Ape Donate helps charities, nonprofits, and fundraising organizations accept donations on WordPress. Donors can give without a page reload, payments are processed through Stripe Checkout, and you manage campaigns, donors, and receipts from a dedicated admin dashboard.

Donation forms

AJAX-based forms so donors can complete a gift without reloading the page
Three form templates: Classic, Standard, and Premium
Logged-in users have their details auto-filled
Optional anonymous donations, Gift Aid, and a service-fee option
Google reCAPTCHA (visible or invisible) to reduce spam

Campaigns and receipts

Create and manage fundraising campaigns from the admin dashboard
Campaign list shortcode with pagination
Success and failed receipt pages are created on activation
PDF receipt download for completed donations

Payments and admin

Stripe Checkout with test and live modes, plus webhook support
Multiple currencies with formatted amounts
Dashboard, donation list, donors, transactions, and reports
Color and font settings so forms match your site
Translation-ready with the ape-donate text domain

Optional add-ons

Gift Aid and Recurring Donations are separate WordPress plugins. Install and activate them from the WordPress Plugins screen. Ape Donate Add-ons shows which companion plugins are active:

Gift Aid – Claim Gift Aid on eligible UK donations
Recurring Donations – Accept monthly and other recurring gifts through Stripe

Shortcodes

Place these shortcodes in any page, post, or widget.

Donation form

[apedo_Quick_donation_form]

Optional attribute:

template – classic, standard, or premium

Examples:

[apedo_Quick_donation_form]
[apedo_Quick_donation_form template="standard"]
[apedo_Quick_donation_form template="premium"]

Campaigns

[apedo_campaign_lists] – List of active campaigns

[apedo_campaign id="5"] – Single campaign by campaign ID

[apedo_campaign post_id="10"] – Single campaign by WordPress post ID

Donation history

[apedo_donation_table]

Logged-in donors see their donation history. Guests are prompted to log in.

Receipts

Receipt pages are created automatically. You can also use:

[apedo_thank_you] – Success receipt (`id` or `donation_id` query argument)

[apedo_failed_receipt] – Failed payment receipt (`id` or `donation_id` query argument)

[apedo_failed_reciept] – Alias of `[apedo_failed_receipt]` (kept for existing pages)<h3>Developer Notes</h3>

JavaScript source lives in resources/vue/ and resources/js/. Compiled assets are written to assets/ with Laravel Mix.

The plugin ZIP includes the build tools at the plugin root:

package.json — npm dependencies and scripts
package-lock.json — lockfile for npm ci
webpack.mix.js — Laravel Mix / Webpack configuration

To rebuild production assets from the plugin directory:

npm ci

npm run production

Behind a reverse proxy that overwrites client IPs, define APEDO_TRUST_FORWARDED_FOR as true in wp-config.php so donation rate limiting can use X-Forwarded-For. By default only REMOTE_ADDR is used.

The admin dashboard bundle (assets/js/admin.js) includes Vue 3, Element Plus, and ECharts. Those libraries are used only in wp-admin. Public donation forms use separate, smaller frontend assets.

External Services

This plugin connects to third-party services when those features are used.

Stripe

Purpose: Process donations through Stripe Checkout and verify payments with webhooks.
Data sent: Amount, currency, donation ID, and payment metadata. Card details are entered on Stripe-hosted Checkout and are not stored by this plugin.
When: When a donor submits a payment, and when Stripe sends webhook events.
Terms of Service: https://stripe.com/legal
Privacy Policy: https://stripe.com/privacy

Google reCAPTCHA (optional)

Purpose: Reduce spam on donation forms.
Data sent: Form interaction data used by Google to score or challenge the submission.
When: Only if reCAPTCHA is enabled in Settings and a donor loads or submits a form.
Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms
Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

All requests to these services use HTTPS.

Privacy

Card numbers are collected and processed by Stripe, not stored in WordPress.
Donor name, email, phone, address, amount, campaign, donation message, and transaction status are stored in your WordPress database so you can manage donations and receipts.
The plugin registers with WordPress Tools Export Personal Data and Tools Erase Personal Data. Erasure removes personal donor details and retains donation amounts and payment status for accounting.
Donation records stay in the database after the plugin is deleted unless Remove all data on uninstall is enabled in Settings.
Donation Success and Donation Failed pages are not deleted, so any customizations you made stay on the site.
Google reCAPTCHA runs only when you enable it.
Gift Aid and recurring billing run only when the matching addon is installed and activated.