Charitable Documentation

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

How to Use Braintree Local Payments

Want to accept donations from supporters using their preferred local payment methods? Charitable Pro’s Braintree addon (version 1.3.0 and later) adds support for six European and Polish payment methods, including iDEAL, Bancontact, EPS, BLIK, Przelewy24, and MyBank. These methods appear automatically on your donation form when your site currency matches the method’s supported currencies.

This guide will walk you through enabling and configuring local payment methods in the Braintree addon.

Requirements: Local payment methods require Charitable Pro with the Braintree addon version 1.3.0 or later.

Read the full feature announcement »

Before you get started, make sure Charitable Pro and the Braintree addon are installed and activated on your site, with your Braintree API credentials already configured.

Table of Contents

Available Local Payment Methods

The Braintree addon supports six local payment methods. Each method is tied to specific currencies and countries:

  • iDEAL – EUR only. Used in the Netherlands.
  • Bancontact – EUR only. Used in Belgium.
  • EPS – EUR only. Used in Austria.
  • BLIK – PLN only. Used in Poland.
  • Przelewy24 – PLN or EUR. Used in Poland.
  • MyBank – EUR only. Used in Italy and Portugal.

Your donors will only see methods that match your site’s currency. For example, a site set to EUR will show iDEAL, Bancontact, EPS, Przelewy24, and MyBank, but not BLIK (which requires PLN).

Enabling Local Payment Methods

To configure local payment methods, go to Charitable » Settings » Payment Gateways »Þ Braintree in your WordPress admin. Scroll down to the Local Payment Methods section.

Each method has its own toggle. The help text below each toggle shows which currencies and countries the method supports. Turn on the methods you want to offer your donors.

When you have finished enabling your preferred methods, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.

Note: You must also enable local payment methods at the account level in your Braintree dashboard. If your donors see errors when trying to use a local payment method, contact Braintree support and ask them to enable local payments on your merchant account.

How Does Currency Filtering Work?

Local payment methods only appear on your donation form when your site’s currency matches the method’s supported currencies. This filtering happens automatically. You do not need to configure anything beyond enabling the methods you want.

If your site currency is set to USD, no local payment buttons will appear on the donation form, even if you have enabled all six methods in the settings. Only EUR and PLN currencies activate local payment buttons.

To check or change your site currency, go to Charitable > Settings > General and look for the Currency setting.

The Donor Experience

When a donor visits a campaign page, they will see the standard Braintree card payment form first. Below the card form, an “or pay with” divider appears, followed by buttons for each active local payment method.

Donation form local button

When a donor clicks a local payment button, a popup window opens where they complete the payment through their bank or payment provider. After authorization, the popup closes and the donation form submits automatically.

If the donor’s browser blocks the popup, Braintree redirects the donor to the payment provider in the same window. After completing the payment, they are redirected back to the donation form where the submission completes automatically.

Setting Up Webhooks

Local payment methods process donations asynchronously. The donor’s payment is not confirmed instantly. Instead, Braintree sends webhook notifications to your site when the payment status changes. Without webhooks, donation statuses will not update after the initial submission.

Scroll down to the Webhook Setup section on the Braintree settings page.

If you have already configured webhooks for recurring donations, you need to add the four local payment events to your existing webhook subscription in the Braintree dashboard:

  • Local Payment Completed – fires when the donor’s bank confirms the payment. Updates the donation status to Paid.
  • Local Payment Reversed – fires when a payment is reversed or refunded by the bank.
  • Local Payment Expired – fires when a payment authorization expires before the donor completes it.
  • Local Payment Funded – fires when the funds are settled into your merchant account.

To add these events, click the Open Braintree webhook settings link, find your existing webhook subscription, and add the four local payment event types. If you do not have a webhook configured yet, copy the endpoint URL shown in the settings and create a new webhook in your Braintree dashboard with all the listed events.

Note: Without the Local Payment Completed webhook, donations made through local payment methods will remain in a Pending status and never update to Paid.

Recurring Donation Limitations

Local payment methods do not support recurring donations. This is a limitation of Braintree’s local payment processing, not the Charitable plugin.

When a donor selects a recurring donation period (such as Monthly or Yearly) on a campaign form, all local payment buttons are automatically hidden. They reappear when the donor switches back to a one-time donation.

If your campaigns rely heavily on recurring giving, your donors will still need to use card payments, PayPal, or another supported method for those donations.

Testing Your Setup

After enabling your local payment methods and configuring webhooks, visit one of your campaign pages to confirm the buttons appear correctly. Make sure your site currency is set to EUR or PLN so the buttons are visible.

Try clicking a local payment button to verify the popup opens. In Braintree’s sandbox (test) environment, you can complete a test donation by selecting a test bank from the list. After the test donation, check Charitable » Donations to confirm the donation was recorded and that the status updates to Paid after the webhook fires.

That’s it! Your donors can now use their preferred local payment methods to contribute to your campaigns. For more about the Braintree addon’s other features, see the Braintree addon documentation.

FAQ

What to do if local payment buttons are not appearing on my donation form?

There are three common reasons. First, check that your site currency is set to EUR or PLN at Charitable » Settings » General. Local payment methods do not appear for USD or other unsupported currencies. Second, confirm that at least one method is enabled in the Braintree gateway settings. Third, verify that Braintree has enabled local payments at the account level on your merchant account.

Donations are stuck in Pending status. How do I fix it?

This usually means your Braintree webhooks are not configured correctly. Local payment donations start in Pending status and update to Paid only when the Local Payment Completed webhook fires. Go to the Setting Up Webhooks section and verify that all four local payment events are included in your webhook subscription.

Can I use local payment methods with a USD currency?

No. All six local payment methods require either EUR or PLN as the site currency. If your site is set to USD, the buttons will not appear on donation forms.

Do local payment methods work with the Campaign Builder forms?

Yes. Local payment buttons appear on both legacy and Campaign Builder donation forms, as long as the Braintree gateway is active and the site currency matches.

Can donors save a local payment method for future donations?

No. Local payment methods cannot be vaulted (saved) in Braintree. Donors will need to complete the bank authorization each time they donate using a local payment method.

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Improvement Payments

💰 Accept Recurring Donations with Windcave and Charitable

A donor sets their gift up once on Windcave’s secure payment page, and Charitable bills every renewal after that on schedule. Why this is important:

🏦 Organizations banked in New Zealand or Australia: monthly giving on the gateway your bank already set you up with, with no second processor to onboard.
⛪ Churches taking regular tithes and offerings: congregants set their own schedule once, which is the simplest way to launch recurring church giving without a separate platform.
🌏 Groups with donors in several currencies: Windcave handles more than 20, so a supporter can give in the currency they actually hold.
📅 Operating funds rather than one-time campaigns: switch on Recurring Only mode and the one-off option disappears, so every gift to that campaign is a subscription.
🧾 Teams with no developer on staff: 3 sets of credentials pasted into a settings page, and no code anywhere.

Check out our announcement here.

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.