Getting Started 107: Forms

Learn how to use the Responsive Forms tool to collect information or payment from your supporters. Responsive Forms connect your website directly to your DonorSnap database: you build the form in DonorSnap, place it on your website, and every submission comes back into your database for you to review and load.

In this webinar we cover:

• What Responsive Forms are and how they link your website to your DonorSnap database
• The types of forms you can build (contact, donation, pledge, interaction, interaction with payment, and volunteer)
• How to build a form using the Form Builder drag-and-drop interface
• How to customize the confirmation email your supporters receive
• How to get the HTML code and send it to your web designer
• How to set up Stripe so you can accept credit card and ACH donations
• How to process Responsive Forms Open Records from your dashboard

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

Quick recap

The trainer walked through the full lifecycle of a DonorSnap Responsive Form: building it under Online Forms > Responsive Forms, choosing the form type, adding fields with the drag-and-drop Form Builder, customizing the confirmation email, and handing the HTML code to a web designer to place on the organization’s website. She then demonstrated what happens after a supporter submits a form — the supporter receives an emailed confirmation, and the submission downloads to the DonorSnap dashboard as an open record. The trainer showed how to link that submission to an existing contact or add it as a new contact, and explained that unprocessed open records are the single most common reason donations don’t appear on reports. She closed with a walkthrough of Stripe integration, the two Donate Now templates, and a live-preview technique for building forms faster.

Summary

What a Responsive Form Is and How It Works
The trainer explained that a Responsive Form is something you build inside DonorSnap and place on your website for the public to fill out. Forms can collect contact information, volunteer interest, event registrations, memberships, sponsorships, ticket purchases, or donations. She demonstrated using a sample nonprofit website where a visitor clicks a button, completes a volunteer registration form, and submits it. The information travels straight back to the DonorSnap database. The trainer described the form as the link between an organization’s website and its database — the piece that turns a “Donate” button on a website into usable data in the system.

The Types of Forms in DonorSnap
The trainer outlined the form types available when adding a new form, noting that the type determines which table in DonorSnap the submission populates. Contact forms feed the contact screen and are used for newsletter sign-ups, volunteer interest forms, and address changes. Donation forms cover anything financial — donations, event tickets, sponsorships, and memberships — because they all write to the donation table. Pledge forms record a supporter’s commitment to give without charging a card. Interaction forms handle non-financial activity such as registering for a free yoga class or event. Volunteer forms let supporters log their own volunteer hours. A sixth option, interaction with payment, creates both an interaction and a donation record simultaneously.

Building a Form with the Form Builder
The trainer demonstrated creating a newsletter sign-up form from scratch. Adding a new form requires only four decisions: name the form, choose the type, confirm it should load into DonorSnap, and mark it active. From there, the form opens with tabs across the top for Settings and Form Builder. In the Form Builder, every field in the organization’s DonorSnap database appears in a bank on the left. Users drag the fields they want onto the form on the right, and drag them up or down to reorder. A gear icon next to each field lets users change the displayed label — for example, removing “/Province” from “State/Province” — and mark the field as required. The underlying field name can’t be changed, but the display text can. Text boxes can be dragged in to hold waiver language, paired with a required checkbox so submitters must confirm they’ve read it.

Customizing the Confirmation Email
The trainer emphasized that if users do nothing else in the Settings tab, they should open Confirmation Email. Submitters automatically receive an emailed copy of what they filled out, but by default it comes from [email protected]. Entering a real staff name and email address means replies go to a person at the organization instead. Users can also blind copy themselves so they’re notified of every submission, and multiple BCC addresses can be entered separated by commas. Optional paragraphs can be added above and below the copy of the submission. The Page Setup area under Settings is where colors and images are changed to match the organization’s branding.

Getting the Form onto Your Website
Once a form is built, the Form Link button on the form listing provides the HTML code to embed the form on a website. The trainer noted this is the one step DonorSnap can’t do for the organization — the code has to be emailed to whoever manages the website so they can place it on a page. She also pointed out that every form is live the moment it’s created, hosted at its own forms.donorsnap.com address. That link works immediately and can be shared in email marketing or on social media.

A Faster Way to Build: Live Preview
The trainer shared her own building process: open the live form link in a second browser tab while building in DonorSnap in the first. After saving a change in the Form Builder, switch to the form tab and refresh to see the result immediately. She used this to confirm a required-field asterisk had applied and to check that a recurring donation frequency option appeared correctly after dragging the Recurring field onto the form.

Setting Up Stripe for Donation Forms
The trainer explained that Stripe is the payment processor behind all financial forms and must be connected before a donation form can be built. If “donation” doesn’t appear as a form type, it’s because Stripe isn’t set up yet. The integration lives under Maintenance > Site Setup > Integrations and takes about ten minutes. Even organizations with an existing Stripe account need to go through this step. Stripe handles credit card payments, ACH bank transfers, Google Pay, and Apple Pay — Apple Pay appears for supporters on Mac or iPhone. With ACH, donors log into their online banking rather than typing routing numbers. Stripe charges the card and deposits the funds; the Stripe Payout Report under the Online Forms menu shows deposits and credit card fees. DonorSnap never sees or stores credit card information. The name, address, amount, and frequency are what download into DonorSnap.

Donation Form Templates
The trainer reviewed the templates available when adding a new form, including volunteer hours, address change, event registration with no payment, and two donation options. The standard Donate Now form can be fully customized in the Form Builder. The Compact Donate Now form is visually polished with a tighter, boxed layout, but it is not as customizable. The choice comes down to whether customization is needed: sponsorship forms, ticket forms, or anything requiring extra fields should start from the standard Donate Now template or from scratch. Between the ten minutes for Stripe and a few minutes with a template, the trainer noted an organization can have a working donation form on its website in under an hour, and forms can always be edited later.

Processing Responsive Forms Open Records
The trainer covered what she called the biggest step users miss. Submissions don’t drop straight into the database — they land in a sandbox called Responsive Forms Open Records, grouped by form. Expanding a form shows the pending submissions. From there, the Auto Link Contacts by Email button attempts to match the submitter to an existing contact. If no email is found, a manual step exists because a submitter might already be in the database under a joint record, or there might be two contacts with the same name, and only the user knows which record is correct. A line highlighted in blue indicates the submission will be added as a new contact. An edit option allows fixing all-caps entries, misspellings, or differences before loading. Clicking Load writes the record into the database, where it populates the contact screen and any related donation, volunteer, or interaction tables.

Why Donations Haven’t Show Up on Reports Yet
The trainer identified a frequent support question her team receives: an organization runs a donations report, sees money in the bank, but the gifts aren’t listed. The cause is almost always unprocessed open records. The donations downloaded into DonorSnap but were never linked and loaded. She recommended logging into DonorSnap regularly to clear open records, particularly financial ones. If a duplicate is created by mistake, it isn’t a serious problem — the merge tool under Maintenance can combine records later.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Responsive Forms in DonorSnap? Responsive Forms are online forms you build inside DonorSnap under Online Forms > Responsive Forms and place on your website. Supporters fill them out publicly, and the submissions flow back into your DonorSnap database for review and processing.

What types of forms can I build in DonorSnap? There are five commonly used types: contact forms (newsletter sign-ups, volunteer interest, address changes), donation forms (donations, event tickets, sponsorships, memberships), pledge forms, interaction forms (free events and classes), and volunteer forms (hour logging). A sixth option combines an interaction with a payment but is less often used.

Do I need Stripe to accept donations through DonorSnap? Yes. Stripe must be connected before you can create a donation form. Set it up under Maintenance > Site Setup > Integrations. If “donation” doesn’t appear in the list of form types, Stripe hasn’t been connected yet.

How do I put a DonorSnap form on my website? Use the Form Link button on the form listing page to copy the HTML code, then send it to whoever manages your website. Placing the code on a web page is the one step DonorSnap can’t do for you. Each form also has a standalone forms.donorsnap.com link that works immediately and can be shared by email or social media.

How long does it take to set up an online donation form? About an hour for a new organization: roughly ten minutes to connect Stripe, then a few minutes to create a form from the Donate Now template, customize the confirmation email, and grab the code. Forms can be edited after they go live.

Why aren’t my online donations showing up on my reports? The submissions are most likely sitting unprocessed in the Responsive Forms Open Records box on your dashboard. Expand the form, link each submission to an existing contact or add it as a new one, then click Load to write it into your database.

Can I change the email that supporters receive after submitting a form? Yes. Open the form’s Settings tab and select Confirmation Email. Replace the default [email protected] sender with a staff name and email address so replies reach a real person, and add BCC addresses (separated by commas) to notify your team of new submissions. Make sure to include your organization’s name in the body of the email as well.

Can I customize the Compact Donate Now form? The Compact Donate Now template is limited in modifications — some types of edits to it may break the form. If you need customization, use the standard Donate Now template or build a form from scratch.

Does DonorSnap store credit card information? No. Stripe processes and stores all payment details, charges the card, and deposits funds into your bank account. DonorSnap receives the donor’s contact details, gift amount, and frequency. Stripe deposits and processing fees appear in the Stripe Payout Report under the Online Forms menu.

What happens if I accidentally create a duplicate contact? Duplicates can be merged using the merge tool under Maintenance. It’s better to link submissions to existing records during processing, but a duplicate is easily corrected.

Related Pages:

Getting Started 101: Introduction
Getting Started 102: Setup
Getting Started 103: Features
Getting Started 104: Acknowledgement Letters
Getting Started 105: Searching
Getting Started 106: Reports
Getting Started 108: Mass Entry
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