How to accept donations with Stripe

Accepting donations with Stripe is one of the most straightforward ways for nonprofits and charitable organisations to collect funds online.

Stripe supports one-time and recurring payments, multiple currencies, and modern payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay. For qualifying nonprofits, Stripe also offers discounted processing fees.

However, Stripe itself is a payment processor. It does not automatically create donation pages, fundraising forms, or embeddable widgets for your website. To collect donations online, you’ll need to decide how you want donors to complete the payment.

There are three common ways organisations accept donations with Stripe:

1. Using Stripe Payment Links
2. Building a custom donation form with Stripe’s APIs
3. Using a no-code checkout platform connected to Stripe

Each approach offers a different balance between flexibility, control, and technical overhead.

More than half of all polled donors named online donation as their preferred method of giving, yet many donation sites still need work to be user-friendly and mobile-friendly (fundraising statistics).

Stripe for donations: what it handles (and what it doesn’t)

Stripe processes donation payments securely and transfers funds directly to your organisation’s bank account. It supports:

• One-time donations
• Recurring monthly or annual donations
• International payments in 100+ currencies
• Apple Pay, Google Pay, and major credit cards

Stripe does not:

• Build full donation pages for you
• Create fundraising landing pages
• Manage donor communication beyond payment receipts
• Replace your website or CRM

That distinction is important when choosing how to set up your donation flow.

Setting up Stripe for accepting donations

Before proceeding, ensure your organization meets the minimum requirements to accept donations through Stripe. A donation must be tied to a specific charitable purpose, and Stripe does not support personal or peer-to-peer money transmission.

✔ Create a Stripe account here.

✔ Before collecting donations, learn about Stripe's requirements for accepting tips or donations.

Stripe fees for nonprofits

Stripe offers discounted processing rates for verified nonprofit organisations (such as 501(c)(3) entities in the US).

For qualifying nonprofits:

• Credit cards (excluding American Express): 2.2% + $0.30
• American Express: 3.5%
• All other transactions: standard 2.9% + $0.30

Discount eligibility depends on nonprofit verification and processing volume requirements. You can review Stripe’s current nonprofit fee policies directly on their website.

Read more about Stripe's fee discount for nonprofit organizations.

How to accept donations with Stripe: your options

Option 1: Stripe Payment Links

Stripe Payment Links allow you to generate a donation link directly from your Stripe dashboard without writing code.

Best for:

• Simple donation campaigns
• Sharing links via email or social media
• Minimal setup

Limitations:

• Limited design control
• Less flexibility for complex donation structures

Option 2: Custom Stripe integration

If you have developer resources, you can build a fully customised donation form using Stripe’s APIs or embedded checkout components.

Best for:

• Organisations with technical teams
• Highly customised donation flows
• Deep integration with internal systems

Trade-off:

• Requires ongoing maintenance
• Webhook handling and backend session management

Option 3: No-code checkout platform connected to Stripe

Many nonprofits prefer to connect their Stripe account to a no-code checkout platform that handles the donation form and page design.

This allows you to:

• Create donation pages without development
• Offer recurring donations or flexible pricing
• Embed donation forms into your existing website
• Generate donation links or QR codes

Below, we’ll walk through how this setup works using Checkout Page as an example.

Donation formats Stripe can process

Stripe can securely process payments for a range of donation and fundraising structures, including:

• One-time donations
• Recurring monthly or annual contributions
• Membership-style recurring payments
• Event registration or ticket payments
• Merchandise purchases tied to fundraising campaigns
• Payment links that can be shared via QR code

Stripe handles the payment processing itself. Page design, donor management, and campaign structure depend on how you implement your checkout flow.

Using a no-code checkout platform with Stripe

If you don’t have internal development resources, building a custom Stripe integration may not be realistic. Even Stripe’s embedded checkout requires backend setup and ongoing webhook management.

In those cases, many nonprofits choose to connect their Stripe account to a no-code checkout platform. This allows you to create donation forms and pages while Stripe continues to handle payment processing and payouts.

Below is an example of how this works using Checkout Page.

Step 1: Create a new page

Start with a donation form template, or create a new page in your Checkout Page dashboard (see screenshots below).

Step 2: Donation type

What do the pricing types mean?

• One time: For one-off payments. Examples: donations, merchandise, event tickets, and membership fees.
• Subscription: Recurring donations (1, 3, 6, or 12 months), monthly donations, and annual membership fees.
• Pay what you want (PWYW): donors decide how much to give.

• For one-time donations, fill in a base price. You can add options (variants) at a later step!
• For subscriptions (recurring donations), choose a billing frequency.
• One form per frequency.
• You can link multiple forms seamlessly (we'll show you how at the end).
• For 'pay what you want', indicate the minimum donation amount.

Step 3: Add a description and image

It's recommended to add a description that accurately describes the payment form. You can add your organization's logo and brand colors to help potential donors recognize who they're donating to.

Step 4: Variants for donation amounts

If you have fixed donation amounts, use 'Variants' to display them on your form. Variants are useful for one-time and recurring donations.

Step 5: Add form fields

Add new form fields to collect donor information and billing information. Rearrange the fields as you desire.

💡 Keep the form simple with only the necessary fields

Step 6: Change the text on the button

The standard text on the form submission button is 'Pay', 'Submit', or 'Subscribe'. You can easily change this to something more suitable for giving, like 'Donate now', 'Donate', or 'Pledge this amount now'.

To change the button text, go to 'Design', then click 'Custom Labels'. Scroll till you find the right field to edit.

• Pay button: for one-time and pay-what-you-want forms
• Subscribe button: for recurring donations

If you prefer not to display the price (donation amount) because of the custom text, feel free to hide it. For example, a 'Donate now' button with no price after it.

Save when you're done and see the changes in the preview section!

Step 7: Customize the confirmation email

By default, donors will receive an automated confirmation email. You can update it to include a thank you note or add links to your website. Here's how to do it:

Send yourself a test email to see what it looks like! You can add HTML to the email body and use personalization tags by clicking [+].

📧 Read more about custom confirmation emails here.

Step 8: Test payments

Your donation form is almost ready! Navigate to 'Test Payments' to experience the donation process and make a test payment yourself. No actual payment will be made or received, but your registered email will receive a notification email of this submission.

Copy and paste the test credit card details into your form onto the form on the right (the preview area). Submit the "donation", and you should see the following message on the preview panel: [TEST] Payment confirmed!

The donation/payment form is now ready to be shared!

How to get a donation link

A donation link is a unique payment link that allows potential donors to donate online directly. Stripe processes all payments and donations.

🔗 Share it via email campaigns

🔗 Send the donation link by direct message

🔗 Link to it on social media posts

To get the shareable payment link of your donation form, look at the top right corner and click on 'Share & embed'. There are several other options to choose from:

How to create a donation page

The donation form we've created today can be used as a standalone donation page. You can also embed it as part of your website or donation page. This is what our completed donation form looks like!

To embed it into your website, copy and paste from 'Share & embed'. Our donation forms can be embedded into Framer websites, Instapage, Unbounce, Webflow, WordPress, and more.

How to get a donation QR Code

To generate a QR code for your donation form, go to 'Share & embed' and click the 'QR code' tab.

Download, print, and share the QR code to collect donations seamlessly online and offline (in person!).

Frequently Asked Questions

How soon can nonprofits access the donated funds?

All donations will go directly from the donor to Stripe. Checkout Page never holds any funds.

⏳ For the USA, Canada, and Australia: within two (2) business days.

If it's your first transfer, it might take up to 7 business days. You can set up automatic transfers to your business bank account.

💡 See past and incoming payouts on your Stripe Dashboard.

How much does Checkout Page cost?

Check out our pricing page for the latest promos.

Is there a nonprofit discount on Checkout Page?

Yes, the Checkout page offers discounts for nonprofits. Verify your organization's nonprofit status by sending us a live chat message or email, and you’ll get 50% off all plans