You can use the Online Donations widget to collect tithe and offerings for your church. One great feature is that you can pass the transaction fee onto the person donating, thus ensuring your church receives the full donation.

Video Tutorial Showing how to Add the Online Donations Widget

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 (assuming you are a church or nonprofit organization):
  7. Complete the remainder of the form by following the instructions.

    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. For example, if someone donates $100, they will be charged $102.56.

    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. (Click to read an overview on how to use Widgets.):
  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 would like to pass on the transaction fee to the user.

  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 similar to the following: