Charitable Documentation

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

Charitable & User Privacy

Charitable stores personal data about donors and registered users in your website’s database, as well as providing personal data to third party providers such as payment gateways (PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, etc.) or newsletter providers (MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, MailerLite, etc.).

All or some of the following data may be collected and stored about a donor when they make a donation:

  • First & last name
  • Email address
  • Street address (street number & name, city, post code/zip code, state/province, country)
  • Phone number
  • Credit/debit card tokens

All or some of the above data may be shared with the payment gateway used to process the donation. If using Newsletter Connect, the donor’s personal data may also be shared with your chosen newsletter provider.

For credit card donations processed by Stripe or Authorize.Net, the following data is provided to the chosen payment gateway. NOTE: These details are not stored in your database:

  • Credit/debit card number
  • Expiry date
  • CVS

In addition, the following data may be collected for registered users when they create a fundraising campaign (requires Ambassadors or when they fill out their personal profile:

  • First & last name
  • Email address
  • Street address (street number & name, city, post code/zip code, state/province, country)
  • Phone number
  • Organisation
  • Bio / personal description
  • Website URL
  • Facebook profile URL
  • Twitter profile URL

Exporting Personal Data

As of WordPress 4.9.6, WordPress includes a personal data export tool which can be used to provide users with a downloadable file that shows all personal data your website contains about them. This data export will include the personal data mentioned above.

The personal data export tool can be reached via Tools > Export Personal Data.

Erasing Personal Data

As of WordPress 4.9.6, WordPress includes a personal data removal tool which can be used to erase the personal data stored by your website about a particular user. Your users may request to have their data removed; as of May 2018, this is a right of European residents and you are obliged to comply.

The personal data removal tool can be reached via Tools > Erase Personal Data.

You may be required to keep personal data relating to donations for a certain amount of time for legal or tax purposes. To support this requirement, you can configure Charitable to prevent personal donation data from being erased for donations within a certain time limit (i.e. the last three years). You can also mark which pieces of data must be retained for donations made within this time.

These settings can be configured via Charitable > Settings > Advanced.

Privacy Policy

As of WordPress 4.9.6, WordPress includes a tool that can help build your website Privacy Policy page. This will include suggested privacy policy text added by the plugins on your website, including Charitable.

You can access this tool via Tools > Privacy. You are strongly advised to carefully review the suggested privacy policy text added by your plugins and tailor it to your website needs.

Still have questions? We’re here to help!

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automation update

⚡ Visual Automation Builder: Drag and Drop With No Code!

Charitable Automation Connect 2.3.0 introduces the Visual Automation Builder, a full-screen canvas that lays each automation out as a flow of connected cards: a trigger, optional conditions, and a list of actions that run in order.

🧩 Many actions, one trigger: Tag a donor, send an email, add a note, and fire a webhook from a single event, dragged into any order.

✉️ Act inside Charitable: New Send Email, Tag Donor, and Add Donor Note actions run with no external service required.

🔤 Merge tags: Personalize emails and notes with live fields like {first_name}, {total}, and {campaign_name}.

🔁 Apply to existing donors: Run Tag Donor and Add Donor Note against the donors you already have.

🖥️ Canvas or Simple: Switch views anytime, and automations built before 2.3.0 keep working unchanged.

Read more here.

Integration updated

📬 Introducing Brevo for Charitable: Turn Donors into Subscribers Automatically

The moment a supporter makes a gift is when they are most engaged. With the new Brevo integration for Charitable, you can automatically turn those one-time donors into long-term subscribers without touching a single spreadsheet.

Simply collect donor consent right on your donation form and start your welcome series immediately.

What’s New:

🔄 Automated Subscriber Sync: New donors who opt in are added straight to your Brevo contact list as soon as their payment clears—no manual exports or CSV imports required.

🎯 Granular Consent & Opt-In Control: Customize your checkbox label, choose whether it defaults to checked or unchecked, or turn on Brevo double opt-in to keep your list clean and compliant.

📋 Per-Campaign List Mapping: Route supporters to your global email list or map specific campaigns to targeted Brevo lists to tailor your follow-up messaging.

⚡ 5-Minute Setup: Connect instantly by pasting your Brevo API key into the Newsletter settings, map your contact fields, and start building your email list on autopilot.

Ready to grow your mailing list? Brevo is available now starting on the Charitable Plus plan—connect your account today!

recurring donations updated

💳 Introducing Card Updates: Fix Expired Cards Without Losing Subscriptions!

newExpired or updated credit cards are one of the biggest silent leaks in recurring fundraising. With Card Updates in the Recurring Donations extension, donors can now refresh their payment details directly—keeping their subscription, schedule, and giving history completely intact.

No canceled plans, no lost history, and zero administrative headache for your team.

What’s New:

⚡ 30-Second Self-Service: Donors get a dedicated “Update Card” button in their dashboard that opens Stripe’s secure, PCI-compliant Customer Portal to update card details instantly.

🔒 Scoped & Safe Access: Scoped exclusively to card updates by default, donors can’t accidentally cancel or alter their plans from inside the portal, keeping your webhooks and data in sync.

🤝 Admin-Assisted Support: Helping a donor on the phone? Open their secure Stripe portal in one click from your admin screen or generate a single-use update link to email them.

📋 Automatic Audit Trail: Every payment method update is recorded automatically with a timestamp in both system-wide logs and the individual donor’s profile.

Ready to protect your recurring revenue? Get the Plus or Pro plan and update Recurring Donations to 2.3.0+ and enable “Update Payment Method” under your Settings today!

Integration page builder

Divi Fans Rejoice! Native Divi 5 Campaign Progress Bar Module!

With our new native Divi 5 module, you can anchor your microsites with real-time fundraising stats directly on the visual canvas. Here’s how it works, and why it’s worth turning on today.

Create campaign updates that are VISUAL AND LIVE. You can also:

📊 Campaign Progress Bar: Drop a live progress bar into any Divi 5 layout and show goal progress in real time.

🎨 Deep styling controls: Easily customize the bar and track color, height, and radius to match your brand perfectly.

👁️ Visual Builder ready: Configure and preview everything directly on the Divi canvas as a first-class module.

🔁 Identical rendering: The same exact engine powers this module, meaning consistent design without legacy shims.

✅ Faster launches: Never leave the Divi 5 interface to configure shortcodes or guess how your goal labels will look.

Learn more here.

Integration page builder

👉🏻 New in Charitable: Native Elementor Widgets for Seamless Campaign Building

With native Elementor widgets, you design donation campaigns right alongside the rest of your page without touching code. Here’s how it works, and why it’s worth turning on today.

Create fundraising pages that are VISUAL, NATIVE, AND SHORTCODE-FREE. You can also:

⚡ Mini Donation: Add a compact, high-converting donation widget with preset amounts and full color control.

⏳ Campaign Countdown: Build urgency for a deadline-driven appeal, complete with optional confetti when the goal is hit.

📣 Donation Feed: Prove momentum by showing visitors the social proof of real people giving right now.

🏆 Donor Leaderboard: Celebrate top supporters with gold, silver, and bronze styling to spark friendly giving.

🖼️ Campaign Showcase: Feature multiple campaigns in a landing page grid or carousel, with search, filters, and badges.

Learn more here.