How to donate using LoveGiving
This help guide article covers how a donor can give to your church or charity via LoveGiving.
In this article:
Sharing your LoveGiving Link
As part of the setup steps for LoveGiving, you chose your custom LoveGiving URL.
You can share the link to your Giving Page by adding a 'Give Now' button to your website and within email communications that you send.
You can share fund-specific giving links and create specific giving campaigns.
Entering Donation Details
First, the donor enters a donation amount. The donor then selects the frequency as either 'One Off' or for recurring donations the donor can select 'Weekly', 'Monthly' or 'Yearly' as appropriate.
The minimum donation amount is £1.
If you have multiple funds set up as eligible for online donations, then an additional 'Fund' dropdown will appear in this first box, enabling donors to choose which fund to donate to.
If a donor clicks on your giving page from a fund-specific link, they will not see the fund dropdown. They will see the fund name displayed at the top of the page instead.
Donors will see the 'Online Giving - Display Name' in the fund dropdown, which can be customised in your LoveGiving settings, rather than the regular fund name used within ExpensePlus.
Adding Gift Aid details for the donation
If the donor can Gift Aid their donation, and selects the Gift Aid checkbox, then additional information about Gift Aid appears along with an address field.
Adding card details
Once the donor has inserted their name, address (Gift Aid donors only) and email address, they need to click 'Confirm Gift' at the bottom of the screen, and they will be taken to a page to enter their payment details.
Once done, the donor selects 'Make Payment' and if the donation is successful, they will be taken to a donation success screen where the custom thank you message will be displayed, if you have set one in your LoveGiving settings screen.
The donor will also be sent a confirmation email from LoveGiving:
A 'Donate Again' button on the confirmation screen makes it easy for donors to give another donation, should they wish to (e.g. to a different fund or appeal you have running).
Recurring donations
Where a donor has chosen to give a recurring donation, this will automatically be collected from the donor's payment method each week/month/year based on the frequency the donor selected.
To find out more about recurring donations via LoveGiving, please go to this separate help guide article.
Each time a donation is taken, the donor is sent an email, which is shown in the section below.
Editing & cancelling recurring donations
Donors can update or cancel their recurring donations themselves. In the original donation confirmation email, donors can request a link to update their donation:
ExpensePlus will generate a new email with a time-limited link that the donor can use to edit their recurring donation.
They will be taken to the screen below, where they can edit their details, donation amount and Gift Aid information, as well as cancel their recurring donation.
The donor will receive a new confirmation email, detailing the changes to or cancellation of their recurring donation.
To better understand the LoveGiving module, please view the module overview here.