1. Quick Start

Eight steps to a working donation form on your website. Each step names the article that covers it in full.

From Forms, choose Create a new form, then Donation.

Setup asks for a name, a department, and a payment subcategory. All three are required and Save remains disabled until they are set. The name is used in the Forms list only and is not shown to visitors. The payment subcategory is the fund donations through this form are recorded against.

The other starting points are Event registration, which adds a guest list, Contact form, which takes no payment, and Blank form. See Getting Started.

The form now contains contact details, giving amounts, and the credit card section, with every field already mapped to its database equivalent.

Selecting a field shows its toolbar: Move up, Move down, Move somewhere else, Duplicate and Delete. The properties panel sets the label, the placeholder, and whether the field is required. See Building Your Form.

Select the row of suggested amounts at the top of the payment section and open its settings. A new list contains $180, $360 and $540.

Each row has a value, which is the amount charged, and a title, which appears on the button. Typing a value formats the title as currency automatically. The Other box, enabled by default, lets a donor enter any amount. See Donations & Payments.

Open the Preview | AI Assistant view. The design panel sits beside a live preview of the form, which redraws as options are changed.

Choose one of six styles and set the accent color. The accent color is used for the submit button, the selected giving amount, and the active field. Hex codes can be pasted directly.

The panel also switches to the Assistant, where the design can be described in plain language instead. It accepts an attached image to match, and each proposal can be accepted or discarded. See The Look of Your Form.

On the Settings tab, under Where submissions go, set Notification recipients to the staff addresses to be emailed on each submission, separated by commas. Family category tags the family record of everyone who submits through this form; it applies from the moment it is set and not to earlier submissions.

Under After a submission, set the message shown on screen after submitting, and whether it appears as a popup over the form or in place of it. See Settings & Putting the Form on Your Website.

On the Email Confirmation tab, set the subject, the from name, and the sending address. The email takes the form's colors and typography automatically; there is no separate design to set.

Write the body, or use one of the assistant's suggestions to draft it. Insert {{FieldList}} to include a summary of everything submitted. Send a sample emails the draft to you with sample data. See The Confirmation Email.

The preview carries Phone, Tablet and Desktop toggles. The form redraws at the selected width, so no browser resizing is involved.

Press Save. Changes reach the live form only on save.

Under Settings → Embed on your website, press Copy embed code and give the snippet to whoever maintains your website. The snippet appears only after the form has been saved once.

The snippet references the form rather than containing it, so later edits reach visitors on save without the code being replaced.

Already in Place

Two things are active without configuration.

Bot protection and declined-card protection are on, at default settings: reCAPTCHA sensitivity 0.5, plus a response delay and a lockout threshold for repeated declines. See Security.

Version history records every save. From the Forms list, History shows what changed between any save and the current version, renders both side by side, and restores a selected version. See The Forms List & History.