It’s a convenient and cost-effective way to kickstart a project or raise funds. Sending people away from your site can lose you valuable donations so it makes sense to keep visitors and donations on your WordPress site. Fundraising<\/a> is the perfect way to do just that.<\/p>\n Paul Mendoza from our video team has put together this awesome walkthrough on how to set up your very own Fundraising site:<\/p>\n gycF2z_4NQg<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In this quick and informative video, Paul has a great idea for a time machine \u2013 but needs the funds to make his dream a reality.<\/p>\n The video compares big fundraising sites like Kickstarter<\/a> and Indiegogo<\/a> with our Fundraising plugin<\/a> and outlines the benefits of raising money directly from your own site.<\/p>\n Our members have used Fundraising for all kinds of worthy causes.<\/p>\n Going Beyond Borders<\/a>, a non-profit organization committed to providing ongoing relief to people around the world has raised $40,002 towards its $250,000 goal for a Kenyan Community Hospital.<\/p>\n Romanian rights blog Blogary<\/a> uses Fundraising to collect donations for the site’s upkeep.<\/p>\n Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration<\/a> accepts one-off pledges on its site to fund the organization’s work in strengthening diversity and inclusion in the community through the music and dance of Bhangra.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll run through a few screenshots and then go over the other improvements included in this update.<\/p>\n And here it is in the backend.<\/p>\n The new fundraiser panel now provides you with shortcodes that you can use to display information relevant to your fundraiser. You can also use a widget.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Each fundraiser now contains an automatically generated checkout and confirmation page. You can set these pages to take on whatever name you like. You can see the default settings in the screenshot below.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s an example of a checkout page in action.<\/p>\n Below are other upgrades the plugin has seen.<\/p>\n If you aren\u2019t familiar with the Fundraiser plugin, below is a short list of what it has to offer.<\/p>\n Are you building a community around your cause? You’ll be happy to know that the Fundraising plugin is compatible with BuddyPress. It also works perfectly with Multisite so that users can create fundraising initiatives across your WordPress network.<\/p>\n Adding a new fundraiser is very easy. It’s just like writing a WordPress post:<\/p>\n You can monitor your cause’s fundraising directly within the WordPress dashboard:<\/p>\n If you’re using the Fundraising plugin with WordPress Multisite, users on your network can each create their own sites to raise funds for their own projects. All you have to do is activate it network-wide to give your users a fundraising solution of their own.<\/p>\n The Fundraising plugin allows you to create dedicated events, called fundraisers, through which a nonprofit can solicit donations for that event or for the organization in general. The plugin tracks number of donors, amounts given, and can even display the percentage of your donation goals achieved. It also gives you the ability to create your own Kickstarter<\/em> type functionality, and take pledges for specific events without charging those donors until the entire goal amount has been met.<\/p>\n But the Fundraising plugin is more than just a simple donation tracker because the system itself can be easily customized to fit your specific nonprofit needs. For example, you might not call your \u201cdonors\u201d by that name; you might call them \u201csupporters\u201d or \u201cbackers\u201d or something else entirely. Instead of having rigid rules that don\u2019t allow for customization (like most proprietary donation systems), Fundraising allows you to change the internal settings of the plugin to name your \u201cdonors\u201d whatever you like.<\/p>\n Events can have custom names too. Don\u2019t like the word \u201cfundraiser?\u201d That\u2019s just fine – you can call them \u201cgalas\u201d, \u201cwalk-a-thons\u201d, or anything else your heart (or organization) desires! \u00a0This level of customization makes the plugin more deeply integrated with your website and the nonprofit\u2019s persona.<\/p>\n The Fundraising plugin lets you track donations right inside your WordPress admin panel too. You can see the number of donors, the transaction settings, amount donated, the progress toward your ultimate fundraising goal, and much more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are three areas that must be set up for the plugin to function correctly:<\/p>\n Payments<\/strong> – This area is for detailed payment information. Your location, currency type, and the types of donations you\u2019ll take – simple or crowdfunded.<\/p>\n Presentation<\/strong> – This setting area controls how your donation plugin looks. You can change how the plugin appears in your admin menu panel and all of the associated names for donors and events. You can also change the way the donation buttons display inside the fundraising posts\/pages on your website. Essentially, this section of settings allows you to customize the look of the plugin for both the admin interface and the end-user.<\/p>\n Other<\/strong> – This area allows you to add a general fundraiser page to your website menu bar by which viewers can see all your currently published fundraisers.<\/p>\n The following video walks you through setting up the Fundraising plugin, and configuring the general settings so you can get up and running taking donations quickly.<\/p>\n RW1lIQWOGHQ<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fundraising integrates natively with PayPal standard processing<\/a>. Anyone can set up a PayPal account and get started taking donations right away, provided PayPal is set up as a business account. PayPal business accounts are free to register and are one of the most widely used payment processors for nonprofits for several reasons:<\/p>\n The only downside to processing donations through PayPal is you are taken briefly off your own website to actually process the transaction through PayPal. This negative is mitigated by the security the PayPal processor<\/p>\n J1NxxAGJYUw<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Upon installation, the plugin creates a custom post type to handle all fundraising activities. You can choose to set up specific events, general donations, and to monitor donation activities and donors directly in your WordPress admin panel. You can also setup suggested donation levels to encourage your supporters to give certain amounts of money.<\/p>\n Another advantage of the Fundraising plugin is that is works through the native WordPress custom post type functionality. It does not work with complex plugin settings or a proprietary data storage method. This means you can export your fundraising data using WordPress\u2019 export XML features<\/a> and takes that data with you when you change sites or upgrade to a different theme. All the data is stored in your standard WordPress database.<\/p>\n Whether you choose to allow for simple donations or crowdfunded events the fundraiser creation process is simple and familiar. Using the WordPress post editor to create donations allows you to add text, images, videos, and any html code you desire. This gives your donation page a custom-feel and much more functionality than most stand-alone systems which only offer a few stock customization methods.<\/p>\n The Fundraising Plugin from WPMU DEV allows the following donation types:<\/p>\n This option will get you up and running quickly. It allows you to take simple donations by which the donor can choose an amount and donate that amount to you either once or on a recurring basis. The donation post will display the number of donors who have given money, the total amount of money raised by your organization through this event\/post, and the donor will be charged via PayPal as soon as he or she makes that donation.<\/p>\n![\"VIBC\"](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/vibc-448x267.png\")
Fundraiser – New Features & Improvements<\/h2>\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/goal-big.jpg\" "\\"goal-big\\"")
\nWPMU DEV has recently released an updated version of this plugin. Some of the bigger changes include a new payment gateway API, a new fundraiser panel, and a new permalink structure that includes a checkout and confirmation page.<\/p>\nNew Payment Gateway API<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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![\"Simple](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/simple-advanced-payment-types.jpg\" "\\"simple-advanced-payment-types\\"")
New Fundraiser Panel<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/fundraiser-panel.jpg\" "\\"fundraiser-panel\\"")
![\"Fundraiser](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/fundraiser-panel-widget.jpg\" "\\"fundraiser-panel-widget\\"")
Permalink Structure<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Permalink](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/permalink-structure.jpg\" "\\"permalink-structure\\"")
![\"Checkout\/Pledge](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/checkout-page.jpg\" "\\"checkout-page\\"")
More Improvements<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\n– 4 new pledge statuses are available. (Complete, Approved, Canceled, Refunded)<\/li>\n
\n– Users can now publicly display their pledge as an activity item. (Of course, this requires BuddyPress to be activated on your site.)<\/li>\n
\n– fundraiser.php line: 1521<\/li>\n
\n– add define(\u2018WDF_ALLOW_RESET\u2019,true); in your wp-config file to add an extra reset tab to your settings page.<\/li>\n
\n– wdf_funder-{$name\/$id}.php
\n– wdf_checkout-{$name\/$id}.php
\n– wdf_confirm-{$name\/$id}.php<\/li>\nNew to the Fundraiser Plugin?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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100% Compatible with WordPress Multisite and BuddyPress Out of the Box<\/h3>\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/add-fundraiser.jpg\" "\\"add-fundraiser\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/monitor-fundraising.jpg\" "\\"monitor-fundraising\\"")
<\/p>\nBuild a Kickstarter-inspired funding platform with WordPress Multisite and the Fundraising plugin<\/h3>\n
Fundraising With WordPress: A Guide For Nonprofits<\/h2>\n
![\"Tracking](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/fundraiser-tracker-300x262.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
<\/a>General Settings<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Fundraising](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Fundraising-Menu-Item-194x300.png\")
The Fundraising plugin is easy to set up and customize. It features a step by step guide to configuring the system which displays as soon as you activate the plugin.<\/p>\nSetting up PayPal<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Creating a Fundraiser<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Suggested](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Suggested-Donation-Levels-e1340205552393.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSimple Donations<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Advanced Crowd Funding<\/strong><\/h3>\n