Requires: Charitable Pro 1.8.16+
Ambassadors 3.0 is a significant rework. The previous version organized settings as one sub-page under Charitable Settings; 3.0 promotes Ambassadors to a top-level admin tab with its own sub-tabs (Overview, Moderation, Directory, Invitations, General, Templates, My Campaigns, Fundraiser Page, Sharing, Misc).
Most settings kept their option keys and saved values, so your data carries forward. But the menu paths changed – and a few features have new homes.
This page is the cheat sheet for finding what moved where.
Settings Have Moved
The 2.x admin lived at:
Charitable » Settings » Ambassadors
The 3.0 admin lives at:
» Charitable » Ambassadors
That single change is what most users notice on first launch after upgrading. The “Settings” menu under Charitable still exists for other settings (Payments, Emails, Advanced, etc.), but Ambassadors is no longer one of its sub-pages.
Where Common 2.x Settings Now Live in 3.0
| 2.x location | 3.0 location |
|---|---|
Settings > Ambassadors > General | Charitable > Ambassadors > General |
Settings > Ambassadors > Display | Charitable > Ambassadors > Templates (renamed) |
Settings > Ambassadors > Other | Split into Charitable > Ambassadors > Sharing and Charitable > Ambassadors > Misc |
| Frontend Template Style | Charitable > Ambassadors > Templates (top of the tab) |
| Auto-Approve Campaigns | Charitable > Ambassadors > General (unchanged location, same option key) |
| Campaign Length Min/Max | Charitable > Ambassadors > General (unchanged) |
| Require Account Before Submission | Charitable > Ambassadors > General (unchanged) |
| Campaign Recipients (types) | Charitable > Ambassadors > General (now visual chip picker) |
| Share network selection | Charitable > Ambassadors > Sharing (new dedicated sub-tab, was Other > Sharing in 2.x) |
| My Campaigns display toggles | Charitable > Ambassadors > My Campaigns (new dedicated sub-tab) |
| Fundraiser page toggles | Charitable > Ambassadors > Fundraiser Page (new dedicated sub-tab) |
| Campaign Creator Donations Report | Charitable > Ambassadors > My Campaigns (moved from General sub-tab in 3.0) |
| QR Codes master switch | Charitable > Ambassadors > Misc > QR Codes (new sub-section) |
What’s New in 3.0
Six entirely new top-level tabs:
| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
| Overview | Program-level dashboard with KPI tiles, hero chart, top performers. New in 3.0. |
| Moderation | The Pending / Action Required / Rejected / Approved queue. Replaces the old “Pending Submissions” admin list. |
| Directory | The full ambassador roster with profiles, verify, filters, CSV export. Replaces the implicit “Users with at least one campaign” path. |
| Invitations | The personal-invite-link recruitment feature. Brand new. |
| My Campaigns sub-tab | The visitor-facing My Campaigns page now has its own settings sub-tab with a live preview. |
| Fundraiser Page sub-tab | The Enhanced layout-variant chooser, breadcrumbs, share, donor wall position, chrome cleanup. New sub-tab. |
Big New Features Inside Existing Tabs
A few features that didn’t exist in 2.x at all:
| Feature | Lives at | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Setup Wizard | The orange Setup prompt on Overview – or Charitable > Ambassadors > General > Setup actions > Open Setup | Three completion paths (Wizard / Templates / Quick Start). |
| Visual Template Mode | Charitable > Ambassadors > Templates > Frontend Template Style > Visual | Pick a template campaign whose builder layout clones to every fundraiser. |
| 8 layout variants | Charitable > Ambassadors > Templates > Frontend Template (Enhanced) | Classic, Story-Forward, Stats-Forward, Donate-First, Magazine, Showcase, Showcase Poster, Rally. |
| Local Notifications | Pro’s bell icon | 4 events fire from Ambassadors. |
| Embed Widget | Charitable > Ambassadors > Misc > Embed Widget | Off by default; turn it on to add an Embed Widget tile to fundraiser share popovers. |
| CSV exports | Per-section Download buttons on Overview, Moderation, Directory, Invitations | Formula-injection-safe, capped at 10K rows. |
Settings That Were Renamed
| 2.x name | 3.0 name |
|---|---|
| Frontend Template Style (under Display) | Frontend Template Style (under Templates – sub-tab renamed) |
| “Show Donor Wall” | “Donor Wall Position” (now Top / Bottom / Hide instead of On / Off) |
| “Show QR Code” (single setting) | Split into Show QR On Fundraiser Page, Show QR Tile In Share Popover, Show QR Code (My Campaigns) – per-surface controls |
Settings That Were Removed
A handful of settings were removed because they were never effective or were better expressed elsewhere:
| Removed setting | 2.x location | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Public-page elements section | Under the Templates / Display sub-tab | Customer-side per-variant control is now via _render_<atom>_args filters; the settings UI was clutter. |
| Standalone “moderation” template overrides | Templates | Replaced by the unified Moderation tab. |
If your existing site relied on one of these, the corresponding filter is still in place – the UI just no longer surfaces it as a setting.
Filter and Action Renames
Most filter and action names from 2.x are unchanged in 3.0. A few exceptions:
| 2.x name | 3.0 name |
|---|---|
charitable_ambassadors_settings_display_fields | charitable_ambassadors_settings_display_fields (kept for backward compatibility – the tab was renamed Templates but the filter name stays for sites that hooked it). |
If you had filters hooked in 2.x, they should still fire in 3.0 unless explicitly noted. Run a grep across your customizations:
grep -rn "charitable_ambassadors_" your-customizations/ | sort -u
…and cross-reference against the Hooks reference to see what’s still active and what’s been renamed.
What Stays the Same
Reassurance: most of your existing setup carries forward without changes.
- All option keys are preserved. The
wp_options.charitable_settings.ambassadors.*keys are the same. Existing customizations to those options still apply. - All user roles are preserved.
campaign_creatorstill exists, still has the same caps. - All custom post types are preserved. Campaign post types didn’t change.
- All shortcodes are preserved.
[charitable_submit_campaign],[charitable_my_campaigns], etc. work identically. - All fundraiser URLs are preserved. Your existing fundraisers’ permalinks don’t change.
- Donations data is preserved. All historical donations roll up to fundraisers and parents the same way they did in 2.x.
What To Check After Upgrading
A short list to walk through right after you upgrade:
- Visit Charitable > Ambassadors – confirm you land on the Overview and KPIs render.
- Check the Moderation tab – any pending fundraisers from 2.x should be in Pending; previously-rejected ones should be in Rejected.
- Check the Directory – your existing ambassadors should appear in the All view.
- Open the Setup Wizard once – it’ll show the path picker; you can skip past it (your existing settings are preserved) or run Quick Start to apply 3.0 defaults to any unset preferences.
- Sanity-check Templates > Frontend Template Style – confirm the right style is selected (Legacy / Enhanced / Visual).
- Run a test submission – submit a new fundraiser via
/submit-campaign/and confirm the 3-step card-grid flow works end-to-end. - Run a test approval – approve the test submission from Moderation; confirm the email goes out and the audit log records the action.
If anything’s off, check Charitable Tools > Log for related entries.
Common Surprises
A few things that catch upgraders:
| Surprise | Why |
|---|---|
| “Where did Ambassadors go in Settings?” | It moved to its own top-level Charitable menu item. Charitable > Ambassadors. |
| “My old test campaign is in ‘Rejected’ but I never rejected it.” | Ambassadors 3.0 introduces the charitable-rejected post status. Old fundraisers in a never-shipped “rejected” state are reclassified to it on first save. |
| “There are 6 new admin sub-tabs.” | Moderation, Directory, Invitations, My Campaigns, Fundraiser Page, Sharing are all new. Click through them to find each new feature. |
| “My QR code setting is gone.” | It was split into per-surface controls. Find them under Misc (master) + the My Campaigns / Fundraiser Page sub-tabs (per-surface). |
| “My Campaigns looks different on the front-end.” | The Enhanced template is now active by default. Settings > Templates > Legacy restores the old look. |
Tips
- Upgrade in a staging environment first. Always a good idea to use a copy of your production site to walk through the changes before customers see them.
- Take screenshots before and after. Especially of My Campaigns and a real fundraiser page – so if anything looks off after the upgrade, you have a baseline.
- Run the Setup Wizard at least once. Even if you skip every step, it stamps the onboarding-complete flag and hides the orange Overview prompt panel.
- Read the 3.0 release notes. The release-notes page is the canonical changelog with linked details on every new feature.
Related
- Overview Dashboard – the new home screen.
- Setup Wizard – the three completion paths for first-time setup.
- Display Features (Templates tab) – the orientation of the new Templates tab.
- Addon Update (3.0 release notes) – the canonical changelog.
- Hooks & filters in Ambassadors – full filter and action reference.
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