Description
Can One Plugin Run Your Fundraising Without Handing Donors to a Third Party?
Give – Memberdash is built around that question. It starts with a drag-and-drop donation form builder, adds peer-to-peer fundraising and real-time campaign goal tracking, and then layers on recurring gifts, fee recovery, and automated PDF receipts. Every donor record stays in your own WordPress database. Nobody sits between you and the people who fund your work.
The Give – Memberdash WordPress plugin covers the full path from a first single-page donation form to a multi-campaign fundraising operation. You can begin with one form and one payment gateway, then add tools as your mission grows. The pace is yours, the site is yours, and so is the data.
The Challenge: Fundraising Tools That Own Your Relationships
Many organizations start fundraising on a hosted platform because it is quick. Then the costs show up. The platform controls the donor list, the checkout design, the receipts, and often a slice of every gift. Moving away later means rebuilding forms, exporting spreadsheets, and hoping your supporters follow you.
There is a second problem, and it is operational. Donations arrive through one channel, event gifts through another, and a board member hands you a check at a dinner. Receipts get written by hand. Campaign totals live in a spreadsheet someone updates on Fridays. Recurring donors lapse because nobody noticed a failed card. Small teams lose hours to this every week, and those hours come out of the mission.
Finally, there is the matter of fees. Card processing eats into every gift. Without a way to let donors cover that cost, or a clear view of where revenue comes from, it is hard to plan a budget with any confidence.
How Does Give – Memberdash Solve This?
Give – Memberdash puts membership management, donor records, and payment handling inside WordPress. Your donors give through forms on your own pages, styled to match your site. Their history, tributes, and recurring schedules are stored where you can see them and export them.
Forms you can shape to the campaign
The form builder is drag and drop, and you can add custom fields for whatever you need to collect: a dedication name, a t-shirt size for a fun run, a employer for matching gifts. You are not limited in how many forms you publish, so a spring appeal, a memorial fund, and an emergency campaign can each have their own page and their own look.
Goals that supporters can watch
Set a target for a campaign and show progress as gifts come in. A visible progress bar gives hesitant donors a reason to act, and it gives your team a live number instead of a Friday spreadsheet. Peer-to-peer fundraising extends this: supporters can raise money from their own networks on behalf of your cause.
Receipts that write themselves
Each gift can trigger a branded, tax-compliant PDF receipt delivered to the donor’s inbox. Tributes and dedications are built in, so a gift made in memory of someone is acknowledged properly without anyone typing a letter. Donors get proof of impact immediately, and your staff does not touch it.
Payment options that match your donors
Accept gifts through Stripe, PayPal, or Square, and use international payment gateways when your supporters live abroad. Recurring donations let people give monthly, and the fee recovery option lets donors choose to cover processing costs so more of the gift reaches the program.
Core Features
- Unlimited donation forms with a drag-and-drop builder and custom fields for any donor data you need.
- Donor database and management to segment supporters, review giving history, and personalize outreach.
- Stripe, PayPal, and Square payment processing, plus international payment gateways.
- Recurring donations for monthly or ongoing supporters.
- Fee recovery (pay-the-fee option) so donors can cover transaction costs.
- Campaigns and goal tracking with real-time progress display.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising so supporters can raise funds from their own circles.
- Fundraising reports and analytics to see what is working across forms and campaigns.
- Google Analytics donation tracking to connect traffic sources to gifts.
- Text-to-Give for donors who prefer to give from a phone.
- Manual donations for checks, cash, and gifts collected offline.
- Automated PDF receipts with branding, tributes, and dedications.
- Email integrations with MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, and ConvertKit.
- Zapier and Salesforce integrations for connecting donor data to your wider toolset.
- Everything in Pro included in the package.
Practical Applications
A small nonprofit with one part-time fundraiser
Picture a food bank that needs a donation page before the holiday season. One form goes live with Stripe and PayPal connected. A goal bar shows progress toward a winter meal target, and every donor receives a PDF receipt without anyone drafting it. The part-time fundraiser spends the saved hours calling major donors instead.
A charity run with team fundraisers
A community 5K can use peer-to-peer fundraising so each runner collects pledges from friends and family. Custom fields capture shirt sizes and team names. Manual donations record the cash that arrives at the registration table, so the campaign total reflects every dollar, not just the online ones.
A membership-driven organization
Clubs, associations, and alumni groups often rely on recurring support. Recurring donations keep monthly givers on a steady schedule, while the donor database lets you segment by giving level and send different messages to each group through MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, or ConvertKit.
A growing organization with a data team
Larger operations need numbers. Fundraising reports show performance by form and campaign, Google Analytics tracking ties gifts to the channels that produced them, and Zapier or Salesforce connections move donor data into the systems your staff already use.
Customization on your terms
Because the plugin is released under the GPL, developers can inspect the code, adapt it, and extend it for unusual workflows. A site with specific reporting needs or a custom donor journey is not stuck waiting on a vendor roadmap. You own the installation and the freedom that comes with it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can donors cover the processing fees themselves?
Yes. The fee recovery option adds a pay-the-fee choice to the donation form. Donors who opt in cover the transaction cost, so the full intended amount reaches your cause. It is a small addition to the checkout, and it works for one-time and recurring gifts alike.
How do I record gifts that don’t come through the website?
Use manual donations. You enter checks, cash, or event gifts directly into the system, and they join the same donor records and campaign totals as online gifts. That keeps your goal progress and reports accurate instead of split between two sources.
Which payment processors can I use for donations?
Give – Memberdash supports Stripe, PayPal, and Square, along with international payment gateways for supporters outside your home country. You choose which ones to offer on each form. A local campaign might use a single gateway, while a global appeal can offer several.
What do donors receive after they give?
They receive an automated PDF receipt in their inbox. The receipt carries your branding, meets tax-compliance needs, and includes tribute or dedication details when the donor provides them. No one on your team has to generate or send it by hand.
