How to Add a Donate Button to your Website

You can add a donate button via PayPal or directly via WordPress to your site and enable users to make a quick and un­com­pli­cat­ed donation. It’s important that the donate button fits to your site and that the process is trans­par­ent and legally sound.

With a donate button, it only takes a few clicks to make a con­tri­bu­tion to a specific cause. There are many reasons why a site owner may want to set up a donate button. Co­op­er­a­tion with a char­i­ta­ble or­ga­ni­za­tion is one of them. If site visitors are to be en­cour­aged to support the or­ga­ni­za­tion, the easiest and quickest way to do this is through a donate button.

But even if the money is intended to benefit the site operator them­selves, the donate button is the right choice. Many bloggers, for example, make their content available free of charge, but they also have to find al­ter­na­tive sources of income. In addition to ad­ver­tis­ing deals and regular ads on the site, a donate button is a useful addition. This way, visitors can support the site operator. The donation option is, for example, just as suitable for fundrais­ing for a political campaign. It’s important that the purposes are always clearly com­mu­ni­cat­ed and that donors know exactly what their money will be used for.

A donate button is a good idea even if your site is basically dedicated to donations. It’s in your and your visitors’ interest that the process is kept as simple as possible. The detour via time-consuming direct debit processes or anything similar dis­cour­ages people who would basically be willing to give you their money. With a donate button from PayPal or another well-known provider, you simplify the procedure con­sid­er­ably and can generate ad­di­tion­al donations.

The look of the donate button depends on the design of the website and the provider of the donation method. Of course, the button should match the design and layout of your page, but it also needs to stand out. Bear in mind that the call to action shouldn’t come across as overly con­spic­u­ous and ag­gres­sive. In terms of the message, you have plenty of freedom, though a short and concise message is rec­om­mend­ed. A simple call to action like “Donate”, “Donate now”, “Support our work” or similar will put you on the safe side. It’s also important that it’s clear to visitors at all times what you need and want you’ll use the money for.

You’re free to choose where your donate button should appear on your website. However, there are places that are more suitable than others. Not every visitor will study your site carefully, so a placement that’s rel­a­tive­ly high up is a good choice. For example, the eye tends to quickly find the donate button if it’s placed in the top right corner, as it usually blends in well and doesn’t distract from the rest of the page. In principle, you can also place the button further down so that the call to action appears im­me­di­ate­ly after the content. However, not all readers will see it this way.

It’s also rec­om­mend­ed that you place the donate button not only on your homepage, but also on various sub-pages. Here, too, you should consider where placement makes sense. However, if the donate button blends well with the site’s content, there is nothing to be said against using it more fre­quent­ly.

There are various ways through which you can set up a donate button. Es­pe­cial­ly when dealing with sensitive data, it’s important to rely on tried-and-tested methods.

Online payment services like Stripe or PayPal offer their own donate buttons that you can easily in­cor­po­rate into your website. The PayPal donate button, for example, is created in just a few steps and can then be in­te­grat­ed into your website using code. The pre­req­ui­site for this is an account with the service provider. PayPal will then guide you through the process through its cor­re­spond­ing page. In addition to its format, you can also select various other options. For example, you can specify the currency, decide whether donors can add a message, or op­tion­al­ly explain the funding goal. After that, you create the PayPal donate button.

While the donate button itself is free, there are fees per trans­ac­tion. These are 2.9 percent with PayPal plus $0.30 per donation.

Al­ter­na­tive­ly, you have the option to create a donate button via WordPress. The CMS offers numerous plugins that you can easily add to your site. Besides the donate button from PayPal, buttons from WooCom­merce, Give, Char­i­ta­ble, and Donorbox, among others, are rec­om­mend­ed. Here, too, you can select the donate button on WordPress to match the theme, define cur­ren­cies, and make other spec­i­fi­ca­tions. Depending on the purpose, other providers are suitable.

It can be worth­while to not only set up your donate button on your website but to also consider adding them to your social media channels. In addition to net­work­ing, for example, via a Facebook like or share button, social media platforms are par­tic­u­lar­ly suitable for appeals for donations. Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch even have their own donate buttons, and Instagram has a donate sticker. In other words, you can collect donations through these channels as well. Another option is different crowd­fund­ing sites, which let you build on existing and es­tab­lished funding struc­tures.

Whether you want to collect donations for your blog or donate them to a char­i­ta­ble cause, there are some legal questions you should ask yourself be­fore­hand. In the true sense of the word, it’s only non-profit or­ga­ni­za­tions that are allowed to receive donations. In addition to political parties, these are reg­is­tered as­so­ci­a­tions, non-profit or­ga­ni­za­tions or religious in­sti­tu­tions, which have the option of issuing a donation receipt. If, on the other hand, you collect money for your own purposes via the donate button, this counts as normal business income in the legal sense and must be taken into account for tax purposes. Depending on the type of income, you may have to register a business or a freelance activity.

The actual setup of a donate button via PayPal or WordPress is very simple and can lead to very good results. This is true for charity, crowd­fund­ing, non-profit marketing, or even as an ad­di­tion­al source of income for your blog. Nev­er­the­less, donate buttons should be carefully thought out in advance. In addition to the legal issues, which must be clarified, the button should match the rest of the site in terms of content and ap­pear­ance.