Charitable Documentation

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

Charitable Newsletter Connect

With Charitable Newsletter Connect, your donors can opt-in to join your newsletter when they make their donation. Compatible with MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, MailerLite, Mailster and MailPoet (including MailPoet 3).

Installation

Installing Charitable Newsletter 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.

General Setup

After activating Newsletter Connect, you can click on the Settings link to set up the plugin. (Note: You can also get to the plugin settings by going to Charitable > Settings > Extensions.

plugin-setup

On the settings page you will see a list of all available providers.

If you’re using a WordPress newsletter plugin like MailPoet or Mailster, all you need to do is make sure that MailPoet/Mailster is activated. No further configuration is required.

Providers like MailChimp, MailerLite and Campaign Monitor need an API key or other settings in order to be connected.

Screenshot showing how providers are activated & configured.

Set up MailChimp

On the Extensions settings page, click the “Configure” button for MailChimp.

Screenshot of MailChimp configuration

There are two settings you can configure:

  • Your API Key: Find this in your MailChimp account by going to your account page > Extras > API keys. (For more information about MailChimp API keys, read this).
  • Double Opt-in: Set this to “Yes” if you want subscribers to confirm their email address before being added to your newsletter list.

Configure Campaign Monitor

On the Extensions settings page, click the “Configure” button for Campaign Monitor.

Configure Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor requires an API key and a Client ID. You can find both of these by logging into your Campaign Monitor account and going to Account settings > API keys.

Set up MailerLite

On the Extensions settings page, click the “Configure” button for MailerLite.

MailerLite just needs an API key, which you can find in your MailerLite dashboard. Once you have this, copy it into the API key field in the Charitable settings.

Set default settings

After activating or configuring the newsletter providers you want to use, you should configure the default settings for your website. These will be applied to all campaigns, but you can override them on a per-campaign basis.

  • Default List: This is the list that donors will be subscribed to when they opt-in. It will show any available lists from your providers.
  • Default Opt-in Mode: There are three opt-in modes to choose from:
    1. An opt-in checkbox in the donation form which isn’t checked by default.
    2. An opt-in checkbox in the donation form which is checked by default.
    3. Automatic opt-in means that donors do not see a checkbox but are automatically subscribed when they donate.
  • Default Label: The label that will be shown alongside the opt-in checkbox in your donation form.

 

Screenshot showing the default settings for Newsletter Connect.

Sync lists from a provider

Charitable avoids checking for new lists with providers like MailChimp, MailerLite and Campaign Monitor. This improves performance, but it does mean that new lists you create in your provider’s account will not automatically appear as an option in your WordPress dashboard.

To fetch all your lists from a provider, you can use the Sync Lists button.

Screenshot showing how lists can be fetched from a provider like MailChimp or Campaign Monitor in WordPress with Charitable Newsletter Connect.

Setting up per-campaign configurations

You can also configure newsletter signup options on a per-campaign basis. When you edit a campaign, open the Newsletter tab.

Screenshot showing campaign newsletter settings for MailChimp, Campaign Monitor and MailPoet in WordPress.

There are three settings to configure:

  • Disable newsletter signup: Tick this to remove the opt-in for this campaign.
  • Mode: Choose how donors will opt in to your newsletter.
  • Label: Change this to a label you’d prefer instead of the default label you provided.
  • List(s): Select all the lists that you would like your donors to be subscribed to if they opt-in.

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.