How to Accept Recurring Donations on Squarespace Sites

Squarespace is a popular website builder known for beautifully designed templates.

Squarespace is a great choice for any nonprofit looking to build a great website which is functional and visually appealing, yet easy to manage. Like other website builders, Squarespace requires no coding knowledge (although you can edit your Squarespace site using CSS too).

Squarespace offers an array of beautiful templates which instantly command attention. The templates are also mobile-responsive which makes them look great on phones and tablets. Finally, Squarespace’s Style Editor gives you full control over fonts, colors, image opacity, sidebar width, background images, sizes, and spacing of just about anything on your Squarespace website.

On the other hand, Squarespace doesn’t offer a built-in option for recurring or subscription donations at the moment and has limited data collection capabilities.

However, every nonprofit organization needs a robust online donation platform that can support recurring donations, as well as custom data collection.

For that, Donorbox is the perfect solution.

Donorbox is a powerful fundraising software that is simple to set up and seamlessly embeds into your website. It features a cutting-edge donation system that attracts recurring donations (which we all know is the bread and butter of nonprofits)!

Donorbox features a fast, multi-step checkout, integrated employer donation matching, a donation thermometer and so much more.

Donorbox’s embeddable donation forms support donor-controlled recurring donations, a variety of payment methods (card, ACH, PayPal), and a powerful custom form builder.

Unlike with PayPal, you can add an embedded form directly to your Squarespace site so your donor won’t have to leave your page. This is known to increase conversion rates – more website visitors end up donating if they don’t leave the site.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to receive donations on your Squarespace site.

If you prefer, you can watch our integration video guide  — it will walk you through the donation form integration process in just under 2 minutes!

How to Set Up a Recurring Donation Form on Squarespace

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Step 1:

Go to your Donorbox dashboard and find the campaign donation form you wish to embed on your Squarespace site. If you don’t have a Donorbox account yet, you can sign up here.

Note:

In case you’re new to Donorbox, you’ll need to Create a Donation Form and fill in the required information (Campaign Title, Campaign Details, Form Language, Currency, Form Amounts, Email, Custom Fields, Tracking, and Design). You’ll also need to set up a Stripe merchant account.

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Step 2:

Click the “Embed Form” button on your Donorbox dashboard.

 

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Step 3: Embed code of Squarespace donate button

Copy the embed code as shown below.

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Step 4:

Go to your Squarespace Pages editor. Find or create a Squarespace donation page into which you want to embed the recurring donation form. If you already have a page onto which you want to embed the code, click “Edit” on the page’s main content box.

Note:

To create a new page, click the “+” next to the Main Navigation menu. Then click “Page”. After selecting the title, the description, and the layout, you’ll be able to “Edit Page Content” by clicking on the teardrop-shaped button (see the next step).

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Step 5:

Click on the teardrop-shaped button inside the text box. This will open up a list of content blocks.

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Step 6:

Scroll down and click “Code” under the “More” section.

 

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Step 7:

Now, paste the recurring donation form embed code (from Step 3) in the code box and click “Apply”.

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Step 8:

It’s time to publish your updated Squarespace website and wait for the donations to start coming in!

Take a look at Lalela’s website for an example of what your finalized Squarespace recurring donation page could look like:

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Step 9:

Turn on SSL

Squarespace now automatically generates SSL certificates for Squarespace and third-party domains in order to allow your visitors to view your website securely over an https connection.

Squarespace offers two different SSL security settings. Be sure to activate the “Secure” setting. To do so, click the “Settings” button on your Home Menu.

Then, under “Website”, click “Security & SSL”, and choose the “Secure” setting under “Security Preference” (see image below). Remember, in order to reduce risks, Donorbox requires that a webpage is SSL secured before you can embed a donation form onto it.

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Tips on How to Encourage Your Visitors to Make a Donation

1. Have an impactful heading: Your headline should attract the attention of your visitors. Be clear, specific, and brief. E.g. “Invest in a future free from slavery”
2. Use powerful images: We don’t say that a picture is worth a thousand words for no reason. Use captivating, high-quality images on your site – ideally real ones, not stock images.
3. Offer a variety of payment options: In today’s day and age, offering multiple options to suit different needs is essential: credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay…
4. Keep it simple: It’s very easy to overload the donation page with information. Try to keep it simple and minimal, focusing on your “Donate” button.
5. Make the online donation experience a friendly one: There’s nothing worse than losing a visitor to a poor donation page and donation form design.
6. Clearly display your nonprofit’s financial information: Many potential donors seek out financial information for a nonprofit prior to making a donation.
7.  Share how specific donations were spent: Send a follow-up email to the donor letting them know how their specific donation was spent. This increases the chances of them donating again.
8. Stay authentic: Maintain personal contact with your donors, including in person and by phone, to make that human connection stronger and more authentic.
9. Offer a “share” option: Encourage your visitors to share your donation page with others. This increases your brand visibility and reach.
10. Make your donation page stand out.

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If you’re more of a video person, check out our video guide:

How to Receive Recurring Donations on Squarespace – [Video Tutorial]

 

Hope this tutorial was helpful to create your nonprofit’s recurring donation form on Squarespace.