Charitable Blog

Everything you need to know about Charitable and our team.

Introducing Charitable 1.8.4 – New Onboarding, Auto-Color Constract, Donation Form Templates and More!

Last updated on

  • By

We are proud to announce Charitable 1.8.4 (and the newest update 1.8.4.2) – and with it we are making this the go-to tool for non-profits and organizations to run campaigns and get donations!

We have been working hard to improve the Charitable plugin, aiming to make it more accessible for new WordPress users while simultaneously incorporating substantial updates for advanced users and developers. Our recent updates include features that our customers—many of whom are just concluding a busy holiday and charity season—have been requesting.

Now, let’s delve into what’s new.

First-Class Onboarding

When users install Charitable, they are eager to get started. I would be too! The goal of Charitable has always been to get you from new plugin install to having a campaign in 5 minutes or less. And thanks to the new onboarding tool, that’s now possible! 🎉

The new onboarding tool allows you to set up the following quickly:

✅ Activate donor and admin emails.

✅ Confirm currency and country settings.

✅ Add addons with license, and download recommended third-party plugins.

✅ Create a campaign by selecting a template and entering the title, description, goal, and end date!

In combination with the Charitable Checklist, even if you have never used Charitable before you can build a campaign and start accepting donations in just a few minutes.

Auto-Color Contrast For Campaigns

Often when you are customizing the look of your campaign, you want to change the basic colors and build your campaign… but at the same time, you want the text to be easily readable. This is especially true for donation buttons. In Charitable 1.8.4.2, Charitable will automatically adjust the text on donation buttons to whatever has the best contrast (and CSS in your theme or custom CSS can still override).

We hope to roll this feature out to more elements in the campaign builder, so stay tuned.

Donation Form Templates

Donation form templates

For the first time, you can now select a different layout for donation forms – right from Charitable settings with no code. While we offer the standard layout, there is a new “minimal” layout that (along with the setting to remove non-required fields) will make your donation form more compact (perfect for modal donation forms or if you need to fit the form into a tighter space). More layouts are coming – but try these beta features and let us know what you think!

Credit Card Fields Format

If you use Stripe, you’ll be happy to know that you can try our new multiple forms setting which will show the credit card form in four textboxes. This has been a big request from customers! This is currently in beta.

Other Updates

Outside of what was mentioned above, here’s a sampling of items that have been addressed and included since Charitable 1.8.4.

  • NEW: You can now opt-in to data collection to improve Charitable. See “advanced settings” screen for details.
  • FIX: Visual Campaign Builder: Updated documentation links.
  • FIX: Visual Campaign Builder: Adjustments and tweaks to campaigns in Visual Builder (admin and frontend).
  • FIX: Resolved issue involving sanitization of non-english dates in some scenarios resulting in incorrect “days until” calculations.
  • FIX: Resolved an issue involving the “Use This Template” button in a visual campaign when choosing campaigns in some scenarios.
  • FIX: Minor adjustments and tweaks to campaign templates including word breaking and word wrapping in the visual builder.
  • UPDATED: Revised output of the “Your Donations” title that was causing issues for those adding HTML via the ‘charitable_donation_amount_legend’ filter.
  • FIX: Minor translation, misc CSS, UI, and PHP coding updates.

And There You Have It!

Excited to take advantage of the latest Charitable features for your nonprofit organization? Update to the newest version of Charitable on your WordPress site today to optimize your fundraising efforts and simplify the donation process.

If you haven’t started using Charitable yet, there’s no better time to begin! Upgrade your WordPress site with Charitable Pro to elevate your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts with the top donation and donor management plugin available.

We must express our gratitude to our incredible community, comprising diverse charitable organizations, for making this update possible. We sincerely appreciate your ongoing support and feedback. Your commitment to fundraising continues to inspire us.

If you haven’t already upgrade to Charitable Pro – there’s never been a better time. Check out which plan is best for you.

(Want more? We’ve got more updates and surprises coming up for you, so stay tuned!)

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. We only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get free tips and resources right in your inbox, along with 60,000+ others

Join our Newsletter

We won’t spam you. We only send an email when we think it will genuinely help you. Unsubscribe at any time!

Featured Video:

Watch more videos on our YouTube channel.

What's New In Charitable

View The Latest Updates
🔔 Subscribe to get our latest updates
📧 Subscribe to Emails

Email Subscription

Join our Newsletter

We won’t spam you. We only send an email when we think it will genuinely help you. Unsubscribe at any time!

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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.
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.

author avatar
David Bisset Project Manager
David is the project manager of Charitable since 2022. David works with several non-profits (one operated by his wife) along with managing and developing features, support, and marketing for Charitable. Has been with WordPress since 2006 and has been lead organizer of multiple conferences, events, and meetups.