Top 13 Free WordPress Donation Plugins

Are you running a charity? Are you a part of NGO or a Non-Profit Organization? Do you represent a cause? Or do you want to earn a living based on donations? Whatever might be your reason, WordPress is there to help you out.

With lots of plugins out there, it is possible to collect donations on your WordPress website. However, choosing the right plugin can be confusing sometimes, given the number of choices you have. Here we have compiled a list of 13 best WordPress donation plugins. It will help you out to determine which plugin meets your needs.

13. Digital Paybox

The only reason we have put it on number 13 is that this is not a free plugin. You can buy it here. It will cost you $21 for the regular license. It is on this list because it has some cool features. For example, it offers multiple payment gateways. People can decide the amount to pay and the gateway through which to pay. You can distribute files for a set or custom payment using this plugin. Once the payment is confirmed, the plugin sends a temporary encrypted download link to the donor’s email address.

Features:

1. Multiple Payment Gateways: This plugin supports the following payment gateways:
   1. PayPal
   2. Payza/AlertPay
   3. Skrill/ Moneybookers
   4. Authorize.net
   5. InterKassa
   6. EgoPay
   7. Perfect Money
   8. Major Credit/Debit Cards (via Stripe)
   9. Bitcoins (via BitPay)

2. Flexible Price: Allows your users to set their own prices.

3. Minimum Payment limit: You can set a minimum payment limit for each file

4. Fixed Payment: You can set a fixed payment if you choose.

5. X-Sendfile Support: It provides support for X-Sendfile. This comes in handy when you have to send large files.

6. Temporary Download links: Download links are valid for a limited time

7. Responsive Design: It features a fully responsive payment form

8. Modern Payment form: The payment form is driven by CSS3 AJAX

9. Allows shortcodes: It allows shortcodes like [paybox id=”xxx”]

10. Translation Ready: It can be translated into any language

12. Donation Content Locker

This is second last on our list for the same reason; it is premium. It offers slightly different functionality than other plugins. That’s why it needs to be mentioned. What’s different in it? It allows you to hide some content on your website which can be accessed only by donors. If people want to view this content, they must pay a minimum amount of money (set by the administrator). Once the payment is successful, users receive an activation link that makes all locked content visible. This is a unique feature, that’s why we decided to include it on our list. If you can afford to shell out $16 for this amazing feature then you can download the plugin here.

Features:

1. Secure Donation Form: Donation form driven by CSS3 AJAX
2. Lock Important Content: Important content is not visible until the user donates
3. Multiple Payment Gateways: It supports the following payment gateways:
   1. PayPal
   2. Payza/ AlertPay
   3. Authorize.Net
   4. InterKassa

4. Minimum Donation Limit: You can set the minimum donation limit

5. Remembers Donors: It uses cookies to remember donors

6. Activation links: Donors need to click on the activation links to access the content

7. Block unfair donors: If you discover unfair use by some donors, you can block them.

8. WYSIWYG editor: Edit donation box with the visual editor.

9. Accepts shortcodes: You can use any shortcode inside the donation box

10. Single donation: User can donate only once to access the locked content.

11. Donations

Nicdark developed this free plugin a few years ago. It has more than 1000 active installs.

However, this plugin was last updated 2 years ago. We have chosen to include it in our list for the following features:

Features:

1. Integration with PayPal: The plugin accepts major credit cards through integration with PayPal.
2. Cause-related donations: You receive a donation for each cause you mention on your WordPress website.
3. Saves Donation data: It saves the donation details in the administration panel.

Although it is open source, it is not tested with the last three major releases of WordPress. There is virtually no support available. This makes it the least favorite free plugin of all on this list.

10. Direct Stripe

Nicolas Figueira created this high conversion Stripe plugin. It is tested on WordPress 5.0.2 and even supports Gutenberg. You can now simply insert Direct Stripe buttons using a block. It has 1000+ active installs.

Features:

1. High Conversion Stripe Checkout Buttons: Users don’t need to leave your WordPress site to make the donation. This results in high conversion.
2. Automated Email option: You can automate your email using the donation box to confirm the status of payment (succeeded or failed)
3. Customize the Button: You can choose the Stripe style or your theme’s look
4. Terms and Condition: Supports GDPR/Terms of Conditions checkbox
5. Option to set up a Landing page: You can set up a landing/ redirect page
6. Button configuration from the settings page: This is added in the 2.1.0 onward versions
7. Customization options: You can customize buttons, background, styles, and emails
8. Gutenberg Ready: Direct Stripe is compatible with Gutenberg. It has made a Gutenberg block available

9. Potent Donations for WooCommerce

This open source plugin was last updated a year ago. It has 2000+ active installs. It is integrated with WooCommerce. Your customers can set the price of the product kept for donation. They can pay as much as they want. This way, this plugin is similar to another WooCommerce donation plugin “Name Your Price”. The only difference is that this comes at no cost.

Features:

1. Integrated into admin panel: You can view the donations right from the WordPress admin panel.
2. Multicurrency: This plugin allows donors to donate in their own currency. You also have the option to set a default currency.
3. Recurring Payments: This donation plugin can also collect periodic amounts. The Subscription API by Mollie makes it possible to collect a certain amount monthly, quarterly or annually by credit card.
4. Projects: You can showcase your different projects so that the donor can choose the project for which they want to give a donation.
5. Donor Data: This plugin allows donors to enter their details. You can decide which data donor should provide for the donation.
6. Redirect: With this plugin, you can set a redirect page.
7. Form Customization: This means that you can style the form as per your liking.

8. Doneren Met Mollie

Don’t judge this plugin by its weird name. It’s Dutch in case you are wondering, it simply means: “Donate with Mollie”. It is a simple but powerful plugin that is ready for one time donations or even periodic payments. It has more than 2000 active installs.

Features:

1. Multicurrency: Your donors can select their own currency
2. Periodic Payments: This product can be useful for collecting periodic amounts.
3. WordPress admin panel shows Donations
4. Donor details: Donors can enter their details.
5. Multiple Causes: You can choose multiple causes for which donors can donate
6. Redirect page: You can set up a redirect page.
7. Customizations: You can choose the style for the donation form

7. Donation Thermometer

Henry Patton designed this cool plugin. It has 2000+ active installs. It displays a classic thermometer indicating the status donations so far. It is very useful for fundraising activity. This plugin is up to date and has been tested on WordPress 5.0.2.

Features:

1. Shortcode availability: A simple shortcode is all that is needed to display donation thermometer
2. Sharp Graphics: The thermometers are rendered as SVG that produce a visually sharp graphic irrespective of size.
3. Faster page loading: This plugin does not import the images from a remote location, this loads your site faster and saves bandwidth.
4. Fully Customizable: You can change the fill/text colors, currency, size, set multiple target values, color schemes and default values from the settings page.
5. Seamless blending: The output thermometers blend seamlessly with the theme of the website.
6. Dashboard widget: The dashboard widget shows the current “target” and “raised” values.

6. Donorbox

Donorbox is powerful and secure donation management plugin. Non-profit organizations from over 25 countries use it to raise funds for various causes. It is free up to $1000 in donations, after that it charges a platform fee of 1.5% on your donations. It also offers premium add-ons.

Features:

1. Fully Customizable: You can choose your own color scheme, styling, and logo. You can create custom input fields.
2. Easy Fundraising: This plugin accept different currencies through
   1. Stripe
   2. PayPal
   3. Apple Pay
   4. Google Pay

It accepts ACH payments also with a quick and easy checkout process.

3. Multiple languages: The forms are available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. It can auto-detect the language.

4. Automation: You can automate your emails with just a one-time setup. You can automate payment transfer from Stripe. This reduces manual work.

5. Donation Management:

Donorbox offers complete donation management. You can manage all the donations from your dashboard. You can resend receipts, update donations, and refund donations if need be. You can export donation details as a CSV file for any time period. You can also add manual donations.

6. Optional integrations:

Donorbox comes with additional integrations:

• MailChimp
• Employer Gift Matching
• Salesforce NPSP 3 Integration

7. Security

Donorbox is secure with SSL/TLS protection and it is fully PCI compliant.

Stripe encrypts all credit card information. It does not share client or donate information to any third party.

5. Smart Donations

RedNao designed this plugin that has 3000+ installs. It has some cool features but it was last updated 2 years ago. So, if you are having compatibility issues, you can contact support before installing this plugin. Here are the few reasons:

Features:

1. You can create different kinds of donations
2. You can set goals and monitor your results
3. You can create donation forms
4. Thank you emails can be created
5. It supports PayPal and Stripe.
6. It has five different styles of donations:
   1. Classic Donation: On click, the user will be redirected to PayPal where he will decide the amount to pay.
   2. TextBox Donation: This features a PayPal button with a text box so that user can decide the amount to pay in the text box itself.
   3. Three buttons donations: You can create 3 different buttons with varying amounts
   4. Slider Donation: This has a cool slider where a user can decide the donation amount. It comes with a smiley face that gets happy or sad depending on the amount of donation. You can decide the minimum and maximum amount for the slider
   5. Forms: This is useful if you have some questions to ask your donors. It is a pro feature.

 4. Charitable

Charitable is a popular donation plugin on WordPress. It seamlessly integrates with WordPress so that you can start accepting payments right away. It has 10000+ active installs and a rating of 5. It allows users to create powerful fundraising platforms on their WordPress website.

Features:

1. Unlimited Campaigns

• You can create as many fundraising campaigns as you want.
• There is absolutely no limit to this.
• You can set goals for your campaigns.
• You can create time-sensitive campaigns.
• It inherits your theme’s style

        2. Customizable:

• You can suggest the donation amount or let people decide how much they want. Both can also be possible.
• Donation forms can be shown on the same page or a separate page
• You can embed a donation form on any page you want
• You can shorten your donation form to just include required fields.

         3. PayPal and Offline payment support:

• The PayPal setup is very easy. You just need to enter your PayPal address and you are set.
• You can customize your offline donations instructions
• There are extra payment gateways available as paid add-ons.

4. Donation Management:

• You can use the dashboard to create and edit a donation. No add-ons are necessary for this.
• You can resend the donation emails.
• Admin gets notifications when people donate, campaigns end etc.
• You can sort and search donations in the dashboard itself.
• You can export a CSV report of the donations

5. Customizable Emails

• You can automate donation receipts
• You can create offline donation receipts with payment instructions.
• You can customize password reset and email verification messages.

It can also add upgrades for a fee. The core features of this plugin remain free.

3. Seamless Donations

This plugin is easy to install and you can start accepting payments within minutes or as the developers claim, within five minutes. Seamless Donations has been popular with the WordPress community with more than 10000 active installs. It is free and does not charge you any commission. This is a developer-friendly plugin that offers special resources for developers.

Features:

1. Automatic repeating donations:

You can provide an option for your donors to let their donation be repeated automatically. This comes in the form of a checkbox.

2. Donors and Donation Tracking

This plugin uses standard WordPress post types for donors, funds, and donations so you can keep track of your most important contributors. You can manage these using WordPress tools and plugins of your choice.

3. Customized Emails

You can create customized “Thank you” email messages.

4. Extensive Support:

The plugin offers extensive support in the form of FAQ, tips, training videos, basic skills videos, troubleshooting guides, etc. These are available here.

5. Multiple currencies:

It supports multiple currencies, 26 to be exact. So your donors can choose the currency they are comfortable with.

6. Multiple Languages:

It has been translated into 6 languages. These are: German, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Norwegian, Portuguese

2. PayPal Donations

PayPal is one of the most popular ways of sending and receiving money online. This is true in case of donations too. PayPal is one of the favorite payment gateways when it comes to online donations. Thus, there are not one but two PayPal Donations plugins that perform the same functions. Here they are:

1. PayPal Donations by Tips and Tricks HQ, Johan Steen

The sheer number of 50000+ installs speaks of the popularity of this plugin. The plugin simply creates a PayPal donations shortcode and adds a widget to your WordPress site.

Here are some of its features:

• You can set up PayPal ID and a few other optional settings through the options menu.
• You can choose from a few predefined donation buttons or create your own
• You can customize currency, the location of the button, payment page style, and the return page.
• You can customize the widget in the Appearance>>Widget menu.
• Shortcode: You can insert the button with this shortcode: [paypal-donation]
• Multiple languages: This plugin has been translated into more than 15 languages.
• Support: There is ample documentation available and a support forum is also there.

B) PayPal Donation by Scott Paterson

This is one more simple plugin that allows you to collect donations on your WordPress website. This is a well-updated plugin having support up to WordPress 5.0.2. There are more than 20000 installs for this plugin. With this plugin, you can basically place a PayPal donation plugin anywhere on your site. It boasts of simplicity.

Here are its other features:

• Clear instructions: This plugin provides clear instructions on how to set up your PayPal account
• Compatibility: This plugin works with any WordPress theme.
• You can view donations made in your WordPress admin.
• There is a button manager
• It features page/ post button shortcode inserter
• There is a donation widget available
• It supports 18 languages as of now
• Built-in support for 25 currencies
• Customizable buttons: Each button can be customized for language, button image, currency, PayPal account. You can upload and use your own donation button.
• It supports recurring payments

1. Give

This is unanimously declared the best donation plugin for WordPress. Check out reviews for this on the internet and you will know why it is preferred by more than 50000 charitable organizations and individual donation seekers all over the world. It is the highest-rated and most downloaded donation plugin for WordPress. It is a powerful donation platform.

Features

1. Powerful Donation Forms
   1. You can build custom forms
   2. Forms integrate seamlessly with your theme
   3. You can add goals, multiple giving accounts, custom amounts, terms and conditions with a few clicks

2. Full-Featured Reporting

• You get a complete overview of the donation activity going on your WordPress website
• Reports and exports help you control your data
• You can filter reports by data, form, and payment method
• You can compare the performance of multiple campaigns

3. Complete Donor Management

• You can view the complete history of your donor activity
• You can generate Tax-deductible receipts
• You can also integrate third-party services using Give API

4. One-stop donations:

Give streamlines the payment process so that the donor does not need to go away from your site to make the payment.

5. Community Support:

Give has enormous community support. There is ample documentation available and you can contact their team should you encounter any problem.

6. Optimized Donation Forms:

Give offers donation forms that can be optimized as per your need. You can set single or multiple levels of donation. You can also allow your donors to give you a custom amount. You can use a shortcode, a widget or a donation form page.

This plugin does not charge you for donations. It is supported by premium add-ons. For most of the WordPress users, add-ons won’t be necessary to get started with donations.

So this was our take on 13 best donation plugins for WordPress. We have tried our best to help you navigate through the jungle of plugins. Hope you find the one that suits your needs and performs the way you want it to. Which one is your favorite? Or have you discovered a new gem we haven’t covered here? Please let us know in the comments.