Requires: Charitable Pro plugin 1.8.16+
Pro plan and higher

Do you want to build a set of rewards you can use across all your campaigns? In Charitable Rewards, your rewards live in a catalog, which is a shared library you build once and use for any campaign.

This guide covers the 4 reward types, the fields every reward carries, attaching rewards to campaigns, inventory, and archiving.

A tote bag you created for the spring appeal can serve the fall appeal too, without building it again.

Charitable Rewards needs version 1.8.16 or higher of the Charitable Pro plugin, on the Pro plan and higher.

What’s In This Guide?

Watch the Video

This video shows you how to create a reward in the catalog and attach it to a campaign.

Where to Find the Catalog

To get started, head over to Charitable » Rewards » Catalog in your WordPress admin.

From there, click “Add Reward” to create a new reward, or click a reward’s title to edit it.

The 4 Reward Types

A reward’s type decides what Rewards does when a donor earns it. To pick one, ask yourself what has to happen next.

Type	Use it when	What happens on a claim
Recognition	There’s nothing to deliver, like a name on a donor wall or a mention in the annual report.	It’s recorded and done, and it never joins the fulfillment list
Digital	You’re sending a file, a link, or a code.	It’s delivered by email through a protected, expiring download link
Physical	You’re mailing something.	Rewards collects a shipping address and adds it to the fulfillment list
Membership	It’s an ongoing benefit rather than an object.	It’s recorded as claimed, and it can renew if the donation recurs

Important: A reward’s type can’t be changed after you create it. This is the one choice in Rewards you can’t undo, and everything else about a reward stays editable.

The reason is that the type controls things that have already happened by the time you’d want to change it. A digital reward has sent download links, and a physical one has collected addresses.

Changing the type would leave those records describing something that no longer matches. If you picked the wrong type, create a replacement and archive the original.

What Every Reward Carries

Field	Notes
Title	Required. This is what donors see on the card
Description	Keep it to a sentence, because long text makes the cards uneven
Type	Required, and permanent
Amount	The donation that unlocks it, or the price if used on a level
Fair market value	What the item would cost to buy. This drives tax receipting
Image	The card picture
Inventory cap	An optional limit on how many can be claimed
Show remaining	Whether donors see “147 of 150 left”
Estimated delivery	Physical rewards only. Free text, shown to donors
Recurring behavior	Whether a renewal creates a new claim

Fair Market Value Is Not the Same as the Amount

The amount is what a donor has to give to earn the reward. The fair market value is what the item would cost to buy. A tote bag that unlocks at $75 might have a fair market value of $12.

They’re separate because the deductible part of a gift is the amount minus the value received. See Tax Receipting and Fair Market Value for more.

Attaching a Reward to a Campaign

Creating a reward doesn’t put it on any campaign. Attaching it does.

From a reward’s edit screen, or from the campaign’s own Rewards panel, pick the campaigns it should appear on. Each attachment can carry its own settings, so the same reward can behave a little differently in 2 places.

• A display order controls where it sits among that campaign’s rewards.
• An optional threshold override lets 1 campaign unlock it at a different amount.
• An enabled switch removes it from 1 campaign without detaching it.

Shared vs Per-Campaign Inventory

When a reward is attached in more than 1 place, you choose whether the stock is shared or separate.

Scope	Behavior
Per campaign	Each campaign gets its own allowance from the cap
Shared	All attached campaigns draw from 1 pool

Shared scope is what makes peer-to-peer work. A parent campaign’s 50 signed posters are 50 posters in total across every fundraiser page, not 50 each. See Rewards on Peer-to-Peer Campaigns.

Inventory and Running Out

When you set an inventory cap, Rewards counts claims against it. Turn on “Show Remaining” and donors see the count on the card, which encourages them to act on items that are truly limited.

When the cap is reached, the reward switches to a sold-out state. It stops unlocking, and the card says so instead of quietly disappearing.

The Reservation Hold

There’s a short gap between a donor choosing a reward and their payment going through. Without protection, 2 people could both claim the last poster during that gap, and 1 of them would be disappointed.

Rewards places a short hold on a limited item while the donation is still processing, and the item counts as taken during that time.

If the payment goes through, the hold becomes a real claim. If it fails or the donor leaves, the hold expires and the item goes back into stock.

You set the hold time for the whole site on the Other tab, as “Reservation Hold” in minutes. It starts at 30.

Set it a little longer than your slowest checkout. If it’s too short, 2 donors can claim the same item again, and if it’s too long, unfinished donations keep stock out of reach.

Holds only apply to rewards with an inventory cap. An unlimited reward has nothing to reserve.

Archiving, Because There Is No Delete

There’s no delete button anywhere in Rewards, and that’s on purpose.

Every claim record points back at the reward that produced it. Deleting a reward would leave past donors holding a perk with no definition behind it, and it would break the history in your own reports.

Archive the reward instead. An archived reward behaves in 3 ways.

• It stops being offered on new donations.
• It drops out of the catalog’s default view.
• It keeps every past claim intact and readable.

Archiving is also the right way to retire the Example: rewards the setup wizard can add.

Tips Worth Keeping in Mind

These habits keep your catalog tidy and your tax records easy.

• Name rewards the way a donor would describe them. “Enamel Pin Set” beats “Pin SKU 2.”
• Put a fair market value on anything physical, even if it’s a few dollars. Working out values at tax time is much harder than recording them now.
• Use Recognition for thank-you perks. That keeps the fulfillment list to things that actually need mailing.
• If you only ever run 1 campaign, you can still think of the catalog as that campaign’s reward list. The library setup costs you nothing.
• Archive the wizard’s example rewards before going live.

FAQs on Creating Rewards

I picked the wrong reward type. What do I do?

The type can’t be changed, so create a replacement reward with the right type and archive the original.

Why isn’t my new reward showing on the donation form?

Creating a reward doesn’t put it on any campaign. Attach it to the campaign from the reward’s edit screen or the campaign’s Rewards panel.

Developer Reference

Filters

Filter	Default	Purpose
charitable_rewards_tier_image_size	thumbnail	Registered image size for reward card images
charitable_rewards_reservation_ttl	the setting value	Override the hold window programmatically
charitable_rewards_catalog_search_limit	plugin default	How many results the catalog search returns
charitable_rewards_allowed_file_types	plugin default	Permitted uploads for digital rewards
charitable_rewards_max_file_size	plugin default	Upload ceiling for digital rewards

Reward Value Object

Charitable_Rewards_Reward exposes the type, scope, attach model, status, and payload constants.

Constant group	Values
Type	recognition, digital, physical, membership
Scope	library, campaign
Attach model	threshold, tier
Status	active, scheduled, retired, disabled

Optional settings live in the reward’s payload array rather than as columns. They’re keyed as inventory_cap, show_remaining_inventory, estimated_delivery, recurring_claim_behavior, image_id, digital_code, digital_link, digital_file, and download_limit.

Attachment Scopes

Charitable_Rewards_Attachment_Repository exposes SCOPE_SHARED and SCOPE_PER_CAMPAIGN, plus an optional per-attachment threshold_override.

Storage

Rewards, attachments, claims, claim activity, reservations, and campaign levels each have their own table. Names and lifecycle are covered on the storage page, and schemas aren’t reproduced here because they change between releases.

Customization Examples

Hold limited rewards for an hour instead of 30 minutes.

add_filter( 'charitable_rewards_reservation_ttl', function () {
    return HOUR_IN_SECONDS;
} );

Allow ePub uploads on digital rewards.

add_filter( 'charitable_rewards_allowed_file_types', function ( $types ) {
    $types['epub'] = 'application/epub+zip';
    return $types;
} );

Wrapping Up

You now know how to create a reward, choose its type, attach it to campaigns, manage its stock, and archive it when you’re done.

Next, choose a mode for your campaign so donors can start earning rewards. If you get stuck on any step, our support team is happy to help.

You May Also Want to Read

These guides pick up where your catalog leaves off.

• Setup Wizard. Follow the guided path to your first reward.
• Automatic Mode. Set amounts that unlock rewards as the gift grows.
• Levels Mode. Offer priced tiers that can include a reward.
• Delivering Rewards. See how digital and physical rewards reach donors.
• Tax Receipting and Fair Market Value. Learn why fair market value matters.