Ship your first donation form
Build a donation form, publish it, and share the link. End-to-end in about fifteen minutes once Stripe is connected.
This is the shortest path from a fresh org to a real, donor-facing form. By the end you'll have a live page at {your-slug}.alltogether.giving/donate/<form-slug> that takes card and BECS / PayTo payments.
Before you start
You need:
- Stripe connected with Connected status. Until that's done, donors see the form but the Pay button doesn't charge.
- ADMIN or EDITOR role on your org.
- Your campaign messaging in mind: a title, a one-line description, and the suggested donation amounts.
Step 1: Create the form
Go to Engage -> Forms and click Create Form. The form editor opens with sensible defaults.
Fill in the four fields that donors will see:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | Internal label. Shows up in the forms list and reports. Donors never see this. |
| Slug | The public URL fragment, e.g. general for /donate/general. Editable now, sticky once shared (changing it breaks existing links). |
| Title | Shown to donors at the top of the donate page. The headline of your ask. |
| Description | Optional. A one-line subheading under the title. Skip it if the title carries the message. |
Pick Active for status and save. Draft forms exist but don't accept donations.
Step 2: Tune the amounts
Donors see a row of suggested amounts plus an "Other" field. Set them in the editor:
- Preset amounts. Comma-separated whole-dollar numbers, e.g.
25, 50, 100, 250. Keep it to four or five amounts; more clutters the form on mobile. - Default amount. Optional. Pre-selects one of the presets when the page loads. Leave blank if you want donors to pick consciously.
- Recurring frequencies. Tick the cadences you want to offer: WEEKLY, FORTNIGHTLY, MONTHLY, QUARTERLY, ANNUALLY, or none for one-off only. Most orgs offer MONTHLY plus one-off.
The form supports both one-off and recurring on the same page; donors switch via a toggle.
Step 3: Compliance and consent
Two fields shape the legal posture of the form:
- Disclaimer text. Free-form. Appears below the form, above the Pay button. Common text for federal campaigns: "I am an Australian citizen or permanent resident and this donation complies with the Commonwealth Electoral Act." Talk to your compliance lead.
- Tracking code. Used for FCA classification on inbound donations. Set this to whatever code your compliance configuration is expecting for federal money from this form.
Setting Address visibility to REQUIRED makes the donor's address mandatory on the form. Required for some compliance scenarios; OPTIONAL or NONE otherwise. The same toggle exists for Phone visibility.
Step 4: Save and preview
Click Save. You land on the form's detail page with a public URL at the top.
Before sharing, preview the form: click the URL while signed in. Active forms render to the public; draft forms only render for signed-in members of your org (a yellow Preview Mode banner shows on draft previews so you know the donor view won't see it yet).
Step 5: Share the URL
Copy the URL from the detail page. It looks like https://{your-slug}.alltogether.giving/donate/<form-slug>. Drop it into:
- Email signatures and campaign sends.
- Social posts. Together generates an OpenGraph card automatically from the form title and your branding.
- QR codes for print materials.
The URL is permanent. Don't change the form slug after you've shared it.
What to do next
- Share a checkout link for a single donor or major-gift conversation: Create a checkout link.
- Manage incoming donors as donations come in: Add a donor manually for offline gifts you need to record.
- Read the donations list to see what your form is collecting: Read the donations list.