  • Offline Donation Receipt
  • Password Reset
  • Email Verification

Admin Emails (sent to you and your team), for example:

  • Campaign Ended Notification
  • New Donation Notification
  • New Offline Donation Notification

The “Reply To” feature is available on these 2 admin emails: new donation notification and offline donation notification.

Step 2: Enable Reply to Donor for Online Donations

You can enable the ‘Admin” New Donation Notification” email by clicking on the ‘Enable Email’ button. Once done, a new ‘Email Settings’ button will appear.

Admin new donor notification

Click on “Email Settings” to expand its settings and move on to the next step.

Step 3: Customizing Your Email

Inside the Email Settings page, you’ll see several options:

  1. Email recipient – This should be your email address
  2. Email subject – You can customize this if you want
  3. Reply to Donor – This is the magic toggle we’re looking for!

Find the “Reply to Donor” toggle switch and click it to turn it ON.

Email reply to

When this feature is active, the recipient (admin or you) will be able to reply to a donor’s email and thank them for their contritbution.

Below this, you can customize the email headline and body. A default email is already created for you but you can edit this to your liking.

Note: The headline and email body here is for the donation notification that you will receive in your admin inbox.

Email headline and body

When you’re done, make sure you preview and save your changes. Make sure to send test emails and reply to them in your email client of choice to check if everything is functioning fine.

Save changes to email notification

Note: Charitable does not handle sending emails. It works alongside your email client that is connected to your WordPress site.

Need more help? See our Documentation Library »

Still have questions? We’re here to help!

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Improvement New Security

📣 New Security Features

We’ve introduced a suite of new security tools to give you total control over who accesses your forms, plus a new way to tidy up your database.

Advanced Security Suite

Layered protection: Cloudflare, ReCAPTCHA, IP Controls, and Rate Limiting.

We have overhauled our security settings to stop bots without blocking real donors.

  • 🤖 Flexible Protection: Choose between Google reCAPTCHA v3 or the privacy-first Cloudflare Turnstile to block bots invisible.

  • 🚦 Rate limiting: Stop spam floods by limiting how many submissions an IP address can make in a set timeframe.

  • 🛑 Total control: Use the new IP Blacklist to block bad actors instantly, or the IP Whitelist to let your team bypass checks during testing.

The Clean Donation Tool

Go from “Testing” to “Live” in seconds.

Finished setting up your site and need to get rid of all those test transactions?

  • 🧹 Sweep it clean: Bulk delete test donations and donor records with a single click.

  • 📉 Accurate reporting: Ensure your revenue stats are 100% accurate for launch day.

  • ⚙️ Reset sequences: Automatically resets sequential invoice numbering.

donation form New

🏗️ Visual Donation Form Builder

Building the perfect donation form just got easier. We have completely reimagined how you create forms with a new drag-and-drop interface.

Design Visually, in Real-Time

No coding, no guessing. Just point, click, and build.

Say goodbye to confusing settings pages. You can now edit your form and see exactly what your donors will see, instantly.

  • 🖱️ Drag & Drop: Easily add fields like names, addresses, or file uploads by dragging them exactly where you want them.

  • 🎨 Customize everything: Click any field to tweak labels, placeholders, and requirement settings on the fly.

  • 👁️ Live preview: See your changes immediately as you make them—ensure your form flows perfectly before you hit publish.

Flexible & Powerful

Works with all your existing campaigns.

  • 🧩 Deep customization: Add custom HTML, shortcodes, or CSS classes for advanced branding.

  • ⚙️ Smart fields: Collect exactly what you need with support for dropdowns, checkboxes, dates, and hidden fields.

Leaderboards New

🏆 Donor Leaderboards!

Turn your fundraising into a community event. Recognize your most generous supporters and inspire friendly competition with our new leaderboard tools.

Gamify Your Fundraising

Celebrate your top donors and encourage others to climb the ranks.

Create a public “Hall of Fame” to give your donors the recognition they deserve.

  • 🎨 Two stunning layouts: Choose the List View for a clean, data-rich table or the Card View for a modern, visual grid with avatars.

  • 🥇 Automatic highlights: The top 3 supporters get special Trophy and Crown icons to make them stand out.

  • 🧩 Place it anywhere: Add it to any page using the new Gutenberg Block, or drop it directly into your campaign using the Visual Builder.

Total Customization

You decide what to show and what to hide.

  • ⚙️ Flexible data: Choose to display or hide donation amounts, donor counts, or avatars.

  • 🔄 Lifetime stats: Works seamlessly with Recurring Donations to show a donor’s all-time total impact.

Improvement New templates

🎨 New Templates & List Builder

Launch faster and design better. We’ve added three professional campaign templates and a versatile new content block to help you tell your story.

3 New Campaign Templates

Ready-to-use designs for specific fundraising needs.

Don’t start from scratch. Pick a template tailored to your cause and launch in minutes.

  • 🎄 Holiday Fundraiser: A warm, festive design perfect for year-end giving, toy drives, or food pantries.

  • 🎓 School Fundraiser: Built for PTAs and sports teams. clearly highlights goals like playground upgrades or classroom tech.

  • Church Fundraiser: A trustworthy layout designed for building funds, mission trips, and tithes.

The New “List” Block

Organize your campaign details without writing code.

Make your campaign pages easier to scan and more visually engaging with our new builder block.

  • 📝 Flexible layouts: Choose from 3 distinct styles to display sponsorship levels, donation perks, or project goals.

  • 🎨 Rich customization: Add colorful headlines, support for emojis, and unlimited list items.

  • 👣 Smart footers: Include a built-in footer for extra context or a final Call to Action.