Charitable Documentation

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

Charitable Easy Digital Downloads Connect

Charitable Easy Digital Downloads Connect allows you to raise money for causes using Easy Digital Downloads.

Installation

Installing Charitable Easy Digital Downloads Connect is the same as installing any other Charitable extension. If you’re not sure how to do that, we recommend first reading our guide to installing Charitable extensions.

Creating contribution rules

  1. Go to Charitable Campaigns if you are editing an existing campaign, or Charitable > Add Campaign to create a new campaign.
  2. On the campaign editing page, look for the + Add New Contribution Rule button inside the Donation Options tab. Clicking on that will open up a little form where you can enter how much should be contributed (either as a fixed $ amount or a %), which products it applies to, as well as the start and end date for the rule. The end date can be left blank to have it as an open-ended rule.

    Creating a contribution rule with Charitable Easy Digital Downloads Connect
    Creating a contribution rule with Charitable Easy Digital Downloads Connect
  3. Click Save Draft. 
  4. After the page reloads, scroll down to the Donation Options tab. There will be some new settings there since you create a contribution rule. These basically allow you to add a section at the bottom of the campaign page where people can see the products they can purchase to contribute to the campaign.

Showing the contribution note with download purchase buttons

Product contribution note in Checkout theme
Product contribution note in Checkout theme

An optional setting you can enable is to add a note to download purchase buttons that shows how much will be contributed to fundraising campaigns. This is how you set that up:

  1. Go to Charitable > Settings.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the settings. You will see an option to decide whether you want to show much each download is contributing to the cause. Tick the box to enable it.
  3. Click Save Changes to update your settings.

If you enable that, it adds a little note below the standard EDD purchase button.

A note about gateways

When Charitable Easy Digital Downloads Connect is activated, all donations / contributions are made through the EDD checkout. Charitable can be used without EDD and has its own gateways to support that, but we disable all those when EDD is running to keep everything part of a single checkout experience.

Creating donations in Test Mode

If you have Easy Digital Downloads set to use Test Mode, donations are not automatically created for payments. Donations are only created for live payments.

If you’d like to have donations created for test payments, you can use the following line of code:

add_filter( 'edd_log_test_payment_stats', '__return_true' );
If you’re unsure how to add this code, the easiest option is to use the Code Snippets plugin and add this as a snippet.

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.