August 10, 2011

How to Add Online Donations to Your Church Website

We added a new online tithe and offering option to Sharefaith websites. While simple to setup and maintain, below are step-by-step instructions on setting up a PayPal account and connecting it to your website.

1. Setup a PayPal Account

If you already have a PayPal account, then you may proceed to “2. Connect Your PayPal Account to Your Church Website”.

  1. Go to https://www.paypal.com/.
  2. Click on “Sign Up” at the top of the page.
  3. Under the Business section, click “Get Started.”
  4. For the payment solution, choose “Website Payments Standard.”
  5. Click “Continue”
  6. For the business type, choose “Nonprofit organization”.
  7. Complete the remainder of the form by following the instructions.
  8. Note: You must submit proof of non-profit status to PayPal within the next several days following account setup.

2. Connect Your PayPal Account to Your Church Website

  1. Log into your website admin.
  2. Under Settings, click on the “PayPal Donations” control panel.
  3. PayPal Account – Enter the email address you provided to PayPal or your PayPal account ID.
  4. Pay Fees – If checked, the “Pay Fees” checkbox will automatically add the transaction fee to the user’s donation amount so that the church doesn’t have to pay those fees.
    (Note: This feature is only active if you allow the user to enter the amount from the widget. The user can always change the final donation amount once they are on the Paypal checkout page.)
  5. Purposes – Once added, the person donating can select which “purpose” they want their tithe/offering to go towards. Examples are “Youth Mission Trip”, “Tithe”, “Building Fund”, etc. Once created, you can arrange the order by dragging them up/down.
  6. Page Style – PayPal provides a stock checkout design; if you’d like to use it, leave this field blank. If not, you can customize the donation page with a little bit of design/computer skill and a desire to learn more.
  7. Donation Button – Choose one of the default buttons or design and upload your own..
  8. Click “Save Changes”

3. Add the Widget to Your Site

  1. Under “Appearance” click “Widgets”.
  2. Drag the PayPal Donations widget into your sidebar.
  3. The Title and Text fields are optional.
  4. “Show Amount” checkbox will allow the user to enter an amount on your website. This must be checked if you plan on adding the transaction fee.
  5. The Purpose setting will show a dropbox for the user if you choose “Show All”. If you choose a purpose in the widget, then the user will not see the purpose until they checkout on PayPal. We recommend explaining the purpose in the Text field if you plan to set the purpose for a specific designation.
  6. Click Save. The widget will look something like the following:
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4 comments

  • Ruben Vizcarrondo · August 25, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    This is GREAT! We were looking for a way to add such important feature to our website and sharefaith just solved it for us! Thanks a lot, Blessings!

  • Author comment by Bob · September 9, 2011 at 8:55 pm

    You’re welcome, Ruben! Glad to hear you like it. ;)

  • Joel Wiley · September 19, 2011 at 7:33 pm

    Does the Paypal online donation link have to show up on every page, our can I set it to only show on the home page?

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