Donation Forms Training Webinar

DonorSnap’s Responsive Forms tool lets you build a donation form that lives directly on your website instead of sending supporters off to a third-party payment page. Donors fill out one form with their contact information, gift amount, and credit card details, and the submission flows back into your DonorSnap database so you never retype a gift. The same form type handles memberships, sponsorships, event tickets, and any other payment you want to collect online.

In this webinar we cover:

• Connecting a Stripe account under Maintenance → Site Setup → Integrations
• Creating a donation form from the predefined Donate Now template
• Using the Form Builder to add, remove, rename, and require fields
• Adding the processing fee option so donors can cover credit card fees
• Turning on recurring gifts with frequency, start date, and end date
• Customizing the confirmation email and page colors under Settings
• Grabbing the embed code and sending it to your web designer
• Processing Responsive Forms Open Records from your dashboard
• Choosing between the standard and compact Donate Now templates

Get started collecting online donations in DonorSnap’s Responsive Forms through Stripe.

Looking to give your donors predefined donation amounts instead of typing in custom amounts?

Quick Recap

The trainer walked through building an online donation form from start to finish. She began with the Stripe prerequisite, explaining that the payment processor must be connected before a donation form type will appear, then created a live form in about two minutes from the predefined Donate Now template. She submitted a test gift through the form to show the instant confirmation email and the thank-you screen, then returned to the Form Builder to swap fields, rename labels, mark fields required, hide the donation type behind a default value, add the credit card processing fee checkbox, and enable recurring gifts. After covering confirmation email setup and the embed code, she moved to the DonorSnap side to process the submission from the Responsive Forms Open Records dashboard app and confirmed the gift landed on the contact record. The session closed with a comparison of the standard and compact templates.

Meeting Summary

What a Responsive Form Actually Is
The trainer opened by clarifying a common misconception: a DonorSnap donation form is not a button that sends supporters to PayPal or Stripe. It is a form that can be embedded in a page on your own website — a box the donor fills out with name, contact details, gift amount, recurring preference, and credit card information. You build it inside DonorSnap under Online Forms → Responsive Forms, DonorSnap generates both HTML embed code and a direct form link, and your web designer drops that code onto a page. When someone submits the form, the data travels back to your DonorSnap database, tying your website and your database together so nothing has to be typed in twice.

Using Stripe as the Payment Processor
Before building any payment form, you need a Stripe account connected to DonorSnap. The path is Maintenance → Site Setup → Integrations, where an “Integrate with Stripe” button hands you off to Stripe to create the account and then returns you to DonorSnap to validate it. The trainer put basic Stripe setup at roughly ten minutes — Stripe approves nearly everyone for a standard account. Getting the reduced nonprofit rate is a separate, slower process: you send Stripe your 501(c)(3) documentation, they vet your organization, and the rate change takes 1-2 weeks. The trainer was direct about processor questions: DonorSnap donation forms run on Stripe. The division of labor is clean — DonorSnap holds the personal information, gift amount, and campaign detail; Stripe handles the card itself, the deposits into your bank account, and anything involving expired or updated card numbers.

Creating a Form from a Template
Under Online Forms → Responsive Forms, the blue Add New Form button is always available, even without a payment processor, because many form types (interaction forms for free events, volunteer hour logs, contact and newsletter signups) don’t take payments. The Donation type is the financial form, and it covers every money scenario: gifts, memberships, sponsorships, and event tickets. If Donation is missing from your list of form types, that is your signal that Stripe setup isn’t finished. The template dropdown contains two things — every form you have previously built, which you can reuse as a starting point for next year’s campaign, and a short list of predefined templates that ship with the software. The trainer chose Predefined Donate Now, named the form, selected Stripe as the processor, and clicked Insert. Organizations running multiple Stripe accounts — one for donations, another for membership dues, for example — will see each account listed in the processor dropdown and can point each form at the right one.

Getting the Form Link and Embed Code
Scrolling right on the form listing reveals a Form Link button for each form. It contains the embedded forms HTML to copy into an email and send to your web designer, and above it, a direct forms.donorsnap.com link where the form already lives even before it’s on your site. The trainer clicked that link to open the untouched template: headings, contact fields at the top, donation fields below, and the Stripe payment section built in. Nothing had been customized and the form was already live and taking real money. She estimated a working form on your website inside twenty minutes if the web designer is standing by — ten minutes for Stripe, a couple of minutes for the template, and however long the embed takes.

Demonstrating an Online Donation Submission
The trainer filled out the live form as a sample donor who did not yet exist in her database and processed a credit card. Three things happened. The screen changed to a printable thank-you confirmation. The card was charged immediately, so any decline would have surfaced right then. And the donor received an automatic email receipt listing everything they had filled out on the form. She noted that Stripe deposits daily rather than instantly, so the funds reach your bank account on Stripe’s schedule, not at the moment of submission.

Editing Fields in the Form Builder
Each form has a Settings tab and a Form Builder tab. In the Form Builder, the left panel lists everything available to place on the form — every field in your DonorSnap database, plus headings, a text box, and the recurring fields — and the right panel is the form itself. Fields on the form have an X on the far right to delete and a grip of dots on the left to drag them up and down if a dropped field lands in the wrong spot. The trainer deleted the Phone field, scrolled the alphabetized left panel to find Cell, and dragged it into position. The gear icon on each field opens its options, where you change the label the donor sees without changing the underlying field name: Address 2 became “Suite or apartment number,” and State/Province lost the word “Province” for a U.S.-only organization. The same panel is where you mark a field required, which adds an asterisk on the live form. Fields at the top of the left panel are Contact fields; scroll past them to reach the Donation fields.

Hiding a Field with a Default Value
The donation type field lets donors choose whether their payment is a donation, a grant, a membership, and so on — useful on some forms, unnecessary on a plain donate page. Rather than delete it, the trainer set a default value of “Donation” and then hid the field. The donor never sees it, but DonorSnap still receives the value, which matters because the donation type is what distinguishes a gift from a grant or a sponsorship once the record is in your database. The pattern applies to any field you want populated automatically without asking the donor.

Letting Donors Cover Credit Card Fees
Under the Donations section of the field list, the Processing Fee field adds a checkbox that lets donors add a percentage to their gift to cover credit card costs. The trainer called this the single change worth making if you make no others. The box is checked by default, but donors must be able to uncheck it. DonorSnap does not offer a way to lock it on.

Adding Recurring Gifts
The recurring fields sit near the top of the left panel and drag over as a single item. On the live form they produce a frequency selector: one time, monthly, annually, and other intervals. Choosing anything but one time reveals a start date and an end date. The start date defaults to today, and whatever date the donor picks sets the ongoing schedule — a start date of the 15th means Stripe charges the card on the 15th every period going forward, even though the record downloads to DonorSnap today. The end date defaults to no end date, and donors must retain the ability to set one.

Confirmation Email and Appearance Settings
The Settings tab has its own left-hand menu; the trainer flagged Page Setup as the section worth everyone’s time. Colors are set there, and further down is the confirmation email configuration. Out of the box the receipt arrives from [email protected], which she recommended changing to your own address and name so donors recognize the sender. A blind copy field accepts multiple comma-separated addresses, so your treasurer or finance manager gets notified on every submission. The body of the email is a copy of what the donor filled out; what you customize is the header and footer around it, which is where organizations put a logo, tax ID, and tax-deductibility language. Once the embed code is on your website, edits like these push to the live form automatically — the web designer only handles the embed once.

Processing Responsive Forms Open Records
A submitted form does not create a contact automatically. It arrives as an open record, and the easiest place to see open records is a dashboard app: use Add App on the right side of your dashboard and add Responsive Forms Open Records, which lists each form and its count of waiting submissions. Expanding a form shows the submissions. The Auto-Link Contacts by Email button at the top left attempts to match each submission to an existing contact by email address; matched records are ready to have the gift added to the existing contact, and unmatched records show in blue, meaning Load will create a new contact. The trainer recommended clicking Edit before Load on every record — it is your chance to fix all-caps entries, typos, and phone formatting, set the payment method, and see exactly what is about to enter your database. After clicking Load, she confirmed the new contact record in Community > Contacts with the donation attached, the payment method set, and the gift ready to appear on donation reports alongside checks and other payments.

Standard vs. Compact Donate Now Templates
The template list includes a second predefined option, Compact Donate Now, which renders as a tighter box with buttons across the top rather than fields running down the left. It looks sharper, but the template title carries a warning that changes to the form may break it — and the trainer confirmed it: the compact form cannot be significantly customized, and cover the fee is not supported. Her recommendation was to use the compact template for a single, plain “donate now” page and build everything else — capital campaign forms, event forms, sponsorship forms — from the standard Donate Now template, which accepts any modification. She also previewed what the standard template makes possible with more advanced setup, including sponsorship level buttons that add to an additional gift amount so the form calculates the total charge, and event ticket forms that multiply adult and child ticket counts. Those are covered in separate webinars on the help site.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use PayPal or my own bank instead of Stripe for DonorSnap donation forms? No. DonorSnap’s Responsive Forms process payments through Stripe, with GoEmerchant supported for organizations that already hold a legacy account. Other processors, other merchant services, and direct bank integrations are not options. Stripe accounts are free to open and approval is nearly universal.

Do I need a Stripe account before I can build a donation form? Yes. The Stripe connection has to be in place before you go to the Online Forms area. Set it up under Maintenance → Site Setup → Integrations, click Integrate with Stripe, create the account, and then validate it back in DonorSnap. If Donation does not appear as an option when you click Add New Form, that means Stripe setup is incomplete.

How long does it take to set up Stripe for a nonprofit? About ten minutes for a working account, and about two weeks for the discounted nonprofit rate. The initial setup gets you a standard Stripe account that can start accepting payments right away. Reducing the rate requires sending Stripe your 501(c)(3) documentation so they can verify your nonprofit status, and that review takes roughly 1-2 weeks.

How long does it take to build a donation form in DonorSnap? A basic form takes a couple of minutes. Choosing the predefined Donate Now template and naming the form produces a live, working donation page with contact fields, a gift amount, and Stripe payment already built in. Adding ten minutes for Stripe setup and the time your web designer needs for the embed code, a form can be live on your website inside about twenty minutes.

Can I require donors to cover the credit card processing fees? No. Donors must always be able to uncheck the processing fee box, and DonorSnap does not provide a way to lock it on. The box is checked by default, though, which is why most organizations that add the Processing Fee field see a high opt-in rate.

Why aren’t my online donations showing up in my database or on my reports? The submissions are most likely sitting unprocessed as open records. Add the Responsive Forms Open Records app to your dashboard, expand the form, click Auto-Link Contacts by Email to match submissions to existing contacts, review each record with the Edit button, then click Load to write it into your database.

How does DonorSnap avoid creating duplicate contacts from form submissions? It matches on email address. The Auto-Link Contacts by Email button on the open records screen searches your database for the email address the donor entered. Matches attach the gift to the existing contact record. Submissions with no match display in blue and become new contacts when you click Load. You can also link records manually before loading.

Does my web designer have to re-embed the form every time I change it? No, only once. The embed code points to your form, so any edit you make in the Form Builder or Settings updates the live form on your website automatically. This is why the trainer recommends getting a basic template onto your site quickly and refining it afterward.

Can I customize the compact Donate Now template? No. The compact template may break if you modify it in certain ways, and the template name says so. You cannot add the processing fee checkbox to it. Use compact only for a simple donate-now page, and build every other form from the standard predefined Donate Now template, which is fully customizable.

When does Stripe deposit online donations into my bank account? Stripe deposits on a daily schedule, not instantly at the moment of submission. The donor’s card is charged immediately, so declines surface right away, but the funds arrive in your account on Stripe’s payout timing. Contact Stripe directly to confirm your deposit schedule.

Can I be notified when someone submits my donation form? Yes. In the form’s Settings tab, under the confirmation email section, enter one or more addresses in the blind copy field, separated by commas. Everyone listed receives a copy each time the form is submitted. This is also where you replace the default [email protected] sender with your own name and email address.

Can I offer recurring donations on my form? Yes. Drag the recurring field from the left panel of the Form Builder onto your form. It adds a frequency selector so donors can choose a one-time gift or an interval like monthly or annually, plus a start date that sets the ongoing charge date and an optional end date. Donors must be able to set an end date.

Related Pages

Stripe Payment Processing Integration
Getting Started 107: Forms
Event Registration Forms Training Webinar
Use Predefined Donation Amounts in Responsive Forms
Compact Donate Now template for Responsive Forms