Online Giving Overview
DonorDock Online Giving Forms let your organization collect donations and other payments online while automatically recording Gifts and donor information in DonorDock. You can use Online Giving Forms either as standalone donation pages with their own URL or embed them directly on your organization’s website. You can also customize each form for a specific campaign, appeal, fund, membership program, event, or other fundraising effort.
When a donor submits a gift via an Online Giving Form, DonorDock records the Gift and links it to the relevant Contact record, ensuring your online fundraising activity is accurately documented in your database.
What Can Online Giving Forms Be Used For?
Online Giving Forms can support several types of transactions, including:
General donations
Campaign or appeal-specific fundraising
One-time gifts
Recurring gifts
Membership payments
Event ticket payments
Donor-Advised Fund gifts through DAFpay
Each Online Giving Form can have its own branding, messaging, giving options, tracking settings, and follow-up experience.
How Online Giving Works
Connect a payment processor
Your organization connects Stripe Connect and, if desired, PayPal to process online payments.
Create an Online Giving Form
Configure the form's branding, giving options, information collection, tracking, and success settings.
Publish the form
Publishing makes the form live. It won't reach donors on its own, but once it's live, you can share it or embed it.
Share or embed the form
Use the direct link, QR code, Text-to-Donate keyword, or website embed code to share the form with supporters.
Receive and track Gifts
DonorDock will create a Contact or match the gift to an existing Contact using the email address, and automatically record the transaction as a Gift.
Payment Processing
Online Giving Forms require a connected payment processor to accept electronic payments. Organizations can use Stripe Connect, PayPal, or both, depending on how they would like to accept online gifts.
DonorDock recommends Stripe because it provides the most flexibility and supports additional payment methods, recurring giving frequencies, and other Online Giving features. Depending on the donor's device, location, and your organization's configuration, Stripe payment options may include credit and debit cards, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Cash App.
Organizations that prefer to use PayPal only can do so. PayPal can process gifts through DonorDock Online Giving Forms without requiring Stripe to also be connected, although some Online Giving features and payment options are available only when using Stripe.
Customize Each Online Giving Form
Online Giving Forms can be configured independently, allowing your organization to create distinct giving experiences for each fundraising effort. The form editor is organized into several sections, each controlling a different aspect of the donor experience, gift setup, or follow-up process.
Section | What You Can Configure |
|---|---|
Basics | Set the internal form name, Gift Type, primary color, organization logo settings, featured image, and giving page message. Online Giving Forms can be used for Donation, Membership, and Event Ticket Gifts. |
Choose Amounts | Set a Giving Page Goal, goal label, progress display, available giving frequencies, default frequency, custom Gift Amount options, and preset Gift Amounts with custom labels. Depending on the form, you can offer one-time giving, recurring giving, or a combination of both. |
Collect Information | Choose whether donors can make memorial or tribute gifts, give anonymously, or leave comments with their Gift. |
Success Settings | Control what happens after a successful Gift. You can display a custom Thank You Message, redirect the donor to another webpage, and send an automatic Thank You or Receipt email using a Transactional Template. |
Tracking | Apply fundraising and segmentation information to Gifts and Contacts created through the form. Settings can include Campaign, Appeal, Default Fund, donor-selectable Fund options, Gift Tags, Contact Badges, and Marketing Lists. |
Text-to-Donate | Assign a Text-to-Donate keyword and customize the automatic response donors receive when they text that keyword to your organization's DonorDock phone number. The response includes a link to the Online Giving Form. |
Disable Page | Temporarily disable the Online Giving Form without archiving it by turning on Disable This Page and Show a Custom Message. When enabled, you can configure a placeholder page instead of redirecting visitors to the organization's default Giving Page. Placeholder settings include organization logo options, a custom message, and options to continue displaying the form's goal and amount raised. |
Using these settings, the same Online Giving tools can support a general donation form, a short-term campaign, recurring giving, membership payments, event tickets, or other fundraising needs while keeping each form's branding, tracking, and donor experience separate.
Sharing Online Giving Forms
Sharing options become available after an Online Giving Form has been published. Draft and Archived forms do not display the Sharing section.
Sharing Option | How It Can Be Used |
|---|---|
Direct Link | Copy the Online Giving Form URL and share it through emails, social media, your website, or other digital communications. |
QR Code | Download a QR code that supporters can scan with a mobile device. QR codes can be added to printed materials, signs, event displays, newsletters, or digital communications. |
Text-to-Donate | Promote the form's Text-to-Donate keyword along with your organization's DonorDock phone number. When a supporter texts the keyword, DonorDock responds with the configured message and form link. |
Website Embed | Copy the form's embed code and add it to your organization's website so donors can complete the Online Giving Form without navigating to a separate standalone page. |
How Gifts Match to a Contact record
Gifts submitted through an Online Giving Form are recorded directly in DonorDock and linked to the appropriate Contact record, keeping donor and transaction history connected without requiring your team to manually recreate the Gift.
When a Stripe gift is received, DonorDock first looks for an existing Contact record with the same Stripe Customer ID. This is the highest-priority match for Stripe gifts because it identifies a donor who has already given through Stripe and has previously been connected to a DonorDock Contact.
The Stripe Customer ID is added automatically the first time a Stripe gift is successfully matched to or creates a Contact record. A DonorDock user cannot manually enter or assign it. Once added, future Stripe gifts associated with that same Stripe customer can continue to sync to the same Contact record even if other information, such as the donor's name or email address, has changed.
If DonorDock does not find a Contact with the matching Stripe Customer ID, it next searches for a Contact using the email address submitted with the gift. If a matching email address is found, the gift is connected to that Contact and information submitted through the giving process may update the existing record.
For example, if the Contact is currently listed as Robert Brown but the donor submits the form as Bob Brown using the same email address, the Contact record will update to the newly submitted name. Address information can be updated in the same way, so a new address entered during the giving process can replace the address currently stored on the matched Contact.
If no existing Contact can be matched by Stripe Customer ID or email address, DonorDock creates a new Contact record using the information provided with the gift. The Stripe Customer ID is then stored on that new Contact so future gifts from the same Stripe customer can be matched back to it.
The Stripe Customer ID also remains useful when duplicate Contacts are cleaned up later. If Contacts are merged, the Stripe Customer ID is included in the merge and carried onto the Contact record that is kept, helping future Stripe gifts continue to sync to the correct record.
For PayPal gifts, DonorDock does not use a Stripe-style customer identifier. PayPal gifts are matched to existing Contacts by email address. If no Contact with that email address is found, DonorDock creates a new Contact record using the information provided with the gift.
SMS Communication Consent
When a donor enters a mobile phone number during the Stripe payment process, they may also be given the option to consent to SMS communication from your organization. The SMS opt-in checkbox is not selected by default, and the donor must actively choose to opt in. Consent to receive text messages is not required in order to complete a donation.
The opt-in language explains that the donor may receive recurring SMS messages from the organization, including fundraising appeals, donation acknowledgments, event information, and organizational updates. It also notes that message frequency may vary, standard message and data rates may apply, and donors can reply STOP to opt out or HELP for assistance.
Phone numbers and SMS consent information are not sold or shared with third parties for marketing or promotional purposes. SMS opt-in data may be provided to DonorDock's SMS delivery provider only as needed to deliver messages on behalf of the nonprofit organization.
Recurring Giving
Online Giving Forms can let donors set up recurring Gifts through Stripe. Each form can be configured with the giving frequencies you want to offer, so your organization can match the schedule to the purpose of each fundraising effort rather than using the same schedule on every form. Once a donor completes a recurring Gift, Stripe creates and manages the recurring subscription while DonorDock records the resulting Gifts as they are processed.
Donors whose recurring gifts are processed through Stripe can also manage their own payment information through your organization's Donor Portal. The Donor Portal allows a donor to securely access their recurring payment details using the email address associated with their giving and a confirmation code sent to that email address. From there, they can review and update their recurring payment information without needing a DonorDock user account.
Membership Online Giving
Online Giving Forms may also be configured specifically for Membership Gifts. When Membership Type Settings are enabled, donors can select from Membership Types created by your organization. DonorDock can use those settings to determine information such as the Membership Type, Gift Amount, Membership dates, term, and non-deductible amount.
Membership Giving Forms can also support automatic renewal for supported Membership terms through Stripe.
Managing Your Online Giving Forms
From the main Online Giving page accessed through the navigation menu, your team can manage forms in different statuses, including:
Draft
Published
Archived
You can also edit existing forms, duplicate forms, review form performance, set a published form as your organization's default Giving Page, archive forms that are no longer in use, and permanently delete eligible forms when necessary.