Public product documentation for nonprofit admins using CharityStack.
This guide helps a nonprofit admin go from a new CharityStack account to accepting payments and managing supporter activity.
These are the main CharityStack concepts nonprofit admins should understand before using the dashboard.
Installing the CharityStack Script in order to embed forms and use elements
Forms are the fundraising and event payment experiences your supporters use to give or purchase tickets.
Hosted pages let you share a CharityStack Fundraiser Form or Event Form without editing your website.
Forms are the core giving and registration experiences in CharityStack. A form can be a Fundraiser Form for general giving, Giving Levels, or Sponsorships, or an Event Form for selling individual or group tickets.
Event Forms let supporters register for events, purchase tickets, and provide attendee information.
Funds let your organization categorize what a payment supports, including campaigns, programs, designations, or event revenue.
Custom input fields collect extra information from supporters during a form or payment flow.
FAQs let you answer common supporter questions directly on contact-facing forms and pages.
Elements are CharityStack-powered widgets and share assets connected to your forms.
Install CharityStack elements by adding the main embed script and then placing element code where each widget should appear.
A fundraising flag is a sticky website tab that prompts visitors to donate and opens your form when clicked.
An overlay element opens a Fundraiser Form or Event Form experience over your website.
A fundraising bar shows campaign progress on your website.
A supporter list shows contact activity or social proof on your website.
QR codes let supporters scan a code and open a Fundraiser Form, Event Form, or custom URL.
Add-to-cart elements let supporters build a cart-like giving or purchase experience before checkout.
URLs and prefilled links let you share payment links that open a form directly, sometimes with selected details already filled in.
Payments show Fundraiser Form payments, Event Form purchases, and related transaction activity.
Admins can create a payment from the dashboard when a payment needs to be processed or logged manually.
CharityStack can support multiple payment methods depending on your organization's setup.
Payment statuses help admins understand whether a transaction succeeded, failed, refunded, disputed, or needs review.
Offline payments are payments recorded in CharityStack even though the money was collected outside the normal online checkout flow.
Refunds return money to a supporter through the original payment path when supported.
Disputes occur when a cardholder challenges a payment through their bank or card issuer.
Receipts confirm payment activity for supporters and help organizations answer contact questions.
Contacts are supporter records that help admins understand giving history and relationship context.
Contact records show supporter details and giving history in one place.
Exports let admins download table data for reporting, reconciliation, and offline analysis.
Subscriptions are ongoing scheduled support records.
Subscriptions let supporters give on an ongoing schedule.
Admins can manage Subscriptions when a contact requests a change or when a subscription needs to be restored.
Contacts may need to update the payment method used for a Subscription.
Failed Subscription payments need review so your team can recover the Subscription or help the contact update payment details.
Payouts show transfers from processed funds to your organization's bank account.
Payouts move eligible processed funds to your organization's bank account.
Payout statuses explain where a bank transfer is in its lifecycle.
Reconciliation is the process of matching CharityStack payments, fees, refunds, disputes, and payouts to your accounting records.
The portal is a self-service page your contacts can use for payment history and Subscription management.
Contacts can log in to the portal to access self-service features.
Payment history helps contacts review past giving and event payment activity.
The portal can help contacts manage Subscriptions.
Settings let admins manage organization information, users, compliance, payout configuration, website setup, portal links, and integrations.
Organization settings control the basic profile and branding details for your CharityStack account.
Billing settings show the organization's CharityStack plan and billing configuration.
The embed script lets CharityStack elements load on your organization's website.
Admins can invite teammates and control what each person can view or manage.
Email settings control transactional email and end-of-year receipt behavior.
Payout frequency controls how often eligible funds are transferred to your organization's bank account when the setting is available.
Compliance settings help your organization complete required payment and security steps.
The portal link is the contact-facing URL supporters can use to access self-service features.
Integrations connect CharityStack to other tools your organization uses.
Zapier can connect CharityStack activity to other apps through automation workflows. CharityStack uses Zapier webhook URLs for this connection.
Double the Donation helps organizations support employer matching workflows when enabled.
