Donation blocks

Add a button linking to a donation page where visitors can offer financial support for a charity, cause, or event.

Use donation blocks to collect donations from visitors to your cause or organization. You can also use them to set up a customized cash gift registry on a wedding website.

Donation blocks appear as Donate buttons on the page. When a visitor clicks the button, they're led to a page where they can enter and submit a donation amount. You can customize the button text, suggested donation amounts, and change the button design. You can also add a custom form to collect specific information from donors.

Donation blocks work through our Commerce platform. Visitors can use Stripe, PayPal, or Apple Pay to deposit donations to your bank account.

Donation blocks are a premium feature available in Business, Commerce, Professional, and Premium plans.

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Before you begin

• You need to edit your site on a computer to add a donation block. It's not possible to set up donations in the Squarespace app.
• To use donation blocks to collect donations, connect your site to Stripe, PayPal, or both. To do this, open the Store payments panel.
• Transaction fees apply to donations.
• Your store's tax rules don't apply to donations.
• Donation forms always ask for an email address (required) and phone number at checkout.
• It’s not possible to accept donations on a recurring basis.

Add a donation block

To add a donation block:

1. Edit a page or post, click Add Block or an insert point, then click Donation. For help, visit Adding content with blocks.
2. Open the block editor by clicking the pencil icon on the block.
3. Click Set Up Payment Processor if you don't already have a payment processor connected. This opens the Store payments panel so you can connect your site to Stripe, PayPal, or both.
4. Click Donation Amounts to add suggested amounts.
5. Customize the button label text.
6. Enter a title in the Checkout Title field. The title displays on the donation page and in emails sent to donors.
7. Enter information about your cause in the Checkout Description field. The description displays in the Your Contribution section during checkout.
8. Click Edit Donation Receipt to open the Customer Notifications panel, where you can customize the emails sent to donors.
9. Click Add Form Fields to add more fields for additional information at checkout.
10. Click the Design tab to set the button alignment left, center, or right.

Tip: To ensure donors can complete their transactions, always use a donation block to link to the donation checkout page. We don't recommend linking directly to the donation checkout page with text links, button blocks, or other methods.

Add suggested amounts

Add suggested contribution amounts by clicking Donation Amounts. This encourages visitors to donate at specific levels. Visitors can choose from the suggested amounts or donate any amount.

Click Add Amount to add a specific amount. You can add labels to specific amounts, like Gold Membership or Feeds 10 cats. This is a great way to create different sponsorship levels.

Remove an amount by clicking Edit, then clicking the - icon. If you remove all suggested amounts and leave the Amount column blank, visitors will enter their desired donation amount without suggested options.

Customize the button

Customize the button label text in the block editor. By default, the button for donation blocks say Donate, but you can change it to fit your needs. For example, if you're using a donation block for a cash registry, you can change it to Send us a gift.

To customize the button, enter a new label in the Button Label field.

Tip: Custom button text doesn't appear on transaction records in the Donations panel. To prompt donors to specify what their donations are for, add a custom form.

Collect additional information

Add custom form fields to your donation block by clicking Add Form Fields, then clicking Add Field. To learn more about each form field, see Form fields explained. To delete or rearrange fields, click Edit.

Form fields display in the additional information section during checkout. Donors can use these fields to give in someone's honor, choose a thank you gift, or specify where they want their donation to go.

Site owners, administrators, and store managers can view completed forms in Donations panel.

More checkout options

Customize your checkout settings to streamline the donation experience and collect more information from donors.

Open the Cart & checkout panel. Some settings in this panel, like shipping address, won’t affect the donation checkout page. Here’s what applies to donations:

• Checkout on your domain - Donors can make payments from your site’s custom domain.
• Mailing lists - Give donors the option to sign up for a mailing list at checkout.
• Default country in address fields - Set a default country to make checkout quicker.

Next steps

• You'll receive an email notification when someone submits a donation.
• You can manage donations in the Donations panel.
• Style the donation button. Donation block buttons on version 7.1 sites follow the Primary style settings in the Buttons panel.
• Style the checkout page.
• Enable customer accounts so donors can save their payment information and make donations more quickly in the future.