Charitable Documentation

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

Migrating from Ambassadors 2.x to 3.0

Requires: Charitable Pro 1.8.16+

Ambassadors 3.0 is a significant rework. The previous version organized settings as one sub-page under Charitable Settings; 3.0 promotes Ambassadors to a top-level admin tab with its own sub-tabs (Overview, Moderation, Directory, Invitations, General, Templates, My Campaigns, Fundraiser Page, Sharing, Misc).

Most settings kept their option keys and saved values, so your data carries forward. But the menu paths changed – and a few features have new homes.

This page is the cheat sheet for finding what moved where.

Settings Have Moved

The 2.x admin lived at:

Charitable » Settings » Ambassadors

The 3.0 admin lives at:

» Charitable » Ambassadors

That single change is what most users notice on first launch after upgrading. The “Settings” menu under Charitable still exists for other settings (Payments, Emails, Advanced, etc.), but Ambassadors is no longer one of its sub-pages.

Where Common 2.x Settings Now Live in 3.0

2.x location3.0 location
Settings > Ambassadors > GeneralCharitable > Ambassadors > General
Settings > Ambassadors > DisplayCharitable > Ambassadors > Templates (renamed)
Settings > Ambassadors > OtherSplit into Charitable > Ambassadors > Sharing and Charitable > Ambassadors > Misc
Frontend Template StyleCharitable > Ambassadors > Templates (top of the tab)
Auto-Approve CampaignsCharitable > Ambassadors > General (unchanged location, same option key)
Campaign Length Min/MaxCharitable > Ambassadors > General (unchanged)
Require Account Before SubmissionCharitable > Ambassadors > General (unchanged)
Campaign Recipients (types)Charitable > Ambassadors > General (now visual chip picker)
Share network selectionCharitable > Ambassadors > Sharing (new dedicated sub-tab, was Other > Sharing in 2.x)
My Campaigns display togglesCharitable > Ambassadors > My Campaigns (new dedicated sub-tab)
Fundraiser page togglesCharitable > Ambassadors > Fundraiser Page (new dedicated sub-tab)
Campaign Creator Donations ReportCharitable > Ambassadors > My Campaigns (moved from General sub-tab in 3.0)
QR Codes master switchCharitable > Ambassadors > Misc > QR Codes (new sub-section)

What’s New in 3.0

Six entirely new top-level tabs:

TabWhat it does
OverviewProgram-level dashboard with KPI tiles, hero chart, top performers. New in 3.0.
ModerationThe Pending / Action Required / Rejected / Approved queue. Replaces the old “Pending Submissions” admin list.
DirectoryThe full ambassador roster with profiles, verify, filters, CSV export. Replaces the implicit “Users with at least one campaign” path.
InvitationsThe personal-invite-link recruitment feature. Brand new.
My Campaigns sub-tabThe visitor-facing My Campaigns page now has its own settings sub-tab with a live preview.
Fundraiser Page sub-tabThe Enhanced layout-variant chooser, breadcrumbs, share, donor wall position, chrome cleanup. New sub-tab.

Big New Features Inside Existing Tabs

A few features that didn’t exist in 2.x at all:

FeatureLives atNotes
Setup WizardThe orange Setup prompt on Overview – or Charitable > Ambassadors > General > Setup actions > Open SetupThree completion paths (Wizard / Templates / Quick Start).
Visual Template ModeCharitable > Ambassadors > Templates > Frontend Template Style > VisualPick a template campaign whose builder layout clones to every fundraiser.
8 layout variantsCharitable > Ambassadors > Templates > Frontend Template (Enhanced)Classic, Story-Forward, Stats-Forward, Donate-First, Magazine, Showcase, Showcase Poster, Rally.
Local NotificationsPro’s bell icon4 events fire from Ambassadors.
Embed WidgetCharitable > Ambassadors > Misc > Embed WidgetOff by default; turn it on to add an Embed Widget tile to fundraiser share popovers.
CSV exportsPer-section Download buttons on Overview, Moderation, Directory, InvitationsFormula-injection-safe, capped at 10K rows.

Settings That Were Renamed

2.x name3.0 name
Frontend Template Style (under Display)Frontend Template Style (under Templates – sub-tab renamed)
“Show Donor Wall”“Donor Wall Position” (now Top / Bottom / Hide instead of On / Off)
“Show QR Code” (single setting)Split into Show QR On Fundraiser Page, Show QR Tile In Share Popover, Show QR Code (My Campaigns) – per-surface controls

Settings That Were Removed

A handful of settings were removed because they were never effective or were better expressed elsewhere:

Removed setting2.x locationWhy
Public-page elements sectionUnder the Templates / Display sub-tabCustomer-side per-variant control is now via _render_<atom>_args filters; the settings UI was clutter.
Standalone “moderation” template overridesTemplatesReplaced by the unified Moderation tab.

If your existing site relied on one of these, the corresponding filter is still in place – the UI just no longer surfaces it as a setting.

Filter and Action Renames

Most filter and action names from 2.x are unchanged in 3.0. A few exceptions:

2.x name3.0 name
charitable_ambassadors_settings_display_fieldscharitable_ambassadors_settings_display_fields (kept for backward compatibility – the tab was renamed Templates but the filter name stays for sites that hooked it).

If you had filters hooked in 2.x, they should still fire in 3.0 unless explicitly noted. Run a grep across your customizations:

grep -rn "charitable_ambassadors_" your-customizations/ | sort -u

…and cross-reference against the Hooks reference to see what’s still active and what’s been renamed.

What Stays the Same

Reassurance: most of your existing setup carries forward without changes.

  • All option keys are preserved. The wp_options.charitable_settings.ambassadors.* keys are the same. Existing customizations to those options still apply.
  • All user roles are preserved. campaign_creator still exists, still has the same caps.
  • All custom post types are preserved. Campaign post types didn’t change.
  • All shortcodes are preserved. [charitable_submit_campaign], [charitable_my_campaigns], etc. work identically.
  • All fundraiser URLs are preserved. Your existing fundraisers’ permalinks don’t change.
  • Donations data is preserved. All historical donations roll up to fundraisers and parents the same way they did in 2.x.

What To Check After Upgrading

A short list to walk through right after you upgrade:

  1. Visit Charitable > Ambassadors – confirm you land on the Overview and KPIs render.
  2. Check the Moderation tab – any pending fundraisers from 2.x should be in Pending; previously-rejected ones should be in Rejected.
  3. Check the Directory – your existing ambassadors should appear in the All view.
  4. Open the Setup Wizard once – it’ll show the path picker; you can skip past it (your existing settings are preserved) or run Quick Start to apply 3.0 defaults to any unset preferences.
  5. Sanity-check Templates > Frontend Template Style – confirm the right style is selected (Legacy / Enhanced / Visual).
  6. Run a test submission – submit a new fundraiser via /submit-campaign/ and confirm the 3-step card-grid flow works end-to-end.
  7. Run a test approval – approve the test submission from Moderation; confirm the email goes out and the audit log records the action.

If anything’s off, check Charitable Tools > Log for related entries.

Common Surprises

A few things that catch upgraders:

SurpriseWhy
“Where did Ambassadors go in Settings?”It moved to its own top-level Charitable menu item. Charitable > Ambassadors.
“My old test campaign is in ‘Rejected’ but I never rejected it.”Ambassadors 3.0 introduces the charitable-rejected post status. Old fundraisers in a never-shipped “rejected” state are reclassified to it on first save.
“There are 6 new admin sub-tabs.”Moderation, Directory, Invitations, My Campaigns, Fundraiser Page, Sharing are all new. Click through them to find each new feature.
“My QR code setting is gone.”It was split into per-surface controls. Find them under Misc (master) + the My Campaigns / Fundraiser Page sub-tabs (per-surface).
“My Campaigns looks different on the front-end.”The Enhanced template is now active by default. Settings > Templates > Legacy restores the old look.

Tips

  • Upgrade in a staging environment first. Always a good idea to use a copy of your production site to walk through the changes before customers see them.
  • Take screenshots before and after. Especially of My Campaigns and a real fundraiser page – so if anything looks off after the upgrade, you have a baseline.
  • Run the Setup Wizard at least once. Even if you skip every step, it stamps the onboarding-complete flag and hides the orange Overview prompt panel.
  • Read the 3.0 release notes. The release-notes page is the canonical changelog with linked details on every new feature.

Related

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Improvement Payments

💸 Introducing Tiered Rates for Fee Relief: Match the Ask to the Gift!

Fee Relief asks your donors one short question at checkout: would you like to cover the processing fee on this gift? Until now that question used a single rate for every donation on a gateway, so a $10 gift and a $500 gift were asked for the same percentage. Fee Relief 1.3.0 lets you set as many donation bands as you like, each carrying its own rate. Why this is important:

  • 🪙 Gentler on small gifts: A fixed transaction cost is a far bigger share of a $10 donation than a $500 one, so bands let you ask for less at the bottom.
  • 🎚️ As many bands as you need: Each band carries its own percentage and its own fixed amount, and the top band runs on with no upper limit.
  • 🛑 An optional ceiling: A Maximum fee field stops any donor being asked for more than a number you choose, however large the gift.
  • 🔌 Set per payment gateway: Stripe can run on four bands while Windcave and Payfast stay on a single rate, because bands belong to a gateway and not to your whole site.
  • 🛡️ Nothing changes until you say so: Your current rates stay exactly as they are until you switch Use Tiered Rates on under Charitable » Settings » Advanced » Fee Relief.

Check out our announcement here.

Donations Improvement

📊 Your Pro Dashboard Can Now Compare, Export, and Score!

Most fundraising dashboards only tell you how much you have raised. Charitable Pro 1.8.19 rebuilds the dashboard and the Reports Overview around the harder questions: whether anything is broken, whether this period beat the last one, and which single change would make the most difference today. Why this is important:

  • 📈 Every figure has a trend: Pick a period and the tiles and the chart move together, with each total shown against the previous period.
  • 🗓️ Charts that stay readable: Short ranges group donations day by day, while longer ranges group by week or month, so a full year reads as a curve instead of a flat line.
  • 🔀 Compare any 2 periods: Not just consecutive ones, so you can ask how this December did against last December. That matters because fundraising is seasonal.
  • 📤 Export the whole summary: Send the full overview out as CSV or PDF, ready for a board pack or a funder report.
  • 🎯 Score your setup for free: Have your fundraising setup scored, so the one change worth making next is the one you can see.

Check out our announcement here.

Feature New

🎟️ Introducing Charitable Events: Sell Tickets Inside Your Campaigns!

Most nonprofits sell event tickets in one tool and collect donations in another, which leaves two sets of reports and a manual match at the end of the year. Charitable Events brings both together, selling tickets through the same donation forms and payment gateways you already run in Charitable. Why this is important:

  • 🎟️ Every ticket is a donation: Ticket sales run through the gateway you already use and count toward the campaign goal, with everything managed under Charitable » Events.
  • 📱 QR check-in from any phone: Each attendee gets their own QR code on the receipt, and volunteers scan at the door through a check-in link that needs no WordPress account.
  • 🧾 Receipts ready for tax time: Give each ticket type a fair market value, and Charitable puts the correct tax-deductible amount on every donor receipt.
  • 📋 Attendee details at checkout: Ask every guest for a meal choice, shirt size, or access needs, with a separate attendee record created for each ticket.
  • 🗓️ Blocks and calendars included: Three editor blocks plus Sugar Calendar and The Events Calendar support put your events where supporters already look.

Check out our announcement here.

ai New

🚀 Unleash AI Power in Charitable!

Your AI assistant can now build, edit, and manage your Charitable fundraising campaigns directly — just by asking. With Charitable Pro adding write support for the WordPress Abilities API, tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor can handle full administrative actions safely through MCP. Why this is important:

  • 🤖 Campaign creation in plain language: Prompt your assistant with a goal like “Set up a fundraiser for the shelter with a $5,000 goal”, and it builds a real draft campaign complete with suggested donation tiers.
  • 🎨 Instant donation form tweaks: Add custom fields, change button colors, or reorder elements without diving into form settings.
  • 📝 Offline gift logging: Tell your assistant about cash or check gifts, and it will match donor emails and record transactions into your history.
  • 🛡️ Safety and control by default: Write access stays strictly off until turned on in Charitable » Tools » AI MCP, keeping read-only reporting safe by default.
  • 📜 Full audit logging: Every change made by an AI assistant is tracked under Charitable » Tools » Logs, so you always know who (or what) updated your site.

Check out our announcement here.

Improvement Payments

💰 Accept Recurring Donations with Windcave and Charitable

A donor sets their gift up once on Windcave’s secure payment page, and Charitable bills every renewal after that on schedule. Why this is important:

🏦 Organizations banked in New Zealand or Australia: monthly giving on the gateway your bank already set you up with, with no second processor to onboard.
⛪ Churches taking regular tithes and offerings: congregants set their own schedule once, which is the simplest way to launch recurring church giving without a separate platform.
🌏 Groups with donors in several currencies: Windcave handles more than 20, so a supporter can give in the currency they actually hold.
📅 Operating funds rather than one-time campaigns: switch on Recurring Only mode and the one-off option disappears, so every gift to that campaign is a subscription.
🧾 Teams with no developer on staff: 3 sets of credentials pasted into a settings page, and no code anywhere.

Check out our announcement here.