Charitable Documentation

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

How to Use The Donor Management System

Our comprehensive donor management system is integrated into your WordPress platform making it easy for you to efficiently manage and track your donor relationships.

You can maintain detailed donor profiles, monitor donation histories, and streamline your communication with supporters. We’ve designed it to act as a centralized hub for all donor-related activities.

This documentation will guide you through the various features and functionalities of the Donation Management System, helping you maximize your organization’s efficiency.

Table of Contents

Getting Started

Charitable gives you the power to access and edit your donation records as you need. This puts the control in your hands to change payment statuses, edit donor details, and even export all the data any time you need.

There are 2 major sections we’ll cover in the Donor Management System:

  1. Donation Records
  2. Donor Database

Managing Donation Records

To access your donation records, go to the Charitable » Donations tab in your WordPress dashboard. Here, you’ll see a complete list of all donations.

Overview

These records show you an overview of donors name, email, amount donated, to which campaign, date and status. You can also see the payment status shows you if the donation amount is paid, pending, refunded, or cancelled.

Donations tab in charitable

Taking Actions

At the top of this page, there are actions available to help you edit and manage your records without any hassle.

Top menu in Charitable donation records

This includes:

  • Add Donation: Lets you create a new donation record
  • View Only Tabs: Lets you view only the records that are in drafts, pending, paid, failed, refunded, and cancelled
  • Filter: Filter the list by date, campaign, and payment status
  • Export: Download a CSV file of your entire or filtered donation records list
  • Search: Look for a specific donation record

Editing Donation Records

Hover over any donation record and you’ll see options to view, edit, or trash the record. There is also a pencil icon on the left of the record that lets you edit it.

Edit donation record

When you choose to edit a donation record, you’ll be redirected to the specific donation record page.

In the left column, you can take actions like:

  • Update payment status
  • Send receipt copies to donors
  • Trigger admin notifications
  • Download PDF receipts
Updating donation status

Once you make changes here, you’ll see a status that says “Donation updated”. Any changes made will appear in the donation log along with a date and time stamp.

Updated donation log and paid status

You can also see the donor history, which shows you how many times the donor has contributed to your cause.

Adding a New Donation Record

Use the green “Add Donation” button at the top of the Charitable » Donations page to create a new empty donation record.

Add new donation record

In the new donation record that opens, on the left, you can select the campaign and donation amount.

Details filled out form in add donation page

Under the Donor field, you can choose to add a new donor or select an existing donor. If you choose an existing donor, the fields will autopopulate from their donor record. For new donors, you need to fill out the form manually.

Add new donor or choose existing one in add donation page

You can add donor details such as their name, address, city, state, postcode, country, and phone number.

Add donation details address and number to new donation record

Next, on the right panel, there are options to include additional details. These include:

  • Date of donation
  • Donation status
  • Donation note

You can also choose to email the donation receipt to the donor.

Additional details in add donation screen

Make sure you click the Save Donation button to store your new donation record.

Managing The Donor Database

To access the donor database, log into your WordPress admin panel and navigate to the Charitable Pro » Donors tab.

You’ll be presented with a clean, organized interface displaying your complete donor list. Each donor entry includes essential information such as their name, email address, total donations, frequency of contributions, and the date they joined.

Donors tab in charitable

The main dashboard is designed for quick actions and easy navigation. You can instantly identify donor types (one-time, recurring, or top donor) and take actions using the icons on the left. These include:

  • The pencil icon allows for quick profile edits
  • The envelope icon lets you send emails to the donor
  • The trash bin icon helps delete donor records when needed

Managing Donor Profiles

Every donor gets their own donor profile page that serves as a comprehensive record of each supporter’s relationship with your organization. To access a donor’s profile, simply click their name or the pencil icon from the main dashboard.

The profile page is thoughtfully organized into two main sections: an overview summary header and detailed information tabs.

Managing Basic Information

Overview

Donor profile sample

At the top of each profile, you’ll find a snapshot of essential donor information. This includes their avatar, full name, email address, and join date.

The summary also displays valuable metrics such as lifetime donations and year-to-date contributions.

Quick action buttons allow you to adjust user settings, mark donors as favorites, send emails, or manage their records.

Profile Details

Profile information in donor management system 798

The primary profile section allows you to maintain detailed contact information. You can edit standard fields, including:

  • Personal details (prefix, first, middle, and last name, suffix)
  • Professional information (title, company)
  • Contact details (email, phone number)
  • Communication preferences (primary language, contact consent)

Tags & Custom Fields

Add custom field in donor management system

To better organize your donor database, the system offers two powerful features:

Tags System: Create and assign tags like “important” or “flood relief” to categorize donors and make them easily searchable. Tags are flexible and can be customized to match your organization’s needs.

Custom Fields: The custom fields feature allows you to adapt donor profiles to your specific requirements.

Fields available for custom fields

You can add various field types, including:

  • Text boxes for additional notes
  • Checkboxes for preferences
  • Dropdown menus for categorization
  • Date fields for important milestones
  • Range selectors for engagement levels
  • Star ratings for donor prioritization

For instance, you could add a dropdown field where you can assign a relationship manager to the donor, like this:

Custom dropdown field relationship manager

After making any modifications to a donor’s profile, simply click the “Update Donor” button. A confirmation message will appear at the top of the page to confirm your changes have been saved successfully.

Multiple Contact Management

Add addresses and emails

The system supports multiple addresses and email addresses for each donor, ensuring you can maintain complete contact records for donors with various locations or contact points. Each entry can be easily added, edited, or removed as needed.

Managing Advanced Donor Details

Beyond basic profile management, the Donor Dashboard offers powerful tools for tracking and managing detailed donor information through organized tabs.

These tabs work together to create a complete picture of your donor’s journey, from their giving history to their social media presence and engagement with your organization.

Donations

The Donations tab provides a comprehensive view of a donor’s giving history. Here you’ll find a chronological record of all contributions, including donation amounts, dates, associated campaigns, and payment statuses. Each donation entry features tools for quick management:

  • Edit individual donation records by clicking the edit icon
  • Generate and download PDF receipts instantly
  • Export the complete donation history as a CSV file for analysis or reporting
Download PDF receipt

Campaigns

This tab displays all campaigns associated with the donor, whether they’ve created or participated in them. It offers a quick way to track donor engagement across different initiatives and helps identify their areas of interest.

Comments

Comments in donor dashboard

If you’ve enabled donor comments, any message left by this donor on various campaigns will show up here in the Comments tab.

As an administrator, you can:

  • Review comment content
  • Approve or unapprove comments
  • Track engagement patterns
  • Maintain community standards

Social Media Integration

The Social tab helps you maintain a complete picture of your donor’s online presence. Click the Update Social Links button to add various social media profiles, including:

  • Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter)
  • Professional networks
  • Content platforms like YouTube
  • Messaging apps like WhatsApp
  • Custom URLs for other online presences
Social logs in donor management system

Activity Logs

The Logs tab serves as your audit trail, maintaining a detailed record of all changes made to the donor profile. This feature is particularly useful for:

  • Tracking profile updates
  • Monitoring user activity
  • Ensuring accountability
  • Troubleshooting issues

Notes

Update donor notes

The Notes tab provides a space for storing important information about your donor relationships. Both administrators and donors can add notes, making it valuable for recording communication highlights, tracking preferences, and documenting special requirements. This helps you maintain a relationship history and connect with the donor in a more personalized manner.

Creating a New Donor Profile

Charitable lets you manually create donor profiles when you need. This is helpful when donors make offline donations or donations through other platforms. With this feature, you can use Charitable as your centralized donor database.

To add a new donor profile, in the Charitable » Donors page, click on the green Add Donor button.

Add new donor profile

This will open up a blank donor profile. You can fill in all the details that include:

  • Prefix and suffix
  • First, middle, and last Name 
  • Email and phone
  • Title
  • Company
  • Birthday
  • Primary Language
Create new donor

Hit the Create button at the top-right corner to create the new donor profile. Now you’ll be taken to the donor profile page where you can view, add, or delete donor information.

Filtering & Exporting The Donor Database

Charitable makes it easy to find specific donor profiles and to filter your donor database as you need.

In the Charitable » Donors page, click on the Filter button in the top menu.

Filter donor list

This will open a popup with filtering options that you can use with just clicks of your mouse.

Filter options for donor database

The options let you filter by:

  • Date range
  • Campaigns
  • Search terms
  • Favorite donors

Once you’ve chosen the options you need, click on the ‘Filter’ button. Charitable will display the donor list according to the filters applied.

To export your entire donor database, click on the Export button and again on the Export button in the popup. If you’d like to include/exclude specific donors, you can use the checkboxes next to their names.

Select and export donor records

To export a filtered view, click on the Export button, then in the popup that appears, you can add filters by date and campaign. Then hit the Export button and a CSV file will be downloaded to your computer.

Filter and export donor list

With that, you know how to use the Donor Management System, including donation records and the donor database.

Check out more about Charitable Pro and its features here »

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.