Welcome to Donorbox! We realize you might have a few questions as you get started, so we created this guide to help you work through them. First, you can start by taking a look at our video tutorial:
Payment Processing
First things first – after you create your donation form you will need to set up your payment processing. In order to maximize your donations, we strongly recommend that you sign up for both Stripe and PayPal, that way donors can choose their preferred method of payment. Both Stripe and Paypal charges 2.2% – 2.9% + $0.30 per donation. If you are a registered 501c3 nonprofit, contact moc.e1498677369pirts1498677369@tifo1498677369rpnon1498677369+sela1498677369s1498677369 to get discounted Stripe fees and go to www.paypal.com/charities/ to get discounted PayPal rates. Please read our pricing guide for details of what your payment processing and Donorbox fees may look like.
Stripe
In order for your donors to checkout on your donation forms themselves, you will need to open a Stripe merchant account. Stripe is our main payment processor, and we can’t recommend it enough – it’s safe, efficient, powerful, and cheap. To create an account, simply go to your Donorbox dashboard and click the “Sign up for Stripe” button. This will redirect you to an account creation form. Once you fill out and submit the form, you will be redirected back to your Donorbox dashboard, and you’ll be ready to go!
Stripe will automatically transfer your funds from your Stripe account to your bank account, based on the transfer schedule listed on your dashboard. In the US and Australia, transfers will be automatically completed every two business days. However, your first transfer may take a little longer, around 7 days. In most other countries, transfers are set to be completed every 7 business days. For more information about the exact transfer time in your country, click here. You can also access a summary of your past and upcoming transfers on your Stripe dashboard (see image below).
Paypal
You can also give your donors the option of paying by PayPal. In order to connect your PayPal account to Donorbox, simply go to your account settings by clicking the “Account” tab at the very top of your Donorbox dashboard page. Once you are on your account settings page, scroll down to find the field where you can enter your PayPal account email. Enter your email address, click “Update Account,” and you’re all set!
Unlike Stripe, PayPal requires you to initiate the transfer of your funds from your PayPal account to your bank account. After you’ve initiated the transfer, the funds will arrive in your bank account within two to three business days.
Create your Donation Form
To begin taking in donations, you will also need to create a donation form. To do so, click the “New Campaign” button on your Donorbox dashboard.
You will be redirected to the campaign form. Start by naming your campaign and entering your campaign description to let your donors know exactly what they are contributing to. If necessary, you can also change the language or currency of your form.
Then, you will be guided through the rest of the campaign form creator – from setting pre-set donations amount to appear on your form, to setting your email receipt and Twitter share messages, as well as choosing from advanced options such as adding additional questions to your form and enabling or disabling recurring donations. You can also change the color of your donation form so as to make it match your website’s aesthetic.
Once you have gone through the editor and your donation form is to your liking, click “Save & Preview,” and your new donation form will be ready to go!
Install your Donation Form
You may also be wondering how to install your donation form into your website. We offer you three methods to choose from, all of which can be accessed from your Donorbox dashboard, under the “Campaigns” tab.
Embed Form
The first option you can choose from (our most popular option) is to embed the form directly onto your webpage using the embed code.
To embed, click the “Embed Form” link in your campaign dashboard, and you will be redirected to a page with your code. This page also allows you to choose different options for your form. You can also preview your form, so that you know exactly how it will look once on your website. Once you are happy with your form, simply copy the code and paste it into your website editor – it’s that easy!
To use the embeddable donation form, you should install SSL on your main site.
Secure Donation Page
Another option is to link your secure donation page from your website. For example: https://donorbox.org/bayesimpact
The advantage of this option is that it is already ssl secured so you don’t have to install an ssl certificate on your main site. To do this, copy your secure link (the one by “secure donation page:” on your campaign dashboard) and paste the URL into your donate button or link.
<a href=’https://donorbox.org/campaign-url’>Donate Now</a>
If you want you can also use our pre-made donate button. For this, simply click the “Donate Button” link, located to the right of the “Embed Form” button. Here again, you have many options that enable you to customize the donate button so that meets your preferences. For example, you can choose the size and color of the button. As with the embed form, simply copy the code for the URL and paste it into your website editor, and you’re good to go!
Popup Modal Form
Our third option for integration in the popup modal form. Instead of redirecting your donors to a separate donation page, you can now make it so that your form pops up on the same screen when someone presses your donate button. Try it out here:
For details on how to install this please check out our modal installation guide. As with the donation embed, you will also need to install SSL on your website.
That’s it for our Getting Started Guide! We hope you enjoy using Donorbox, feel free to check out our other manuals (linked below) for more help.
- Weebly Embedding
- WordPress Embedding
- Mailchimp Integration
- Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack Integration
- Squarespace Embedding
- Wix Embedding
- Joomla Embedding