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Charitable Update: Test Mode Alerts, Elementor Styling Upgrades & Feedback Form

New Charitable Update: Test Mode Alerts, Elementor Styling Upgrades & Feedback Form

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We’ve been listening closely to your feedback, and this maintenance release is all about making your day-to-day experience smoother and more flexible.

We’ve improved your experience with building donation pages with Elementor, testing your payment gateways, and sharing ideas for the future.

With the latest Charitable Pro plugin (1.8.8.4), we aim to bring thoughtful improvements designed to help you stay in control and create even better fundraising experiences.

🔔 Test Mode Banner

No more second-guessing whether you’re testing or running live donations. In the latest Charitable update, whenever Test Mode is enabled for your payment gateways, you’ll see a “Charitable Test Mode Active” alert box appear in the top right corner of your WordPress admin dashboard.

Charitable test mode active alert

Turn Test Mode off, and the alert disappears. Simple, clear, and designed to save you from any mix-ups between test and live donations.

Why does this matter? Test Mode is a crucial step when setting up or troubleshooting your payment gateways—but forgetting to switch back can mean lost donations and frustrated supporters. This new alert acts as a safety net, making sure you always know exactly what mode you’re in before going live.

🎨 Styling for Elementor Widgets

We recently launched Elementor Widgets and sought your feedback. One thing we heard most was that you wanted more styling options. Now they’re here!

We didn’t just add more customization—you’ll also find it easier overall to build donation pages that look and feel like the rest of your site.

Edit campaigns gallery

From the Style tab, you can now customize:

  • Campaign title, description, and meta typography (font size, weight, color, hover effects, underline, and more)
  • Campaign images, spacing, and layout for a polished design
  • Donate button styling, from shape and border radius to hover states
  • Responsive design tweaks to make sure everything looks great on any screen
  • Animations, effects, and even custom CSS for complete control

And here’s the best part: the styling options adjust based on the widget you’re using.

  • Campaign Widget → Typography, background & layout, border & radius, donate button styling, plus custom CSS.
  • Campaigns Widget (Gallery) → Extra options for campaign images, animations & effects, and performance & loading.
  • Donate Button Widget → Dedicated hover styling so your call-to-action stands out.
  • Donation Form → Customize the background, border, and layout.

This way, every widget gives you exactly the right set of tools to customize your campaigns—without clutter.

We believe your donation pages are more than functional—they represent your mission. These styling upgrades let you fine-tune every detail so your campaigns look professional, trustworthy, and seamlessly integrated into your website.

The result? A smoother donor experience that inspires more giving.

💡 Feedback & Suggestions for Elementor Widgets

Your input has always shaped the way Charitable grows, and now we’ve made it even easier to share your ideas. In the latest Charitable Pro update (1.8.8.4), you’ll find a new Feedback & Suggestions option under the Content tab when working with Elementor Widgets.

Feedback

Click it, and you’ll be taken to a simple form where you can submit suggestions for new elements, widgets, or improvements you’d love to see.

The best features come from real-world use. By sharing what you need, you help us build tools that make your fundraising pages more effective and your workflow smoother. Think of this as your direct line to shaping the future of Charitable.

Ready to Try Everything Out?

These features are available right now in the latest version of Charitable. Simply update to the latest version of Charitable

From test mode alerts that keep you on track, to powerful new Elementor styling options, to a direct line for your feedback—we’re making it easier than ever to create donation experiences that truly reflect your mission.

We’d love to hear how you’re using these new features! Stay connected with us:

Your feedback keeps Charitable moving forward. Let’s keep building better fundraising tools—together.

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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💂‍♂️ New DonationGuard 🛡️ Automatically Protects Your Donations!

Worried about card testing attacks or spam bots flooding your donation forms, but don’t want to ruin the giving experience for your real supporters? Charitable’s DonationGuard features:

🛡️ Real-Time Bot Detection: Actively monitors every donation submission for five distinct attack signals without slowing down your human donors.

📊 Smart Traffic Scoring: Instantly evaluates activity against a learned baseline of your site’s normal donation rhythms to catch sneaky, slow-drip card testing.

🚨 Severity-Tiered Alerts: Immediately opens structured “Attack Records” and notifies you via email and admin alerts the moment a campaign starts taking fire.

🎯 Single-Click Defense: Deploy instant security using the “Recommended Settings” preset to turn on Honeypot, Time Trap, and Rate Limit modules all at once.

🚫 Automated Blocklists: Permanently stop repeat offenders by automatically blocking suspicious email addresses based on your customized rules.

Visit this page to learn more.

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.
GiveWP Migrations New

🧤 White Glove Migration Service for GiveWP

Thinking about switching your fundraising platform from GiveWP to Charitable, but don’t want to risk losing your data or handle a complex technical setup yourself? Charitable’s White Glove Migration Service features:

👥 Flawless Donor Mapping: Safely transfer your entire supporter database with zero data loss.

📊 Complete Financial History: Meticulously preserve every historical transaction for continuous, accurate reporting.

🔄 Seamless Recurring Giving: Safely transfer active sustaining subscriptions without disrupting your incoming revenue or requiring your donors to update their information.

💳 Zero Gateway Disruptions: Keep using Stripe, PayPal, or any other GiveWP-compatible processor you already love.

🚀 Expert Technical Setup: Relax while our team handles the heavy lifting to install and configure your forms—plus, qualifying users get a full year of Charitable Pro completely free.

Visit this page to learn more.

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 Improvement

📢 New Feature Alert: Automation Connect 2.0 Is Here! 🚀

Thinking about connecting your fundraising data to tools like Mailchimp, Slack, or Google Sheets, but don’t want to hire a developer or write custom code? Charitalbe’s new automation addon has:

⚡ 17 Event Triggers: Instantly fire webhooks for a donor’s first gift, renewal payments, or reached campaign milestones.

🎯 Smart Conditional Logic: Use powerful AND/OR logic across 11 fields to only send data when it meets your exact criteria, like newsletter opt-ins.

📊 Custom Payload Control: Select from 80+ clean data fields across donor, donation, and campaign metadata so your apps get exactly what they need.

🚀 Pre-Built Platform Templates: Skip the setup from scratch with ready-to-go templates for Zapier, Make.com, n8n, HubSpot, and Slack.

🛡️ Reliable Developer Tools: Power your workflows with signed HMAC-SHA256 payloads, complete WordPress filters, and automatic retry logs.

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 Improvement

🔌 Charitable Meets Zapier: Connect to 7,000+ Apps and Automate Your Fundraising

Tired of manually copying donation data into accounting sheets or tracking down new donor signups? Put your administrative tasks on autopilot. Charitable is now officially on Zapier, giving you a powerful, no-code way to plug your fundraising directly into the rest of your favorite tools.

Every donation, donor signup, and campaign milestone can now trigger an automated workflow seamlessly.

What’s New:

♾️ Connect to 7,000+ Apps: Bridge your Charitable campaigns with everyday software like Google Sheets, QuickBooks, Slack, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Notion, Airtable, and thousands more.

⚡ 12 Powerful Triggers: Build deep workflows using smart automation triggers covering the entire donation lifecycle—including New Donation, New Donor, Subscription Cancelled, and Campaign Goal Reached.

📋 Pre-Built Action Templates: Get started in three minutes or less with our pre-made template combinations, like automatically logging new donations straight into a Google Sheet or firing custom donor welcome emails through Gmail.

🚫 Zero Code Needed: No complex webhooks or custom PHP scripts required. Just pick your trigger, choose your app, map your fields, and let Zapier handle the heavy lifting.

Ready to save hours of admin time? Grab Charitable Pro with the Automation Connect addon today and launch your first Zap!

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.
Improvement Payments

🚀 Introducing PayPal Commerce: One Connection, Six Ways to Donate

Donors expect modern, flexible payment options when they support a cause. If they don’t see their preferred method on your donation form, they often disappear without a word. With PayPal Commerce, we are bringing a completely modernized checkout experience right to your campaigns.

Enjoy a single integration that upgrades your forms, makes giving seamless, and helps you capture every single donation.

What’s New:

🔌 One-Click Connection: Skip messy API keys and developer docs. Simply click “Connect with PayPal,” sign in to your business account, and your modern form is live in under five minutes.

💳 Six Ways to Give: Give your supporters instant access to PayPal balance, Venmo (US), Pay Later financing, major credit/debit cards, Apple Pay (Safari), and Google Pay (Chrome) all from the exact same form.

🔄 Flexible Recurring Giving: Fully supports monthly giving. Choose between the PayPal Subscriptions API (handled automatically on PayPal’s end) or Vault + Cron (handled securely right on your site).

💬 Friendly Error Recovery: No more confusing browser alerts. If a payment is declined, donors see plain-language, inline messages that guide them on how to fix the issue and complete their gift.

Ready for PayPal, modernized? Update to Charitable Pro 1.8.15+ (or Charitable Lite 1.8.11+) and 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.