Charitable Documentation

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

How to Setup and Use DonorTrust Real-Time Notifications

DonorTrust shows recent donations made on your website in real-time. This is a great way to build trust and encourage more people to give to your cause!

Why it Works: People are more likely to trust what others are doing. When visitors see that others are donating, they’re more likely to trust your organization and donate too.

With DonorTrust, real-time notifications in neat non-intrusive popups will appear on your site. Here’s an example:

DonorTrust popup

Setting up DonorTrust notifications is simple and easy to do. Let’s get started!

Prerequisites

  • A WordPress site with Charitable Pro (1.8.7.3+) installed. Not sure how to do that? See our guide on How to Install Charitable »
  • At least one campaign with paid donations.

DonorTrust is an addon that comes with the Charitable Pro plugin and is available on the Plus, Pro, or Elite plan.

You can install and activate it like any other Charitable addon. See our documentation on how to download and activate addons easily.

If you are a Charitable Lite user, consider Upgrading to Pro to access DonorTrust and many more features. You may also see the difference between Charitable Lite vs Pro.

Step 1: Enabling DonorTrust

We’ve made it as easy as 1 click to enable this feature. Go to the Charitable » Settings » Advanced tab within your WordPress admin.

Open the DonorTrust tab, and you’ll see a toggle switch to enable this feature.

Enable DonorTrust

Once enabled, new settings will appear.

Step 2: Selecting Campaigns to Display

In the Campaigns section, you can choose which campaigns you want to show notifications for. Simply select individual campaigns and use the arrows to move them to the right column.

When a campaign is added to the right column, Charitable will start creating and displaying popups for donations made to that specific campaign.

Add campaigns to DonorTrust

You can choose to quickly add all active campaigns or all completed campaigns.

Step 3: Making Clickable Popups

By default, the popups will link to the campaign page. This option is already enabled. When someone clicks on a notification, the campaign will open in a new tab.

Clickable link in DonorTrust

If you’d prefer to only show the recent donation information without links, turn this switch off.

Enable link to campaign in DonorTrust

Step 4: Choosing a Minimum Donation Amount

You might not want to show every donation. You can set a minimum donation amount, like $25 or $100. Decide what amount you think will have a positive impact on potential donors.

Minimum donation amount in DonorTrust

The default amount is set to $0.00, which means all donations will be displayed.

Step 5: Setting up Display Rules

Charitable lets you control where and to whom your popups appear. First, choose who can see the notifications using the Show To options:

  • All visitors
  • Only logged out users
  • Only logged in users
Show to in donortrust

Below that, you can choose where the popups appear using the Show On options:

Show on options in donortrust

DonorTrust popups can appear on any frontend page of your site. You can also select specific pages:

  • The homepage
  • Campaign pages
  • Donation form pages
  • Individual WordPress pages

You can choose as many of these options as you want.

Step 6: Customizing the Popup Details

Next, you can control what details appear in the popup. These include:

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Donation amount
  • State/region
  • Country
What data to display in DonorTrust

Important: Remember to consider privacy and data laws when choosing this information.

You can also choose how you want the popups to be ordered. You can arrange them by donation date, campaign creation date, or randomly.

Order and amount in donortrust settings
Order and amount in donortrust settings

You can also choose the maximum number of donation records to display. We recommend setting it at around 10, up to a maximum of 20.

Step 7: Increasing the Trust Factor

Below this, you can choose to show how long ago the donation was made, adding a “Time ago” detail. This helps build trust.

Verified badge in DonorTrust

You can also display a validation checkmark to further add trust and credibility. This will add text like “Verified by [Your Organization Name]” to the popup, for example, “Verified by World Charity Inc.”

DonorTrust verified badge

By default, Charitable will show the initials of the donor. You can choose to add an avatar instead.

That’s it! Save Changes, and your popups will now appear on your site according to the settings you’ve chosen.

DonorTrust is a simple yet powerful tool to help increase donations by building trust and showing social proof. You can leverage the power of real-time notifications and encourage more visitors to support your cause.

Next up are frequently asked questions to help clear up any doubts you may have.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Charitable?

Charitable is a powerful and flexible WordPress donation plugin designed to help nonprofits and charities easily accept online donations. It simplifies the process of creating donation forms, managing campaigns, and tracking contributions.

What is DonorTrust? Do I need to use it with DonorTrust?

DonorTrust is a feature within Charitable Pro. It displays real-time notifications of recent donations made on your site. This is a form of social proof that can encourage more visitors to contribute to your cause.

How many donation records should I display?

Most websites display 5-10 donations. This provides enough social proof without creating information overload or making the page feel cluttered.

Can I customize the appearance of the popups?

Yes, you can control the details displayed in the popups (name, donation amount, country, etc.). You can also change the order the records are displayed and control where popups appear on your site.

Is there a privacy concern with displaying donor information?

Yes, that’s an important consideration. Be mindful of privacy laws and only display information that donors are comfortable with. Consider showing only donation amounts and a general location (e.g., State/Region) and avoid displaying full names or other personally identifiable information if you are unsure of local rules.

Can I test DonorTrust before making it live?

Yes. Once you’ve saved settings, you can manually create a test donation to verify that the popups appear and are displaying correctly. Make sure to view your site as a visitor before fully launching it.

What if I don’t want the popups to be clickable?

You can easily turn off the clickable link within the settings; the popups will simply display the donation information without redirecting to the campaign page.

Does DonorTrust work with all WordPress themes?

DonorTrust should work with most well-coded WordPress themes.

You may also want to connect your Charitable campaigns to Google Analytics to get indepth insights on your campaigns.

To make the most of Charitable and its features, check out our Documentation Hub »

Still have questions? We’re here to help!

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💂‍♂️ New DonationGuard 🛡️ Automatically Protects Your Donations!

Worried about card testing attacks or spam bots flooding your donation forms, but don’t want to ruin the giving experience for your real supporters? Charitable’s DonationGuard features:

🛡️ Real-Time Bot Detection: Actively monitors every donation submission for five distinct attack signals without slowing down your human donors.

📊 Smart Traffic Scoring: Instantly evaluates activity against a learned baseline of your site’s normal donation rhythms to catch sneaky, slow-drip card testing.

🚨 Severity-Tiered Alerts: Immediately opens structured “Attack Records” and notifies you via email and admin alerts the moment a campaign starts taking fire.

🎯 Single-Click Defense: Deploy instant security using the “Recommended Settings” preset to turn on Honeypot, Time Trap, and Rate Limit modules all at once.

🚫 Automated Blocklists: Permanently stop repeat offenders by automatically blocking suspicious email addresses based on your customized rules.

Visit this page to learn more.

GiveWP Migrations New

🧤 White Glove Migration Service for GiveWP

Thinking about switching your fundraising platform from GiveWP to Charitable, but don’t want to risk losing your data or handle a complex technical setup yourself? Charitable’s White Glove Migration Service features:

👥 Flawless Donor Mapping: Safely transfer your entire supporter database with zero data loss.

📊 Complete Financial History: Meticulously preserve every historical transaction for continuous, accurate reporting.

🔄 Seamless Recurring Giving: Safely transfer active sustaining subscriptions without disrupting your incoming revenue or requiring your donors to update their information.

💳 Zero Gateway Disruptions: Keep using Stripe, PayPal, or any other GiveWP-compatible processor you already love.

🚀 Expert Technical Setup: Relax while our team handles the heavy lifting to install and configure your forms—plus, qualifying users get a full year of Charitable Pro completely free.

Visit this page to learn more.

automation Improvement

📢 New Feature Alert: Automation Connect 2.0 Is Here! 🚀

Thinking about connecting your fundraising data to tools like Mailchimp, Slack, or Google Sheets, but don’t want to hire a developer or write custom code? Charitalbe’s new automation addon has:

⚡ 17 Event Triggers: Instantly fire webhooks for a donor’s first gift, renewal payments, or reached campaign milestones.

🎯 Smart Conditional Logic: Use powerful AND/OR logic across 11 fields to only send data when it meets your exact criteria, like newsletter opt-ins.

📊 Custom Payload Control: Select from 80+ clean data fields across donor, donation, and campaign metadata so your apps get exactly what they need.

🚀 Pre-Built Platform Templates: Skip the setup from scratch with ready-to-go templates for Zapier, Make.com, n8n, HubSpot, and Slack.

🛡️ Reliable Developer Tools: Power your workflows with signed HMAC-SHA256 payloads, complete WordPress filters, and automatic retry logs.

automation Improvement

🔌 Charitable Meets Zapier: Connect to 7,000+ Apps and Automate Your Fundraising

Tired of manually copying donation data into accounting sheets or tracking down new donor signups? Put your administrative tasks on autopilot. Charitable is now officially on Zapier, giving you a powerful, no-code way to plug your fundraising directly into the rest of your favorite tools.

Every donation, donor signup, and campaign milestone can now trigger an automated workflow seamlessly.

What’s New:

♾️ Connect to 7,000+ Apps: Bridge your Charitable campaigns with everyday software like Google Sheets, QuickBooks, Slack, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Notion, Airtable, and thousands more.

⚡ 12 Powerful Triggers: Build deep workflows using smart automation triggers covering the entire donation lifecycle—including New Donation, New Donor, Subscription Cancelled, and Campaign Goal Reached.

📋 Pre-Built Action Templates: Get started in three minutes or less with our pre-made template combinations, like automatically logging new donations straight into a Google Sheet or firing custom donor welcome emails through Gmail.

🚫 Zero Code Needed: No complex webhooks or custom PHP scripts required. Just pick your trigger, choose your app, map your fields, and let Zapier handle the heavy lifting.

Ready to save hours of admin time? Grab Charitable Pro with the Automation Connect addon today and launch your first Zap!

Improvement Payments

🚀 Introducing PayPal Commerce: One Connection, Six Ways to Donate

Donors expect modern, flexible payment options when they support a cause. If they don’t see their preferred method on your donation form, they often disappear without a word. With PayPal Commerce, we are bringing a completely modernized checkout experience right to your campaigns.

Enjoy a single integration that upgrades your forms, makes giving seamless, and helps you capture every single donation.

What’s New:

🔌 One-Click Connection: Skip messy API keys and developer docs. Simply click “Connect with PayPal,” sign in to your business account, and your modern form is live in under five minutes.

💳 Six Ways to Give: Give your supporters instant access to PayPal balance, Venmo (US), Pay Later financing, major credit/debit cards, Apple Pay (Safari), and Google Pay (Chrome) all from the exact same form.

🔄 Flexible Recurring Giving: Fully supports monthly giving. Choose between the PayPal Subscriptions API (handled automatically on PayPal’s end) or Vault + Cron (handled securely right on your site).

💬 Friendly Error Recovery: No more confusing browser alerts. If a payment is declined, donors see plain-language, inline messages that guide them on how to fix the issue and complete their gift.

Ready for PayPal, modernized? Update to Charitable Pro 1.8.15+ (or Charitable Lite 1.8.11+) and connect your account today!