Online giving — one-time, monthly, annually — with receipts. Plus campaign tracking and an admin ledger for hand-recorded donations (checks, cash, in-kind).
What you can do
- Take online donations via Stripe (one-time, monthly, annually) and PayPal (one-time).
- Run named campaigns — the library fund, a building appeal — and see what each has raised.
- Auto-send tax receipts with 501(c)(3) language when an EIN is configured.
- Let donors cover the processing fee so 100% of their gift reaches you.
- Accept anonymous donations (donor identifier scrubbed from the public-facing list).
- Take in-honor-of / in-memory-of dedications.
- Record check, cash, and in-kind donations by hand for complete books.
- Pseudonymize donor records on GDPR erasure request while keeping the financial total intact.
Before you start
You need a Stripe account. Create one at stripe.com if you don't have one. Drop your publishable key and secret key in Settings → Events → Online Payments — the same Stripe connection serves donations, event registrations and dues. Test mode keys work for trying things out; switch to live keys when you're ready to take real money.
PayPal is optional. If you want it, add your client ID and secret under the same Settings page. PayPal handles one-time donations in the form; recurring (monthly/annual) goes through Stripe.
How to put a donate form on a page
Two paths:
Two paths:
- Page builder. Drop the Donation Form widget and fill in the same three settings below.
- Shortcode. Put
[sp_donate]on any page.
Either way there are three optional settings:
campaign="library-fund"— credit every gift on that form to a campaign (its slug or number).default_frequency="monthly"— which choice starts selected:one_time,monthlyorannually.show_dedication="0"— hide the in-honor-of / in-memory-of field.
For example: [sp_donate campaign="library-fund" default_frequency="monthly"].
The form has preset amount buttons ($25 / $50 / $100 / $250 / $500 by default) plus a custom-amount input. The donor picks one-time / monthly / annually, optionally toggles "cover the processing fee," fills in name + email, optionally adds a dedication and a note. Then they click Donate and Stripe Checkout takes over.
How to set up a campaign
Money → Campaigns. Add a campaign with its name and details, and save.
To credit online gifts to it, give the donate form its slug — in the Donation Form widget's Campaign box, or [sp_donate campaign="library-fund"]. A gift you record by hand can be assigned to a campaign on the Record Donation screen. Donations can be filtered by campaign to see what each has raised.
How to read the receipt
Receipts go out automatically the moment Stripe confirms the payment. The email includes:
- The amount.
- The frequency ("one-time donation" vs "monthly recurring donation").
- The dedication, if one was provided.
- 501(c)(3) language including your EIN — but only if the EIN is configured under Settings → Organization. If it's blank, the receipt simply thanks the donor without tax-status language.
For gifts recorded by hand, tick them on the Donations list and click Send Acknowledgment Email. Its wording is under Newsletters & Email → Email Templates.
How recurring donations work
When a donor picks Monthly or Annually, Stripe creates a subscription. SocietyPress records the first donation immediately (status: subscription_active). Each subsequent renewal arrives via webhook (invoice.paid) and creates a new donation row tagged with the original subscription ID, so your books match Stripe's records.
If a donor cancels their subscription (via Stripe's customer portal or by emailing you to cancel), the webhook (customer.subscription.deleted) flips your record to subscription_canceled. No more renewal rows are created.
To set up the webhook: in your Stripe dashboard, add an endpoint URL https://yoursite.org/wp-json/societypress/v1/webhooks/stripe. Pick the three events: checkout.session.completed, invoice.paid, customer.subscription.deleted. Copy the signing secret into Settings → Events → Online Payments → Webhook Signing Secret.
How to record a donation by hand
For checks, cash, in-kind contributions, or grants that don't flow through Stripe:
Money → Donations → Record Donation. Donor name, email, amount, type (cash, check, in-kind or other), date, optional campaign, optional note. Save. The donation appears in the ledger alongside online donations; receipts can be sent on demand.
In-kind donations support a free-text description of what was given (e.g., "1850 census photocopies, ~200 sheets, value $50") plus an optional fair-market amount.
If something looks wrong
Donation form says Stripe isn't set up. Add your publishable and secret keys under Settings → Events → Online Payments.
Donations land but no receipt arrives. Check your site can send email at all — "Lost your password?" on the sign-in page with your own address is the quickest test; if it never arrives, see Email Setup. If mail works generally, check that the donor's email address is correctly captured (look at the donation row in the admin ledger).
Recurring donations stop after the first payment. The webhook isn't reaching your site. In Stripe's dashboard → Developers → Webhooks, look at recent attempts to your endpoint. If they're failing, the most common reasons are: signing secret doesn't match (re-copy it from Stripe), URL is wrong, or your host's firewall is blocking the request.
Donor wants their data scrubbed (GDPR). WordPress's Tools → Erase Personal Data. Their donation rows are pseudonymized — donor name becomes "Anonymous Donor," email is cleared, the amount + date + payment method are kept (IRS recordkeeping requires this for at least 7 years). The financial total of past gifts isn't touched.
Stripe processing fees are eating into small donations. Turn on the "cover the processing fee" toggle in the form. Donors who tick it add ~3% to their gift so 100% reaches you. Most do, especially for smaller amounts.
Related guides
- Members — donations link to member records when the email matches
- Setup Wizard — picks your initial 501(c)(3) language