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.
  • Minimum requirements:
  • PHP 7.2+

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.

What can I change about the popups?

Tailor the notifications to match your brand and campaigns. You have the flexibility to:

  • Choose which active and completed campaigns to feature.
  • Set a minimum donation amount to be displayed.
  • Add a customizable “verification” checkmark for added credibility.
  • Display a custom logo or a personalized avatar based on the donor’s name.
  • Control the content of the notifications and select the pages where they appear, such as the homepage, campaign pages, or Charitable donation pages. You can pick any WordPress page as well.

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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ambassadors New

👤 Creator Profiles: Put a Face to Every Peer-to-Peer Campaign

Ambassadors 3.3.0 now provies Creator Profiles — giving your supporters a permanent, shareable public home that turns one-time fundraisers into ongoing relationships.

👤 Public Creator Pages: Give every fundraiser an instant, clean landing page at /creator/their-name/ to showcase their custom avatar, bio, and a browsable grid of their campaigns.

📊 Proof of Impact: Boost donor trust by displaying site-wide milestones on the profile—like total funds raised and total donor counts.

💳 Interactive Hover Cards: When donors hover over a creator’s name on a campaign page, a compact card expands with their bio and social handles right at the moment of decision.

📍 Responsible Location Sharing: Allow creators to safely show local supporters where they are based using only city, state, and country details.

🛠️ Self-Serve Customization: Fundraisers can update their own profiles and link up to six social networks directly from the My Campaigns hub, saving you admin time.

Ready to empower your advocates? Update to Ambassadors 3.3.0 and turn on “Enable Public Creator Page” today!

Improvement Payments

📱 Turn Mobile Scrollers Into Donors: Meet Charitable’s Mollie Upgrade

Losing mobile supporters because they hate typing out long card numbers on their phones? Charitable’s updated Mollie integration features:

⚡ One-Tap Wallet Checkout: Enable donors to complete their gifts instantly using Apple Pay or Google Pay with a simple face scan, fingerprint, or tap.

💰 No Extra PCI Burden: Skip complex domain verification and security compliance since all wallet transactions run safely through Mollie’s hosted checkout.

🛠️ Custom Cancel Routing: Keep the experience predictable by automatically sending donors who back out to your cancellation page, or use developer filters to route them to a custom page.

Visit this page to learn more.

ambassadors improved New

Moderation and Directory Screens In Ambassadors 3.0

Ambassadors 3.0 has new features: moderation and directory screens… now easily see those who are earning donations on your peer to peer network – including campaign creators that might need to be verified – all in one place. Generate reports, email ambassadors and campaign creators directly and more.

🚀 See when campaign creators and ambassadors have updated their campaigns, what donors/donation they have brought in and more.

🎉 Manually add ambassadors and campaign creators, and approve them in one-click!

Visit this page to learn more.

New Payments

⚡ Unlock India-Based Donations: Meet Charitable’s Native Razorpay Integration

Trying to collect donations in India? Charitable’s native Razorpay integration features:

⚡ Instant UPI Integration: Accept fast, local donations directly inside your form via apps like PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, and BHIM without sending donors away from your site.

📲 Auto-Generated Campaign QRs: Instantly render scannable QR codes encoding a UPI deep link directly on your public campaign pages and sidebars for an effortless “scan-to-give” experience.

💰 Dual Local & Global Reach: Headline your campaigns in INR while seamlessly accepting major international currencies like USD, EUR, GBP, and CAD to maximize global support.

🔁 Seamless Recurring Giving: Fully integrates with the Charitable Recurring addon to manage automatic monthly subscriptions directly through Razorpay without extra code.

↩️ Automatic Two-Way Sync: Keep your books perfectly clean with two-way refund syncing—issue a refund inside WordPress or your Razorpay dashboard and both sides update automatically.

🔒 Webhook-Verified Security: Automatically protect your donation records using HMAC-signed webhook verification to ensure every status update represents real money cleared on the rails.

Visit this page to learn more.

Integration New

🎉 New Built-in PushEngage Integration

Struggling with falling email open rates and rising ad costs just to keep your supporters engaged? Charitable’s built-in PushEngage integration features:

🔔 Zero-Fee Direct Messaging: Deliver crisp, instant pop-up notifications straight to your donors’ desktops and mobile devices.

⏱️ Four Smart Automated Triggers: Automatically send updates for immediate donation thank yous, full-list campaign launches, urgent “ending soon” alerts, and goal milestone celebrations.

📈 Group Momentum Broadcasts: Turn private milestones into public wins by automatically broadcasting alerts to your entire subscriber list the moment a campaign hits 50%, 75%, or 100% of its goal.

📊 Automatic Analytics Tracking: Monitor exactly where your incoming notification traffic is coming from with built-in attribution that requires zero complex configuration.

Visit this page to learn more.