How to Set Up a Donation Page Using Your PayPal Account
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhile PayPal is a handy tool for sending money, you can also use it to create a donation page to raise funds. Here, we’ll show you how to do so.
Besides sending and receiving money, you can use PayPal for personal or organizational fundraising drives. PayPal comes with an easy-to-use feature that lets you create a donation page that you can share as a link to potential donors. You can also create a donation button that you can easily embed on your website at the same time.
Setting up a PayPal donation page is easy and should take just a couple of minutes. Here’s how to go about it.
Requirements Before Setting Up a PayPal Donation Page
You need to fulfill one major requirement before creating your PayPal donation page; signing up for a PayPal Business account. If you already have a personal account, you can switch to a business account by going to Settings and clicking Upgrade to a Business account. You can opt to maintain your account or change it into a new business account.
Opening an individual personal PayPal account is easy in case you don’t have one already. We recommend separating the accounts to avoid mixing up donations and business transactions with personal funds.
To make the donation page creation process faster, have the following information readily available—it’s optional but would help boost donor conversions:
- A square logo.
- A landscape image to display on top of your donation page.
- A brief, compelling story to motivate your donors to join your cause.
How to Create a Donation Page Using PayPal
Once your account is ready, and you have the suggested details ready, log in to PayPal and follow these steps:
- Go to the Pay & Get Paid tab on the dashboard.
- Select PayPal Buttons from the Accept Payments menu.
- Select Donate from the given button options.
- Click the Create a link option to start customizing your donation page.
- Follow the prompts, fill in all the necessary details, and click Continue.
- Click Finish once everything is set, and copy the generated link for sharing with donors.
- You can create additional donation pages and tailor them for different campaigns or different donors.
- Also, you can generate an HTML PayPal donation button by clicking the Customize a button option in step 4 and following the rest of these steps.
Your donation page is now live. To access the link, go to Pay & Get Paid > PayPal Buttons > Donate. Select the donation page or button that you want to share from Your donation pages section. Copy the shareable link and use it as you wish—it’ll always be available in this section alongside a downloadable QR code that you can print out or share on your online pages.
To modify or delete a donation campaign, access the link as seen above and click the Edit, Duplicate or Delete options depending on what you want to do.
Tips to Create a Better PayPal Donation Page
During the donation page creation process, we recommend doing the following to enhance the performance of your campaign:
- Use the preview box to see how your page looks on mobile and PC.
- Upload a logo and a cover image.
- Select the relevant currency depending on the location of your target donors.
- Set three different default donation amounts, plus add the option to donate a custom amount.
- Let your donors make recurring donations.
- Let donors choose from a list of available programs that they want to donate to if you’re running parallel campaigns.
- Redirect donors back to your website if you have one.
- Let your donors engage with you by sending an optional note.
In case the PayPal donation feature fails to meet your needs, you can always try out alternative online fundraising platforms with more advanced capabilities.
Fast Track Your Donation Campaigns With PayPal
You can play around with the recommendations above during the donation page creation process. Whenever the need arises, you can always change them or turn them off using the Edit option when you access your donation page.
Once your link is live on your website or social media pages, visitors will be able to click on and support you through PayPal. Creating a PayPal donation page is free and lets non-PayPal donors donate using their cards. And after your campaign is done, you can explore PayPal’s other money-sending features.