Charitable Documentation

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

How to Create a Tribute Campaign in Charitable

Requires: 

  • Charitable Pro 1.8.16+
  • Charitable Tributes 1.0.0+

There are two ways to collect tribute gifts, and they suit different moments.

  1. Run the setup wizard to create a dedicated tribute campaign with its own shareable page. This is the right choice when a family asks for gifts “in lieu of flowers,” or when you want a single page focused on one honoree.
  2. Turn on the tribute option for a campaign you already have. This is the right choice when you want any donor to be able to dedicate their gift on a general donation form, without creating a separate page.

This guide covers both.

Here’s a sample of a Tribute page:

Hero image of a cat with the title'Sarah The Cat' and a red 'Donate in Their Memory' button; below is a 'Photos & Memories' gallery with six cat photos in a grid.

For more on Tributes, see our Charitable Tributes Guide.

Launching a tribute campaign with the wizard

When a family asks for memorial gifts, speed matters. The setup wizard walks you from a starting template to a live, shareable tribute page in well under 2 minutes. From anywhere in the Tributes area, click New Tribute Campaign at the top of the page to open it.

The wizard has five steps, shown as “Step 1 of 5” along the top so you always know how far you are.

Step 1: Pick a template

Templates are pre-built starting points, grouped into categories so you can find the right tone quickly.

  • Memorial – In Loving Memory, In Lieu of Flowers, and a Memorial Anniversary.
  • Celebration – Birthday Tribute, Anniversary Tribute, Wedding Gift, and New Baby.
  • Support – a Recovery or Support Fund.
  • Custom – start from a blank tribute and build it your own way.

The template you pick sets the default tribute type, the wording, and which honoree details the next step asks for. You can change everything later in the block editor.

Step 2: Who is this for?

This step is where you name the honoree and add a few details about them.

  • Honoree name (required) – the person, pet, or cause being honored.
  • Dates – depending on the template, you may be asked for a date of birth and a date of passing. These power the date range on the Honoree Card block and can anchor annual giving.
  • Photo – click to choose an image from your media library.

If the template you picked is a support fund created with the honoree’s knowledge, you will also see a consent checkbox to confirm they agreed to be featured.

Step 3: How should donors share?

Here you decide how donors interact with the page.

Create a Tribute Campaign dialog with pre-selected'Send an eCard' and a grid of visibility options (Anyone, Family Approval, Members Only, Private Link).
  • Enable e-card to the notification recipient – let donors notify a loved one that a gift was made.
  • Enable annual recurring opt-in – let donors turn a one-time gift into an annual tribute. Requires the Recurring Donations addon to actually charge renewals.
  • Privacy level – choose how visible the tribute is: public, family approval required, members only, or private link only.
  • Enable donor messages – let donors leave a personal message on the gift.

Step 4: Where does the money go?

Every tribute campaign needs a destination for the funds.

Modal for creating a tribute campaign with two options: start a new campaign or use an existing one; campaign name preset'In Memory of Billy The Cat' and a goal of $1000 input; Back and Create Tribute Campaign buttons visible.
  • Create a new campaign (fund) – Tributes creates a Charitable campaign behind the scenes and points the tribute page at it. You can give it a name and an optional goal amount.
  • Use an existing campaign – point the tribute at one of your current campaigns from the dropdown, so the gifts roll into a fund you already run.

Step 5: Done

The final step gives you everything you need to go live.

Tribute campaign setup dialog, showing ready message, a URL to copy, a shortcode to copy, publish options (Live Now or Save as Draft), and footer actions (Customize, View Page, Finish).
  • Choose to Publish the page now or Save as Draft to finish it later.
  • Click Customize in editor to open the tribute page in the block editor, where the 6 tribute blocks are ready to use.
  • Copy the share link to send to the family, or the shortcode to embed the tribute somewhere else on your site.

That is it. Your honoree record and tribute page now exist, and any gift made to the page links to the honoree automatically.

Adding the tribute option to an existing campaign

You do not need a dedicated page to accept tributes. You can turn the tribute option on for any campaign, and donors will see it on that form. Gifts that include a tribute still create and link honoree records, exactly like the wizard-built pages.

  1. Edit the campaign in the Campaign Builder.
  2. Open the Settings area and find the Tributes panel.
  3. Turn on Enable tributes for this campaign and save.

Now, when a donor gives to that campaign, they can choose to dedicate their gift. Nothing changes for donors who just want to give normally; the tribute fields only appear when a donor opts in. For exactly what the donor sees, read The Tribute Donation Experience.

Choosing how the tribute fields appear

In Tributes » Settings » Donation Form you can choose the form pattern that controls where the tribute fields sit on the form:

  • Blocks inline – the tribute option appears in the same section of the form as the donation amount.
  • Blocks step – the tribute option appears on its own step in a multi-step form.

You can also customize the donor context line, the short bit of helper text shown above the tribute fields, so it speaks in your organization’s voice.

Tips

  • Use the wizard for one-honoree pages and the campaign option for “any gift can be a tribute” forms. Many organizations use both.
  • A wizard-built tribute campaign always links its gifts to its honoree, even if the donor does not re-enter the honoree name. The honoree and tribute type are properties of the page, so every gift counts.
  • You can run the wizard as many times as you like. Each run creates one tribute page and one honoree record.

Developer reference

Wizard AJAX endpoints

The wizard is a modal driven by wp_ajax_ endpoints. All require a nonce and the manage_charitable_settings capability.

ActionPurpose
charitable_tributes_wizard_openInitialize a wizard session.
charitable_tributes_wizard_stepRender and handle a single step.
charitable_tributes_wizard_set_campaign_statusToggle the new campaign between publish and draft.
charitable_tributes_wizard_discardDiscard an in-progress wizard session.

Registering a custom template

Templates are filterable, so you can add your own starting points to the picker.

add_filter( 'charitable_tributes_templates', function ( $templates ) {
    $templates['scholarship-fund'] = array(
        'label'        => __( 'Memorial Scholarship', 'your-textdomain' ),
        'category'     => 'memorial',
        'tribute_type' => 'in-memory-of',
    );
    return $templates;
} );

See the Developer Reference for the full template array shape.

Campaign meta

When the tribute option is enabled on a campaign, Tributes stores _campaign_tribute_enabled on the campaign post. Wizard-built fund campaigns also carry _charitable_tributes_managed_fund, which is how a gift to that fund is automatically associated with the campaign’s honoree at completion.

Related

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Addon New

🗒️ Custom Receipts… New Addon!

With Custom Receipts, you decide which page your donors see, on every campaign. Here’s how it works, and why it’s worth turning on today.

Left side shows a donation receipt with donation number, date, total, and payment method for a  gift to Anywhere, titled 'One Family Gets Clean Water For A Week.'

Create receipts that are CUSTOM TO THE DONOR OR CAMPAIGN. You can also:

📅 Year-end appeal: Reinforce the goal and invite donors to share while momentum is high.

🎗️ Memorial or tribute campaign: Give a gentle, respectful thank-you that fits the moment.

💎 Major gifts: Show a special message only to donors who give above a threshold.

🔁 Recurring growth: Invite one-time donors to become monthly supporters right on the receipt.

🌍 Global campaigns: Surface a country-specific note, like a Gift Aid reminder, only where it applies.

Learn more here.

New templates

🤩 New Beacon Campaign Templates w/ “Hero” Block!

With the new Beacon Campaign Templates for Charitable Pro, you can launch a stunning, full-width fundraising page that instantly captures visitor attention above the fold.

Fundraising page header for Save Maple Grove Park with a donation widget and a small square photo of a sunlit tree thumbnail on the left.

🔦 Above-the-Fold Impact: Lead with a full-width hero image, your logo, and your goal with a donation widget locked right on top of the banner so your ask and momentum register instantly without scrolling.

📐 Two Flexible Layouts: Choose between a structured two-column layout for side-by-side storytelling and supporting details, or a clean one-column view designed for uninterrupted long-form narratives.

⚡ All-in-One Hero Field: Powered by the new Campaign Hero field, bringing background media, live progress bars, custom donation amounts, and recurring giving tabs together into a single cohesive block that can be dropped into any layout.

🎨 Automatic Theme Matching: The hero banner and donation widget automatically inherit your campaign theme’s button and accent colors, ensuring your entire presentation stays beautifully on-brand without touching a line of CSS.

Learn more here.

donation form Feature New

📝 Donation Form Block: Embed a Working Donation Form Anywhere

With the new Donation Form Block for Charitable Pro, you can drop a fully working donation form directly onto any page or post in the WordPress block editor. No redirects, no page reloads, and zero friction between reading your story and making a contribution.

📝 Drop Forms Anywhere: Place a working form directly onto your homepage, inside a story-driven blog post, on a dedicated landing page, or within a campaign announcement.

🎯 Dynamic Campaign Binding: Easily choose a specific campaign from the block sidebar or set it to automatically bind to whichever campaign is currently being viewed.

📐 Full vs. Minimal Form Views: Switch between a full layout or a compact minimal view to perfectly fit sidebars, narrow columns, or wide landing pages.

🎨 Scoped No-Code Styling: Customize typography, container spacing, border radius, amount buttons, and accent colors independently for every form instance without touching a line of CSS.

Learn more here.

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.