As digital currency continues to play an increasing role in the way today’s financial transactions are made, churches and non-profits understandably desire more flexible and secure options for giving. 

At Truepath, we recognize that you want these options. Online giving tools have the advantage of simplifying and automating the giving process, which lends itself to more regular giving. 

When conveniently offered through your website or an individual member’s mobile phone, givers will appreciate how this complements their anywhere-banking approach to finances. 

As a WordPress user, you can easily add this functionality to your site by choosing from any number of proven giving/donation plugins, each with a variety of features that add flexibility to the giving process. 

But before we go any further, we want you to know: if working with plugins isn’t something you want to tackle, Truepath web design services are at your disposal. We can help you seamlessly integrate your chosen plugin to keep your website running smoothly. 

That said, here’s an overview of 3 WordPress giving plugins for you to consider as you add giving/donation functionalities that will best fit your church or nonprofit’s needs: 

1. GiveWP 

GiveWP promises “more donations, less hassle.” 

Some giving sites have links that take users to a secondary site, which may be confusing to givers. The great thing about GiveWP is that it’s actually embedded into your site to streamline and simplify the process. 

In addition, GiveWP’s customizable donation forms go beyond a simple button like PayPal, which cannot be customized to fit your organization’s brand. This fact alone can provide givers with a greater sense of trust.

Utilizing donation page best practices, GiveWP’s flexibility and robust functionality inspire givers for optimized online fundraising. 

Donations can be made as one-time gifts, or with advanced versions, be set up as recurring for regular givers. (GiveWP does offer a free version, however, if you want these additional features/add-ons, prices range from $149 to $599 annually). 

Here are some of the features you’ll receive with the free version:

• Unlimited Donation Forms
• Stripe & PayPal Payment Options
• Donor Management
• Insightful Reporting
• Donor Dashboard
• Customizable Email Receipts and Notifications
• Multi-step Donation Form
• Multiple Donation Form Templates
• Donor Wall
• Form Grid
• On-site Credit Card Donations
• and more.

Advanced plans offer:

• Recurring Donations
• Form Field Manager
• Fee Recovery
• Funds and Designations
• Tributes
• Salesforce
• Currency Switcher
• Annual Receipts
• licenses for multiple sites 
• Customer support packages, and more.

2. WPForms

WPForms boasts over 5 million plus users – a strong sign of a trusted plugin. It offers attractive, pre-built form templates on which to build and customize the form you need. 

Whether for donations, event registrations, surveys, or contact forms, building your form is easy with a simple drag & drop builder. (You can see their over 600+ pre-made web form templates here).

Flexible giving options are also possible with integrated payment gateways through PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net, with credit cards.  

Prices start at $49.50 (basic version) and top out at $299.50 (Elite package) per year.

The basic version of WPForms provides:

• Use on 1 Site
• Unlimited Forms
• Unlimited Submissions
• Unlimited Users
• All Essential Features
• Form Templates
• Entry Management
• Advanced Form Fields
• Field Validation
• Smart Conditional Logic
• File Uploads
• Form Notifications
• Improve communication with automated follow-up emails after form submission.
• Send customized internal emails to notify the right team member or department
• And more.

With the Plus and above versions you receive a license to use WPForms on additional sites, the ability to accept payments through PayPal, etc., and the following marketing Integrations:

• Mailchimp
• AWeber
• Constant Contact
• GetResponse
• Campaign Monitor
• Drip
• Sendinblue
• MailerLite

3. Formidable Forms

Like WPForms, Formidable Forms uses a user-friendly drag-and-drop process, allowing the creation of “solutions-focused” WordPress forms that complement and integrate perfectly with your site. 

Possible forms include donations, as well as surveys, quizzes, contact forms, registration forms, payment forms, lead forms, calculator forms, and many more.

At the time of this writing, pricing starts at $39.50 per year for the basic version and ranges up to $299.50/yr. for the elite package.  

Basic version features include:

• 65+ Form Templates
• File Uploads
• Multi-Page Forms
• Repeaters
• Conditional Logic
• Review Before Submit
• Seamless Styling
• Conditional Redirects
• Unlimited Forms
• Unlimited Monthly Entries
• 1 Site

The business version ($199.50/yr) provides 200+ Form Templates, Calculators, Signatures, Collect Payments, Forms to PDF, Export Tables to CSV, ACF Front-End Forms, Google Sheets, Geolocation, Formidable Forms API, Zapier (5000+ Apps) and more, while the Elite version gives you all this as well as Salesforce, Hubspot, and white labeling.

Final thoughts

Your organization’s needs will determine the best giving/donation plugin for you. Making the process pain-free for your givers is key, so you’ll probably put greater weight on factors like ease of use, flexibility, recurring giving functionality, branding options, and the ability to offer a variety of payment options.     

Truepath’s vision is to empower Christian organizations and businesses to take full advantage of their online presence by providing affordable and best-in-class applications and dedicated, live customer support. You can reach us at (760) 480–8791.