WordPress is a popular, open source, website building tool. Nonprofits can collect donations on WordPress with donation plugins that don’t cost an arm and a leg. This article suggests what to consider when reviewing a WordPress plugin, a few key features to look for, and the best WordPress donation plugins we could find.
![9 Best WordPress Donation Plugins [+ Tips to Choose One]](https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/New-Design-2022-blog-images-Aug-to-Dec-4-1.png)
Online fundraising is now a crucial practice to raise money for your nonprofit. Online giving has increased by 42 percent over the last three years. There are several online donation processors out there for all nonprofit types. Some are loaded with features and can be costly, while others are more affordable.
If your nonprofit already has a website run on WordPress, it may be more convenient to add a plugin and accept donations on it. WordPress plugins are open source and won’t cost your nonprofit an arm and a leg.
This article suggests what to consider when reviewing a WordPress plugin, a few key features to look for, and the best WordPress donation plugins we could find.
The following WordPress donation plugins all have high ratings and stand out for being easy to install and use.
Active installations: 9,000 +
WordPress version: 3.0 or higher
Rating: 5 stars
Donorbox is an affordable online donation tool available for nonprofits and individuals. WordPress offers a free Donorbox plugin to add an embedded or pop-up donation form to your WordPress website.
The Donorbox plugin is absolutely free and takes just 5 simple steps, requiring no coding knowledge. You can download it here. Please have a look at this quick visual tutorial here –
This plugin is easy to set up and use and offers several features to increase donor conversion.
Top Donorbox donation form features –
Here’s how Support Education Worldwide has embedded the Donorbox donation form in their WordPress website to accept donations online –
Donorbox also offers Peer-to-Peer fundraising, Crowdfunding, Text-to-Give, Events, and Memberships to help your organization boost online funds.
There are also several integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot, Blackbaud RE NXT, MailChimp, Double the Donation, and more to help boost your fundraising and donor management efforts.
It costs your organization nothing to download and embed this plugin. The only fees occur when a supporter donates to your nonprofit. This platform fee is nominal, starting at just 1.75% for those on the Standard Plan. You can also let donors pay this fee and ensure the total amount of their donation goes to your organization.
Active Installations: 9,000 +
WordPress Version: 3.0 or higher
Rating: 5 stars
WPForms is one of the only plugins not listed on WordPress’s Plugin page. We’ve added it to our list because of the over 8,000 reviews it has and how easy it is to install.
Here are the form types you can use with this plugin –
The WPForms plugin includes all the basics in their startup package and several other options you can have for an additional fee.
You can also purchase add-ons for credit card processors like Stripe and Square, email marketing tools like Constant Contact, third-party donor management options like Salesforce, and more.
The WPForms starter package begins at $49.50/year for one website, unlimited forms, submissions, and users. The Plus, Pro, and Elite packages cost $99.50, $199.50, and $299.50 a year. The number of websites increases with the price, as do additional options like integrations, payment types, and workflows.
Active Installations: 30,000+
WordPress Version: 3.0 or higher
Rating: 4.5 stars
PayPal has been around for a long time, and you probably know what it is even if you don’t use it. That knowledge creates comfort and trust.
WordPress’s PayPal plugin lets nonprofits add a PayPal donation button anywhere on their website. Once again, this plugin is easy to set up and embed on your site. It’s also completely free.
This plugin may not include as many features as others on our list, but its features can help your nonprofit raise more money online.
What you get –
The plugin is free of cost. However, PayPal’s processing fees will still apply as donors make donations. Know more about this pricing here.
Active Installations: 10,000+
WordPress Version: 4.1 or higher
Rating: 5 stars
Nonprofits can download WordPress Plugin Charitable for free and start unlimited campaigns on your website. With this WordPress plugin, nonprofits can customize forms and email communication with a few clicks. Donors can give via PayPal or offline by check.
If your nonprofit is looking for more, you can buy the extensions you need or purchase a premium package that:
Premiere packages start at $99 for a basic plan for one site, unlimited campaigns, and unlimited donors.
Active Installations: 7,000+
WordPress Version: 4.0 or higher
Rating: 4 stars
WordPress’s Seamless Plugin is an excellent option to raise funds worldwide. The 4.0 WordPress version includes translations in several languages and supports currencies from the US, Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Mexico, the Philippines, and more.
These features make it easier for nonprofits to raise funds internationally. Seamless also lets nonprofits create customizable forms and emails that scale for mobile devices.
Other features that stand out with Seamless Donations include:
Seamless Donations doesn’t charge nonprofits a commission or percentage fee. Your organization will only pay credit card processing fees with each donation. Nonprofits can have donors pay these fees to ensure their gifts only go to the organization.
Active Installations: 100,000+
WordPress Version: 5.0 or higher
Rating: 4.5 stars
GiveWP is a highly-rated WordPress plugin that lets nonprofits create customizable donation forms, view donor data, manage donors, and create reports. GiveWP is also visually stunning, easy to understand and use.
GiveWP’s free plugin includes the following:
GiveWP’s free plugin also allows donors to manage their own accounts and access their donor history for tax purposes. This feature limits the time nonprofits need to spend sending donors tax receipts at the end of the year.
The GiveWP plugin can integrate with PayPal and Stripe. Nonprofits looking to up their fundraising game can purchase add-ons like
The plugin is free. However, GiveWP’s annual plans for fundraising start at $149.
Active Installations: 4,000+
WordPress Version: 3.0.1 or higher
Rating: 4.5 stars
Does your nonprofit use earned income as a fundraising source? Do you sell t-shirts, cookies, or other products that raise significant revenue? If so, the Woocommerce Donation Plugin may be an excellent option.
Woocommerce lets nonprofits create a store and add donation amounts as a product on their forms. Your organization can create a form that includes individual products and lets donors give an extra donation on top of their purchase.
The Woocommerce plugin lets donors change the donation amount and re-enter their gift on a cart or checkout page.
Woocommerce’s free plugin also allows nonprofits to set up donation buttons to fit their branding and create reports to help track where most of their nonprofit’s donations originate.
The Woocommerce Donation Plugin is free, but nonprofits can also purchase a Pro Plugin package at $29 that allows them to
Active Installations: 3,000+
WordPress Version: 2.7 or higher
Rating: 4.5 stars
Donation Thermometer is one of those tricks that nonprofits can use to encourage donors to give more. Does your nonprofit need to raise a significant amount for your capital campaign? If so, a donation thermometer visually represents how far you are from meeting that goal.
The Donation Thermometer plugin lets your nonprofit add a thermometer to your website home page, donation page, and website sidebar. You can also include this thermometer on blog posts you email to donors.
With this plugin, nonprofits can:
The WordPress Donation Thermometer plugin is entirely free.
Active Installations: N/A
WordPress Version: 4.2 or higher
Rating: 5 stars
Green Donations lets nonprofits manage an unlimited number of campaigns, add payment forms, and progress bars, and accept PayPal and Stripe payments.
This WordPress donation plugin stands out because nonprofits can create as many campaigns as they want and don’t have to pay any commission fees.
Nonprofits interested in adding this plugin to their website must have a 4.2 WordPress version or higher. You must install this version from scratch if you have an older Donation Manager plugin (version 2 and lower).
Green Donations lets nonprofits:
The Regular License for this plugin is $19 and includes 6 months of support and future updates. Nonprofits can also purchase an Extended License for $95.
When researching WordPress plugins, you must keep a few things in mind.
With the above considerations in mind, let us move on to check the key features to look for in WordPress donation plugins.
Trust is vital to online donors. Luckily, most people are used to purchasing items off websites and know what to look for on yours.
When building your WordPress website and adding plugins, you must ensure that your website is PCI compliant and that your nonprofits do not share donor information with any third party.
You’ll also want to encrypt and tokenize all credit card information donors enter.
With the Donorbox plugin, you get PCI-compliant, encrypted, and protected payment processing through Stripe. We also let you connect to your PayPal business account, and both our payment processors ensure that your donor and donation data are safe on Donorbox. This video will show you how to easily connect to Stripe and PayPal to your Donorbox account –
Start Fundraising With Donorbox
A WordPress donation plugin must let you easily embed forms into your website. You shouldn’t have to be a computer genius to embed these forms. Most plugins ask you to copy and paste the code onto your website.
For example, Donorbox recurring donation forms plugin. All you need to do is –
Learn more about the steps and the process in this guide here.
Donors won’t give unless they trust your organization’s website. The best way to build this trust is with donation pages and forms that match your website’s branding.
WordPress plugins ensure your donation pages have the same website URL but should also include the same color scheme, style, and logo as the rest of your website.
Another way to build trust is by forming relationships with your donors. No one wants to feel like an ATM, so when you send donation appeals, you must make them as personalized as possible.
One way to do this is with customized donation asks and amounts. Do your due diligence, segment donors based on past gifts, and create donation forms with similar quantities and program appeals (as shown in the example below).
Create a Customizable Donation Form
Your donation page will obviously include a donation button. With a WordPress donation plugin, you can add this button to your donation, homepage, and other website pages.
Regardless of where you’re adding it on the website, you must ensure the button matches your nonprofit’s branding. Choose a WordPress plugin that allows you to change the color and font of your buttons. For example, with the Donorbox plugin, you get a free donation button to add to your website (anywhere).
The process is simple. Login to your Donorbox account, select the campaign for which you need a donation button, click “Embed codes”, select the “Donate button” tab, and copy the button code (shown below). Now, paste this code into your website’s HTML and you’re done. When clicked, donors will see a popup donation form to donate.
A donation should never be a one-time event. Instead, you’ll want to keep track of donors and their gifts.
A WordPress plugin doesn’t only let nonprofits collect online donations. There are also plugins to collect and store these donations and donor information to build long-term relationships.
The Donorbox plugin gives you the option to securely store and manage donor data. The moment a donor completes a donation, their details get stored in the tool. You can find it in the Supporters module. You can also check their donation information under the Donations module. There’s a reporting module as well to help you get deeper insights into these pieces of information by creating quick reports.
Donorbox also lets you integrate with Salesforce, HubSpot, Blackbaud RE NXT, and more apps to effectively manage donor data.
WordPress has plugins that let nonprofits collect recurring donations from their supporters and give donors control over their accounts.
With these plugins, donors can update amounts and recurrent gift dates whenever they want, and nonprofits receive notifications when these changes occur.
On Donorbox, your donation forms will let you collect weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual recurring donations. Your donors will get account details to log in and manage their recurring plans.
Here’s an example for you. As you can see, these forms are highly customizable and give you numerous options to build great relationships with donors.
Accept Recurring Donations With Donorbox
Many nonprofits have donors based around the world. WordPress plugins allow these organizations to create webpages with various currencies and languages to ensure they don’t miss out on gifts.
With the Donorbox plugin, you’ll be able to add a dropdown to your donation form asking people to select the preferred currency. We let you add up to 45 currencies to your form.
WordPress donation plugins can be an excellent option for nonprofits. Some plugins are free for anyone’s use, but if you’re looking for more features, you can expect to pay a fee.
When choosing which plugin to add to your nonprofit’s website, ensure the features fit your needs. You must also not forget to double-check the plugin’s active installations, WordPress version, and rating.
Donorbox’s WordPress donation plugin is an excellent option for nonprofits of every size and offers features like Text-to-Give, Crowdfunding, Event ticketing, Membership campaigns, QuickDonate, Donor Management, and more.
We also offer a success package called Donorbox Premium with personalized pricing for nonprofits willing to level up their fundraising. You get expert coaching, powerful tools, an account manager, and priority tech support.
Want to learn more about how Donorbox forms embed into various website builders including WordPress? Go to our Nonprofit Blog. You’ll also get loads of fundraising and donor management blogs, free resources, ideas and tips, and more. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a collection of our best resources in your inbox every month.
Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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Kristine Ensor