Donations are essential for nonprofits to generate revenue. While your organization may also receive grants, host paid events, or sell merchandise, donations play a critical role in sustaining your operations and funding community services.
The rise of the internet has streamlined the process of donations. The online world extends your impact beyond local borders, connecting you with potential donors from all around the globe. With the added convenience of a donation page on your WordPress site, you can effectively spread awareness for your worthy causes and attract contributions from virtually anywhere.
In this article, we’ll explore two WordPress plugins that make donation management seamless and secure: GiveWP and SendWP. We’ll also show you how easy it is to integrate these tools.
Let’s get started!
What is GiveWP?
GiveWP is a popular and highly-rated donation plugin for WordPress. With GiveWP, you can create custom forms, set donation goals, and integrate with payment gateways to collect donations online. Every tool and feature supports your online fundraising efforts.
Donation forms
Choose one of GiveWP’s templates, or quickly and easily create a custom form. Make it a dedicated landing page, add the form to an existing block in WordPress, or even use a form widget. Whether you want an evergreen donation form for general giving or separate forms for different initiatives, GiveWP is a fantastic solution that requires no coding experience.
These forms support one-time and recurring payments via a supported payment gateway like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, or Square. Depending on your chosen gateway, you can accept donations via credit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, ACH, and more. GiveWP even supports over 150 currencies, making global outreach a breeze.
Other GiveWP features
GiveWP includes an excellent suite of features to support outreach, admin, accounting, and more, including:
- Peer-to-peer fundraising
- Integrations with email services and CRMs
- Annual receipts
- Text-to-give fundraising
- Analytics and donor insights
- And more!
GiveWP pricing
This is a freemium plugin, and the free version packs a fantastic set of features — including unlimited forms, Stripe and PayPal, analytics, free tech support (within 48 hours), and more. Premium plans start at $149/year and include additional features.
You can also purchase add-ons individually.
Review their features and pricing pages to decide the best option for you.
What is SendWP?
SendWP is an incredible plugin that supports all your WordPress email needs, allowing you to focus on more important things. SendWP is a transactional email service. Before we dive into its benefits, let’s explore what we mean by “transactional email.”
What is transactional email?
Your nonprofit likely sends both marketing and transactional emails to supporters. Marketing email entices a new action (donating, registering, sharing, etc.), while a previous action triggers a transactional email. For example, when donors fill out a donation form, they should receive an automatic confirmation email.
Transactional emails build trust with your supporters and help you maintain good communication. WordPress has a transactional email function, but it’s unreliable. And that brings us back to SendWP.
SendWP features and functionalities
When your nonprofit supporters make donations, reset their passwords, purchase tickets, or complete any other action, our plugin sends the appropriate email. SendWP is known for helping ensure an astonishing 99.5% deliverability rate for all transactional messages.
We offer advanced functionality like donation authentication (DMARC, DKIM, SPF, and DNS) and blocklist management. We also provide email logs, reports, and analytics for complete clarity. Though it’s a powerhouse plugin, SendWP is extremely simple to set up — it only takes a few clicks!
SendWP pricing
SendWP is affordable at $9/month (your first month is just $1), or $99/year (first year is $91). But wait — it gets better. SendWP also offers a discount for nonprofits: $3/month or $27/year off. To take advantage of these savings, fill out the online application.
How to connect SendWP and GiveWP in WordPress
SendWP and GiveWP are both excellent tools that enhance your WordPress workflows. But when used simultaneously, their benefits can’t be overstated. With GiveWP helping you attract supporters, collect donations, and process payments, and SendWP managing transactional emails like donation confirmations, you’re well on your way to streamlined nonprofit management and communication.
To harness this dynamic duo, you’ve got to connect them in WordPress. Don’t worry — it’s a simple process that only takes a few minutes.
Install and activate GiveWP
To install GiveWP, log in to your WordPress admin account. On the left-hand side of your dashboard, choose “Plugins” > “Add New.” It will take you to the WordPress plugin repository.
Type “GiveWP” into the search box on the right to locate GiveWP and click “Download.” (This is the free version of GiveWP — if you want to upgrade later, you can.)
Once the plugin has finished downloading, click “Activate.” The next step is connecting GiveWP with SendWP.
Connecting SendWP and GiveWP
Once GiveWP is activated, a “Donations” option should appear in your WordPress admin menu. Click it and then choose “Settings” from the sub-menu.
On the GiveWP Settings page, select the “Emails” tab and then “Email Settings.”
At the bottom of this page, you’ll see a blue button that says “Connect with SendWP.”
If you’re already a SendWP user, you can then log into your account when prompted. If you don’t have an existing account, clicking “Connect with SendWP” will automatically download SendWP. You’ll then be redirected to a registration page to choose between a monthly or yearly plan. Enter your payment information to get started.
Once you’ve registered for SendWP, return to your WordPress dashboard. And just like that, it will automatically send your transactional emails via SendWP.
Additional resources
Now that you have installed SendWP and GiveWP, you may need additional resources or support.
SendWP is relatively simple and doesn’t require much interaction on your part. (We handle it all for you!) But if you’d like to learn more, check out our blog and documentation. You can also contact our support team.
GiveWP is more involved. It’s a very user-friendly plugin, but you’ll still need to learn how to set up your payment gateway, create donation forms, manage your email sender options, and more. GiveWP has extensive documentation (complete with helpful how-to videos) and blog posts — we recommend starting with their introductory guide. You can also contact support.
Enhance donor management with SendWP and GiveWP
Modern nonprofits rely on online tools to facilitate donations and communication. SendWP and GiveWP are two WordPress plugins that provide invaluable support to organizations seeking to streamline their operations and enhance their online presence.
GiveWP enables beautiful and customizable donation forms — along with analytics and other donor management features — while SendWP manages your transactional email to ensure consistent deliverability and seamless communication with supporters.
Each plugin is a fantastic choice for your nonprofit, but using them in unison is the ideal experience. Follow the steps above to get started with SendWP and GiveWP today.
Let SendWP Handle Your Emails!
Say goodbye to email delivery headaches with SendWP. Our efficient and reliable solution ensures that your important messages reach their destination on time, every time.
