Charitable Documentation

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

How to Add a Donate Link to Your Menu

If you would like to add a Donate link or button in your menu, there are a couple ways of achieving this.

Option 1: Link to a separate donation page

You can add a link to your donation page while editing your menu at Appearance > Menus.

In the left hand column, look for the “Custom Links” option. In the “URL” field, add the link to your donation page; in the “Link text” field, add your menu item text:

Option 2: Open the donation form in a modal

It is also possible to have your donation form open automatically in a modal window, but it requires a little bit of custom code and another plugin.

Step 1: Install “Shortcode in Menus”

To do this, you will need to install and activate a plugin called Shortcode in Menus. Download it from WordPress.org or search for it via Plugins > Add New.

Step 2: Add a custom shortcode

Next, you will need to add a custom shortcode to your site. This shortcode can be used on any page of your site and will display a donate button that, when clicked, will open a modal with the donation form.

You will need to add the following code to your site:

/**
 * To add a shortcode to display a campaign's donate button, include this function below.
 *
 * @param  array $atts User-defined shortcode attributes.
 * @return string
 */
function ed_charitable_campaign_donate_button_shortcode( $atts ) {
	if ( ! array_key_exists( 'campaign_id', $atts ) ) {
		return '';
	}

	// Get the campaign.
	$campaign = charitable_get_campaign( $atts['campaign_id'] );

	// Add the donate modal window to the footer. This is invisible until the button is clicked.
	add_action( 'wp_footer', function() use ( $campaign ) {
		charitable_template( 'campaign/donate-modal-window.php', array( 'campaign' => $campaign ) );
	} );

	ob_start();

	// Render the donate button.
	charitable_template_donate_button( $campaign );

	// Load scripts that are required for the modal to work.
	Charitable_Public::get_instance()->enqueue_donation_form_scripts();

	return ob_get_clean();
}

add_shortcode( 'charitable_donate_button', 'ed_charitable_campaign_donate_button_shortcode' );

View the guide below to see how to add customizations like this to your site.

Now that you have added this, you can display a donate button anywhere using the following shortcode:

[charitable_donate_button campaign_id=123]

Just replace 123 with the ID of your campaign.

Step 3: Add it to your menu

Under Appearance > Menus, look for the “Shortcode” box. If you don’t see it, click on “Screen Options” and make sure that “Shortcode” is checked.

In the Shortcode field’s main text area (not the “Title” field), add your shortcode, just like shown above.

Still have questions? We’re here to help!

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ambassadors New

🖨️ Introducing Fliers and Posters: Raise Money Away From the Screen!

A lot of peer-to-peer fundraising happens away from a screen: at the finish line of a 5K, on a school noticeboard, in an office kitchen. Charitable Ambassadors 3.4.7 adds 2 printables, a fundraiser flier carrying each fundraiser’s own story and QR code, and a recruitment poster that signs new fundraisers up. Both open as a normal web page and print straight from the browser. Why this is important:

  • 🏁 A flier for every fundraiser: Each one carries that fundraiser’s own photo, story and goal, with a QR code that opens their page rather than your main campaign.
  • 📌 A poster that recruits: It shows “Now Recruiting” above your campaign name with a large QR code that opens your sign-up form, so someone can start fundraising without waiting on a link from you.
  • 🪄 No design tool needed: Both printables render as a normal web page and print from the browser, with no PDF plugin and no designer.
  • 📄 2 flier layouts: Hand out carries the full story for giving to friends and family, and Post up carries a short hook with 5 tear-off tabs for a noticeboard.
  • 🛡️ Off until you switch it on: Fliers stay off after the update until you enable them under Charitable » Ambassadors » Other » Fliers, and only the owner or an administrator can open one.

Check out our announcement here.

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.