Overview
In this article, we'll go over all the options for collecting donations online, as well as your subdomain. The online donation options covered in this article are:
- The main donation page
- Campaign-specific donation pages
- The donation plugin
- Custom cart pages (developer expertise required)
Linked Articles:
- Creating a Crowdfunding Page
Understanding Your Subdomain
When you sign up with Kindful and create a Kindful account, you’re creating what is called your subdomain. This subdomain is how you will access your public-facing donation pages as well as your admin user accounts. The format of your subdomain is https://subdomain.kindful.com.
If you’re trying to sign in to your admin-facing account, make sure to type /admin at the end of your subdomain, like this: https://subdomain.kindful.com/admin.
Main Donation Page
Your main donation page, sometimes referred to as the Donation Landing Page, is accessible to the public via your subdomain. This page can be edited in your account by going to Fundraising > Main Donation Page. Here's what your main donation page looks like:
Here’s what the Campaign Drop-Down menu looks like:
You can see an example Donation Landing Page here: https://seaturtles.kindful.com. Please keep in mind that this donation page is a fake account, and is not an active organization. Transactions cannot be processed on this example page.
Main features of the Donation Landing Page include
- Drop-down list of all your active Campaigns. If you have marked a Campaign as not visible to the public, or have disabled the Campaign entirely, it will not appear in this drop-down list.
- Easy access through your Kindful subdomain.
- This page collects postal address information, as well as any Campaign Custom Fields you create in each Campaign’s settings.
- Compatible with all payment gateways.
Campaign-Specific Donation Pages
Each time you create a new Campaign, this Campaign is assigned a unique donation page URL.
When you go into a specific Campaign’s settings, the direct link on the upper right corner takes you to the unique URL for this Campaign page.
To create a new campaign, go to Fundraising > Campaigns.
This is what you’ll see when you enter any campaign’s settings. Notice the link that says “View Campaign” on the right side below. This link will lead you to your Campaign-specific donation page.
Here's what a campaign-specific donation page looks like. Set and show a goal amount on the Campaign Edit page to use a thermometer to set a fundraising bar on your donation pages:
Notice how this page has it's own unique URL.
While you’re in your Campaign settings, you have the option to customize things like the description, default transaction amounts, goal amounts, splash image, and more.
View the Campaign-specific donation page depicted above here: https://seaturtles.kindful.com/?campaign=1071
Just like the main donation page example, this is not an active donation page, so you cannot complete transactions, but feel free to view it if you’d like.
Main features of Campaign-specific donation pages include
- No drop-down for your donors to choose a different campaign to give towards. This allows you to funnel donations made through this page into the campaign of your choosing.
- Ability to display a goal amount
- Campaign-specific URL
- Campaign-specific splash image
- Campaign-specific theme colors
- Campaign-specific description
- Compatible with all payment gateways
Donation Plugin
The Donation Plugin is an online donation option that allows your donors to stay on your website when they decide to make a donation. The donor will click a button on your website that will trigger the plugin to appear.
The first thing to consider when using the Plugin is that it works with all of our payment gateways except PayPal.
Second, our Donation Plugin is supported (meaning we can provide support) for websites that are built using Wordpress, Squarespace, Spacecraft, Weebly, and Wix. If you have a developer who is willing and able to figure out how to install the Plugin on a non-supported website, they are welcome to do so. However, Kindful will only be able to provide support for a Donation Plugin installed on Wordpress, Squarespace, Spacecraft, Weebly, or Wix.
When the Plugin is installed on your website, it will be accessible through a button that your donors can push. Once they push this button, a short form will pop up, allowing them to input their payment source and complete their donation. This option only allows the user to include their full name and email address.
You can create as many individual Plugins as you’d like! Each Plugin will funnel donations back to a specific Campaign of your choosing, and you can embed multiple Plugins all over your website.
Feel free to check out the Donation Plugin in action at mattshands.org. Please be aware that this is a testing site and fake organization. Transactions cannot be completed via the Donation Plugins on this site.
Interested in creating a Donation Plugin to place on your website? View our support articles for the Plugin.
Main features of the Donation Plugin include
- Donors stay on your webpage for the entire donation process
- Unlimited Donation Plugins
- Hex code color customization
- A simpler donation experience often leads to higher conversion rates
- Campaign-specific Plugins
- Multiple Donation Plugins on a single webpage
Custom Cart Pages Created with our Developer Documentation
If you have a developer working with your organization, they have the option to build custom donation pages using our developer documentation.
Here’s an example of a custom donation page: https://seaturtles.kindful.com/campaigns/1071?w=3fc14f14-4f8e-48a8-b8f9-3bcb41f6e459
Here are some user-friendly instructions on how to create the page above:
Our complete developer documentation is available to view here: developer.kindful.com
Note: this option is strictly for the use of developers. If you choose to use the developer documentation to create custom pages, you must rely on your developer’s expertise. Kindful’s support for custom donation pages is extremely limited.
International Currency Pertaining to Online Donations
In Kindful, you set a singular default currency; this is controlled by the gateway you connect. All incoming transactions will default to this currency. An international donor can give to you through a Kindful giving page. This donation will appear in your Kindful account in your default currency, but the donor will be charged in their default currency (British Pounds, for example). In other words, the donation will be shown in Kindful in your default currency, but when it settles for the donor, it will do so at the current rate of exchange.
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