Pricing & licensing
Is the plugin really free?
Yes - including recurring donations, fee recovery, tributes, donor management, receipts, and reports. It's GPL-licensed open source. Paid plans are support only - they never unlock features. See pricing.
Do you take a cut of donations?
Never. The only fees are Stripe's or PayPal's standard processing fees, and fee recovery lets donors cover those.
Security
Do you store card numbers?
No. Card fields are hosted by Stripe in the donor's browser; PayPal payments complete on PayPal. Card data never touches your server, keeping you in the simplest PCI category (SAQ A).
Can someone fake a donation?
No - a donation is only marked completed after your server verifies payment status directly with the gateway, and webhook events are signature-verified. Amounts are recomputed server-side, so browser tampering can't alter a charge.
Does the plugin run background tasks or phone home?
No. Donor Merchant sends no telemetry and performs no analytics, tracking, or license checks, and it never contacts our servers. When a page loads and nobody is donating, it makes no external or background server requests: the donation form and the goal thermometer render entirely from your own database, with no AJAX polling or heartbeat activity.
On pages that contain the donation form, the visitor's browser loads Stripe.js or the PayPal SDK from the gateway's own CDN, which is exactly what keeps card details inside the gateway's secure fields and off your server. No donor or payment data is sent until someone submits, and on pages without a form those scripts are not loaded at all. Your server contacts Stripe or PayPal only when:
- a visitor actually submits a donation;
- a gateway sends an incoming, signature-verified webhook;
- a donor manages a recurring gift in the donor portal;
- you click Register domain for Apple Pay on the Stripe settings screen;
- an outgoing webhook or Mailchimp sync fires on a completed donation, if you turned on integrations.
The plugin schedules two WordPress cron events, and neither makes an external request. One emails your fundraising summary to your own admin address on the first of each month; the other clears away donation attempts that were never completed after 90 days.
Requirements
What does Donor Merchant need?
WordPress 6.2+, PHP 7.4+, HTTPS, and a free Stripe or PayPal account.
Will it work with my theme or page builder?
Yes - the form is self-contained and placed via block or shortcode, so it works in any theme and every major page builder that supports shortcodes.
Donations & donors
How do refunds work?
Issue the refund in your Stripe or PayPal dashboard as usual. With the Stripe webhook or PayPal webhook ID set up, a full refund flips the donation to refunded automatically. A partial refund keeps the gift and records the amount returned.
How does a donor cancel a recurring gift?
Donors giving through Stripe can cancel, or update their card, from the donor portal, which signs them in with a one-time email link. PayPal donors can cancel from the donor portal too, or from their PayPal account. You can also cancel any subscription in your Stripe or PayPal dashboard.
Can donors pay by check or bank transfer?
Yes. Turn on offline gifts: donors pledge on the form and get your instructions by email, and you click Mark received when the money arrives.
Does it support Gift Aid?
Yes, for UK charities taking donations in pounds. The form collects HMRC's declaration and the donor's address, and the Gift Aid screen prepares your claim file and tracks what you've claimed. See the Gift Aid guide.
Can donors tell us their employer matches gifts?
Yes. Switch on Employer matching under Settings → Forms. Donors can name their employer, and it shows on the donation, your new-donation email and their receipt. It doesn't look up which employers match or send match requests.
Can I say "gift" instead of "donation"?
Yes. Settings → Forms → Wording switches "donation" and "donate" to "gift" and "give", or your own words, on the form, portal, receipts and emails. See Form settings & fees.
Can I export my data?
Always - donors and donations export to CSV with one click. Your data lives in your WordPress database and goes wherever you go.
Can I use it for things other than charity?
Sure - tip jars, creator support, club dues, community projects. Anywhere "accept money with a simple form" fits. Just mind your local rules about what counts as a tax-deductible donation.
Troubleshooting
The form doesn't appear on my page
The form hides until a payment gateway is configured (admins see a notice with a settings link instead). Add your Stripe or PayPal keys under Settings → Payments.
Receipts aren't arriving
Test WordPress mail first - if other plugin emails also fail, install an SMTP plugin. See email receipts.
Recurring renewals aren't showing up
Renewals are recorded by webhook. For Stripe, set it up per the webhook guide and confirm the endpoint reports 200s. For PayPal, add the webhook ID.