How to set up online donations for a small charity's website

Agree the money side with the treasurer first

Before anyone touches the website, the trustees or treasurer should decide these, because they shape everything else:

• Which provider. Stripe and PayPal are the usual choices for a small organisation. The account should be in the charity's name and pay into the charity's bank account, never a volunteer's.
• Who has access. At least two named people, with two-factor sign-in on the provider account.
• One-off, monthly, or both. Check whether your provider's payment links can take recurring payments and how donors cancel them.
• Receipts and tax relief. Where tax relief on donations exists, such as Gift Aid in the UK, it usually needs a declaration from the donor and records the charity keeps. Decide who collects and stores those, and how.
• Fees. Providers charge per transaction. Know the cost before you promise donors that "every penny" goes to the cause.

Create the payment link

Anticode's payment link setting holds one checkout link for your account, and the site's buy and pricing buttons open it. So build the choice into that one link: in the provider's dashboard, create a donation link that lets the donor choose the amount, if your provider offers that, with suggested amounts on its page. Name it so it shows correctly on the donor's statement and in the treasurer's reports. Test it with a small real payment and refund it.

If you want separate one-off and monthly options, check whether your provider can offer both from one page. If it can't, put the monthly option in your newsletter and thank-you emails rather than trying to fit two checkouts on the site.

Build the donation page

1. Describe it in a sentence. "A donation page for Riverside Food Share, a volunteer-run food bank, explaining what donations pay for, with a donate button."
2. Lead with what money does. Concrete and true: "Our weekly fresh-food run costs about as much as six family boxes." Avoid figures you can't back up.
3. Turn on the payment link. In the dashboard, set the account's payment link to the checkout link from Stripe Payment Links, PayPal or another supported provider. The page's buy and pricing buttons open it; check their wording reads as giving rather than buying, and the donor pays on the provider's page, so the charity's site never handles card details.
4. Say what happens next: who receives the money, that a receipt comes from the payment provider, and how to ask questions.
5. Add a contact form for questions about giving, legacy gifts or donating goods. It takes a name, email and message.
6. Show the charity's registration details where your regulator expects them, usually in the footer.
7. Publish, then give once yourself through the button.

After each donation

Receipt

Sent by the payment provider to the donor's email. Check its wording names the charity correctly.

Thank-you

Personal, from a volunteer or trustee, within a week. The provider's dashboard shows who gave.

Records

The treasurer reconciles the provider's payouts with the bank account each month.

Tax relief

Claimed by the treasurer from the declarations you collected, under your country's rules.

What goes wrong

• The provider account is in a volunteer's personal name. When they leave, so does access. Set it up in the charity's name from day one.
• The payment link is changed for another site in the same account. The setting is shared across the account, so test the buttons whenever it changes.
• Monthly donors can't cancel easily. Tell them how on the page and in the first receipt.
• The page goes stale. An appeal for a project that ended last year undermines the next one. Review it each quarter.

How you know it's working

Each month, compare page visits from the dashboard with the number of gifts in the provider's reports. If plenty of people reach the page but few give, rewrite what the money does before adding more channels. If few reach it, link it from every newsletter, social bio and event you run.

Limits

Anticode builds and hosts the page and points its buy and pricing buttons at your payment link. It doesn't take payments on the page itself, issue receipts, collect tax-relief declarations, keep a donor database, run fundraising pages for supporters, or send thank-you emails. Those stay with your payment provider, your treasurer and your own tools. See the donation page builder, Stripe Payment Links, the guide to adding a buy button, and nonprofit websites for the rest of the site.

Questions people ask

Can donors pay on the charity's own website?

They click a button on your site and pay on the payment provider's page through a payment link. Anticode sites don't handle card payments directly.

Who sends the donation receipt?

Your payment provider, by email. Personal thank-yous come from you.

Can I take monthly donations?

Only through your payment provider: if its checkout page offers monthly giving, donors choose it there. Anticode doesn't run subscriptions itself.