How to Accept Recurring Donations on Squarespace Sites

It's easy to add your Donorbox recurring donation form to your Squarespace site and start accepting monthly, weekly, quarterly, and yearly donations. Follow this step-by-step now to get started!

6 minutes read
How to Accept Recurring Donations on Squarespace Sites

Squarespace is a great choice for nonprofits looking to build a great website that’s functional, visually appealing, and easy to manage. Like other website builders, Squarespace requires no coding knowledge (although you can edit your Squarespace site using CSS too).

Squarespace offers an array of beautiful templates that instantly command attention. The templates are also mobile-responsive which makes them look great on phones and tablets. Squarespace’s Style Editor gives you full control over fonts, colors, image opacity, sidebar width, background images, sizes, and spacing of pretty much anything on your Squarespace website.

On the other hand, Squarespace doesn’t offer a built-in solution for recurring or subscription donations (weekly or monthly or quarterly or annual). And it has limited data collection capabilities.

However, every nonprofit organization needs a robust online donation platform that can support recurring donations, as well as custom data collection.

Donorbox is the perfect solution.

Donorbox is a powerful fundraising software that is simple to set up and seamlessly embeds into your website. It features a cutting-edge donation system that attracts recurring donations (which we all know is the bread and butter of nonprofits)!

Donorbox features a fast, multi-step checkout and integrated employer-donation matching. You can also add a fundraising thermometer on your Squarespace site with Donorbox.

donorbox squarespace
OnlineSOS

Donorbox’s embeddable donation forms support donor-controlled recurring donations(weekly or monthly or quarterly or annual). Donors can enjoy a variety of payment methods (card payments, ACH, PayPal)). And you have access to Donorbox’s powerful custom form builder.

Instead of embedding a donation form on your Squarespace page, you could install a donate button instead. This button will show on your web page. When a donor clicks it, a Donorbox donation form will pop up on the screen.

Unlike PayPal, you can add an embedded form directly to your Squarespace site so your donor won’t have to leave your page. This is known to increase conversion rates – more website visitors end up donating if they don’t leave the site.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to accept donations on your Squarespace site.

If you prefer, you can watch our integration video guide  — it will walk you through the donation form integration process in just under 10 minutes!


How to Set Up a Recurring Donation Form on Squarespace


Step 1

Go to your Donorbox campaigns page and find the campaign you wish to embed on your Squarespace site. If you don’t have a Donorbox account yet, you can sign up here.

Note: In case you’re new to Donorbox, you’ll need to Create a Donation Form and fill in the required information (Campaign Title, Campaign Details, Form Language, Currency, Form Amounts, Email, Custom Fields, Tracking, and Design). You’ll also need to set up a Stripe merchant account.


Step 2

Click the ‘<>Embed Codes’ button on the selected campaign.

squarespace donations


Step 3

You can edit some of the default settings in your form here, like setting a default donation amount or recurring option. As you change the settings, you will see the code automatically adjust itself.

When you’re happy with the settings, select and copy the embed code. This code will be pasted on your site later on.

squarespace donations


Step 4

Go to your Squarespace Pages editor. Find or create a Squarespace donation page into which you want to embed the recurring (weekly or monthly or quarterly or annual) donation form. If you already have a page on which you want to embed the code, click “Edit” on the page’s main content box.

Note: To create a new page, click the “+” icon next to the Main Navigation menu. Then click “Page”. After selecting the title, the description, and the layout, you’ll be able to ‘Edit Page Content’ by clicking the ‘Edit’ button on the top left corner of the page.

squarespace donate button


Step 5

Click the ‘+’ icon inside the text box or over any section. This will open up a list of content blocks.

squarespace recurring donations


Step 6

Find the embed option and select it.

squarespace donation form


Step 7

Instead of pasting a URL select the option to insert a block of code.

squarespace recurring donation

 

Now, paste the recurring (weekly or monthly or quarterly or annual) donation form embed code (from Step 3) in the code box and click “Set”.

squarespace recurring donation


Step 8

It’s time to publish your updated Squarespace website and wait for the donations to start coming in!

Take a look at Lalela’s website for an example of what your finalized Squarespace recurring donation (weekly or monthly or quarterly or annual) page could look like:

squarespace donations

If the Donorbox widget is not resizing properly, it’s most likely that the template you’re using has a feature called Ajax Loading. Sometimes, it is enabled by default. Ajax Loading automatically loads content as the visitor scrolls down the page. However, it also disrupts our widget’s ability to resize its height. To turn off Ajax Loading, check out this solution.

Get Started With Donorbox


Don’t forget to turn on SSL

Squarespace now automatically generates SSL certificates for Squarespace and third-party domains in order to allow your visitors to view your website securely over an HTTPS connection.

Squarespace offers two different SSL security settings. Be sure to activate the “Secure” setting. To do so, click the “Settings” button on your Home Menu.

Then, under “Website”, click “Security & SSL”, and choose the “Secure” setting under “Security Preference” (see image below). Remember, in order to reduce risks, Donorbox requires that a webpage is SSL secured before you can embed a donation form onto it.

squarespace donate button


Tips on How to Encourage Your Visitors to Make a Donation

  1. Have an impactful heading: Your headline should attract the attention of your visitors. Be clear, specific, and brief. E.g. “Invest in the future free from slavery”
  2. Use powerful images: We don’t say that a picture is worth a thousand words for no reason. Use captivating, high-quality images on your site – ideally real ones, not stock images.
  3. Offer a variety of payment options: In today’s day and age, offering multiple options to suit different needs is essential: credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay…
  4. Keep it simple: It’s very easy to overload the donation page with information. Try to keep it simple and minimal, focusing on your “Donate” button.
  5. Make the online donation experience a friendly one: There’s nothing worse than losing a visitor to a poor donation page and donation form design.
  6. Clearly display your nonprofit’s financial information: Many potential donors seek out financial information for a nonprofit prior to making a donation.
  7.  Share how specific donations were spent: Send a follow-up email to the donor letting them know how their specific donation was spent. This increases the chances of them donating again.
  8. Stay authentic: Maintain personal contact with your donors, including in-person and by phone, to make that human connection stronger and more authentic.
  9. Offer a “share” option: Encourage your visitors to share your donation page with others. This increases your brand visibility and reach.
  10. Make your donation page stand out.

Squarespace Donation Fee

Squarespace has its own donation block for you to add and receive donations. It’s a premium feature. You can get started by upgrading to their business or higher plans and connecting a Stripe or Paypal account to your site.

The feature comes with a transaction fee of 3% on top of the payment processing fee. It’s double to that of Donorbox.

This comparison table makes it easier to understand.

Squarespace donation fees

Squarespace is a great website builder, offering users a wholesome experience. There’s no doubt about it.

But for a nominal fee of 1.5% at Donorbox (and no setup/monthly cost), you get all the powerful and effective features of a donation platform that your donors will love to use. Click here for a detailed overview of our pricing.

Donorbox also allows you to ask your donors to cover the processing fee.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We have answered some of the common questions that you may have regarding Squarespace donations.


1. Can I collect recurring donations with Squarespace?

By default, Squarespace doesn’t let you collect recurring donations. But if you embed the Donorbox donation form on your Squarespace site, you can easily start collecting donations on a monthly/weekly/quarterly/yearly basis.


2. Is Squarespace free for nonprofit organizations?

No, Squarespace isn’t free for nonprofit organizations. If you want to use their donation block, you will need to upgrade to one of their premium plans(business or higher).


3. Is there a way to waive off the payment processing fee on Squarespace?

The payment processing fee cannot be waived off on Squarespace donations. However, you can use the Donorbox embedding/popup donation form on your site, which gives your donors the option to cover the processing fee. Find more about it here.

Confirmed 501(c)(3) nonprofits can also apply for a discounted processing fee from Paypal and Stripe. It is cut down from 2.9% + $0.30 to 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction. Contact the respective support teams for more information.


4. Is there a transaction fee associated with Squarespace donations?

A transaction fee of 3% is associated with Squarespace donations. That is on top of the monthly/yearly premium plan fees and payment processing fees that come along with it. With Donorbox, the transaction fee gets cut in half i.e. 1.5% with zero setup/monthly cost. You can straightaway save 50% by choosing Donorbox as your donation platform.

Related Articles:

Join the fundraising movement!

Subscribe to our e-newsletter to receive the latest blogs, news, and more in your inbox.

Take your donor experience to the next level!
Join the 50,000+ nonprofits already raising funds online.
Join Our Newsletter
Get a monthly curated round-up of our best posts and feature updates. (You can unsubscribe anytime.)
Join Our Newsletter
Get a monthly curated round-up of our best posts and feature updates. (You can unsubscribe anytime.)
Join a 30min Demo to see how Donorbox can help you reach your fundraising goals!
Join a 30min Live Demo to see how Donorbox can help you reach your fundraising goals!