Beacon, our bold campaign hero templates, launched on Charitable’s paid plans a few releases back.
As of Charitable 1.8.12, both Beacon templates are also included in Charitable Lite, our free plugin.
Beacon leads with a full-width hero banner, your logo, your goal, and a donation widget locked right on top of the image, so the ask is the first thing a visitor sees.
Read the original Beacon announcement for the full walkthrough. Here’s what’s new for Charitable Lite.
Why a Strong Hero Decides What Happens Next
The hero and donation widget are locked in place by design. It also follows your campaign theme automatically and stays on-brand without any extra styling work.
See It in Action
Here’s Beacon (2 Columns) with example content already in place: the hero banner up top with the goal and donation widget built right in, and a 2-column story area underneath for the rest of your case.
When You’ll Feel the Difference
Beacon’s bold hero works especially well for a few kinds of campaigns.
A grassroots community drive is a natural fit. You can lead with a photo of the park, the school, or the neighborhood you’re fighting for, with the goal sitting right on the image.
If you’re running an urgent, time-sensitive appeal, putting the donation request and the progress bar at the top of the page means a first-time visitor can give without scrolling, which matters when you don’t have much time to make your case.
When you’re promoting a campaign on social, this matters even more. Beacon puts your story and your donate button in front of that visitor in the first screen.
A capital or building campaign benefits from the same treatment. Show a rendering or a site photo edge to edge, with the amount raised toward goal sitting front and center.
And for a memorial or tribute fund, a single, dignified banner image paired with a focused ask sets the right tone from the first moment.
Two New Templates, One Bold Look
Both templates are marked new and highlighted in the Campaign Builder template library, so they’re easy to find when you start a campaign.
Beacon (2 Columns) is the more structured of the two. It pairs the locked hero banner and donation widget overlay with a 2-column story area underneath, room for your narrative on one side and supporting details on the other.
Beacon (1 Column) keeps the same hero, but follows it with a single full-width column, better suited to a long-form story you don’t want broken up into side-by-side chunks.
Both include example content and sample photography already in place, so you can see the finished shape the moment you pick one, then swap in your own images and copy.
The Campaign Hero Field
Beacon is powered by the new Campaign Hero field, a complete header block you can drop into any template, not just Beacon.
It brings 10 settings together into one cohesive banner, all in a single block.
- A background image
- An optional logo
- Your title
- The raised amount with a progress bar
- A set of donation amounts
You can also remove the logo slot and let the hero image take center stage. Or if you’d rather not add an image, it falls back to a solid color or gradient background.
Turn on the raised amount and progress bar and the hero shows “$X raised toward our $Y goal” automatically, the moment a campaign goal is set.
The donation widget is built right into the hero, too.
- Set your one-time amounts
- Choose which amount is selected by default
- Decide whether to allow an “Other” custom amount
- Label the donate button however you like (it defaults to “Donate Now” if you don’t change it)
If the Charitable Recurring Donations add-on is active, flip on monthly and one-time tabs in the same widget.
Preview and Build Your Campaign
In the builder, you can preview the campaign and you’ll see your actual donation progress and goal.
Launch Your First Beacon Campaign
You can have a Beacon campaign live in minutes.
Step 1: Start a New Campaign
To start, go to Campaigns in wp-admin and click Add New Campaign.
Step 2: Pick a Beacon Template
In the template chooser, find the highlighted Beacon (1 Column) or Beacon (2 Columns) template and select it. Your campaign loads with example content and photos already in place.
Step 3: Open the Campaign Hero Panel
To open the Campaign Hero panel, click the blue pencil icon on the hero block (top-right corner of the block)
Step 4: Set Your Details
In this panel, set your background image and logo, adjust the title, donation amounts, and donate button label, and decide whether to show the raised amount and progress bar.
Step 5: Preview and Save
As you go, watch the builder preview update with your real campaign data, then save when it looks right.
Prefer a different template? Add the Campaign Hero field to any layout from the builder’s field palette to get the same bold header anywhere.
For Agencies and Developers
Builder Row Properties
Campaign builder rows now support 2 new properties. A background_image property renders as a CSS background on the row wrapper, and a locked property prevents a row and its contents from being moved or deleted in the builder. Both are what Beacon is built on, and both are available to your own templates.
Get Started With Beacon
Beacon ships in Charitable 1.8.12. To get started, update to the latest version, whether you’re on the free Charitable Lite plugin or a paid plan. Then go to Campaigns » Add New Campaign, and pick Beacon (1 Column) or Beacon (2 Columns) from the template chooser.
Also Released: Free Site Analysis
1.8.12 also ships a new, completely free Site Analysis report that scores your fundraising setup and tells you exactly what to fix first, no upgrade required. If Beacon covers how your campaign looks, Site Analysis covers whether the fundamentals underneath it are actually working.
Read the Site Analysis Announcement →
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What’s New in Charitable
We also launched several powerful features and improvements recently:
🧾
Show a different thank-you page to every donor, based on their campaign, gift size, or country.
📝
Drop a fully working donation form directly into any page or post in the block editor.
👤
Give every peer-to-peer fundraiser a permanent, shareable page with their bio, avatar, and campaigns.
📱
Apple Pay and Google Pay in Mollie
Let mobile donors check out with a face scan or fingerprint instead of typing out a card number.
📋
Moderate and manage your whole peer-to-peer network from new directory and reporting screens.
⚡
Accept UPI, cards, and more from India-based donors with a native, no-code connection.
We’ve been adding to Charitable constantly, features and improvements designed to help you raise more and serve your donors better. See everything we’ve shipped at the Charitable Changelog.
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