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Charitable Update: Test Mode Alerts, Elementor Styling Upgrades & Feedback Form

New Charitable Update: Test Mode Alerts, Elementor Styling Upgrades & Feedback Form

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We’ve been listening closely to your feedback, and this maintenance release is all about making your day-to-day experience smoother and more flexible.

We’ve improved your experience with building donation pages with Elementor, testing your payment gateways, and sharing ideas for the future.

With the latest Charitable Pro plugin (1.8.8.4), we aim to bring thoughtful improvements designed to help you stay in control and create even better fundraising experiences.

🔔 Test Mode Banner

No more second-guessing whether you’re testing or running live donations. In the latest Charitable update, whenever Test Mode is enabled for your payment gateways, you’ll see a “Charitable Test Mode Active” alert box appear in the top right corner of your WordPress admin dashboard.

Charitable test mode active alert

Turn Test Mode off, and the alert disappears. Simple, clear, and designed to save you from any mix-ups between test and live donations.

Why does this matter? Test Mode is a crucial step when setting up or troubleshooting your payment gateways—but forgetting to switch back can mean lost donations and frustrated supporters. This new alert acts as a safety net, making sure you always know exactly what mode you’re in before going live.

🎨 Styling for Elementor Widgets

We recently launched Elementor Widgets and sought your feedback. One thing we heard most was that you wanted more styling options. Now they’re here!

We didn’t just add more customization—you’ll also find it easier overall to build donation pages that look and feel like the rest of your site.

Edit campaigns gallery

From the Style tab, you can now customize:

  • Campaign title, description, and meta typography (font size, weight, color, hover effects, underline, and more)
  • Campaign images, spacing, and layout for a polished design
  • Donate button styling, from shape and border radius to hover states
  • Responsive design tweaks to make sure everything looks great on any screen
  • Animations, effects, and even custom CSS for complete control

And here’s the best part: the styling options adjust based on the widget you’re using.

  • Campaign Widget → Typography, background & layout, border & radius, donate button styling, plus custom CSS.
  • Campaigns Widget (Gallery) → Extra options for campaign images, animations & effects, and performance & loading.
  • Donate Button Widget → Dedicated hover styling so your call-to-action stands out.
  • Donation Form → Customize the background, border, and layout.

This way, every widget gives you exactly the right set of tools to customize your campaigns—without clutter.

We believe your donation pages are more than functional—they represent your mission. These styling upgrades let you fine-tune every detail so your campaigns look professional, trustworthy, and seamlessly integrated into your website.

The result? A smoother donor experience that inspires more giving.

💡 Feedback & Suggestions for Elementor Widgets

Your input has always shaped the way Charitable grows, and now we’ve made it even easier to share your ideas. In the latest Charitable Pro update (1.8.8.4), you’ll find a new Feedback & Suggestions option under the Content tab when working with Elementor Widgets.

Feedback

Click it, and you’ll be taken to a simple form where you can submit suggestions for new elements, widgets, or improvements you’d love to see.

The best features come from real-world use. By sharing what you need, you help us build tools that make your fundraising pages more effective and your workflow smoother. Think of this as your direct line to shaping the future of Charitable.

Ready to Try Everything Out?

These features are available right now in the latest version of Charitable. Simply update to the latest version of Charitable

From test mode alerts that keep you on track, to powerful new Elementor styling options, to a direct line for your feedback—we’re making it easier than ever to create donation experiences that truly reflect your mission.

We’d love to hear how you’re using these new features! Stay connected with us:

Your feedback keeps Charitable moving forward. Let’s keep building better fundraising tools—together.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.

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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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.