Using EverWeb’s PayPal Widget for Donations

PayPal is the world’s largest e-commerce platform and often the vendor of choice when setting up your online store. It can, however, be complicated but EverWeb makes selling products easier through its PayPal widget. One you have set up your PayPal account, you can add shopping cart items to your site without having to use code at all.

in addition to the ‘Add to Cart’, ‘Buy Now’ and ‘View Shopping Cart’ icons EverWeb also includes a ‘Donate’ icon the PayPal widget making it easy to handle donations to the cause of your choice.

Functionally, the ‘Donate’ button works in the same way as the ‘Buy Now’ button. Donation funds will be received into your PayPal account, and the usual PayPal fees apply for Credit Card transactions. If you’re a registered charity check out your local PayPal website as you may be able to apply for discounted fee rates.

Setting Up a Donate Button

1. First drag and drop the PayPal widget to your page. Position and size the widget as desired.
2. Using the PayPal Widget Settings, enter the email address you use in your PayPal account in to the ‘Email Address’ field.
3. If you prefer, you can set up an email address linked to your PayPal Merchant ID specifically for donations. Any donations received will be notified to the donations email address you have created.
4. To add a new email address to your PayPal account, log in to your PayPal account and click on the Profile settings cog. In the Email section, click on ‘Update’ and fill in the fields as required. Once complete you can use this email address in the PayPal widget’s ‘Email Address’ field.
5. Back in EverWeb’s PayPal Widget Settings, change the Button Type to ‘Donate’.
6. The ‘Button Sub Type’ can be either ‘Product’ or ‘Service’, but it’s probably better as ‘Service’ in this case.
7. Enter an ‘Item Name’ that indicates that this is a donation.
8. The ‘Item ID’ must filled in. If it is not filled in the transaction will not work. You can enter in any ID here e.g. ‘Give’, ‘Donate’ etc.
9. Leave the ‘Price’ field empty if you want the donator to enter in their own amount when donating.
10. Alternatively enter a set amount in the ‘Price’ field.
11. Enter the currency that the donation is to be made in and the ‘Country’ field as required.
12. You can ignore the ‘Shipping’ and ‘Shipping Req’ fields as the donation will be made online.
13. Check with your local tax authorities if you’re unsure about the tax liability of donations. Enter the ‘Tax Rate (%)’ if required.
14. Usually it is a good idea to ‘Open shopping cart in new tab’ so a new window is opened specifically relating to the transaction.
15. Typically donators will only donate once so leave the ‘Show quantity field’ unchecked.
16. To create different donation ‘levels’ use the ‘Add’ button in ‘Product Options/Prices’. Enter different donation amounts that you want to use.
17. Do not use the ‘Product Options/Prices’ field if you want donators to enter in their own amount, or when you want donations to be of a set amount. Instead set the ‘Price’ field as blank for donators to enter their own amount, or add an amount you want a set donation amount.
18. If using the ‘Product Options/Prices’ option, you can include the currency symbol of the donation currency in the field. Depending on the currency used, use either a decimal period (‘.’) or decimal comma (‘,’). Using the wrong separator will probably cause the transaction to fail. If you are using whole amounts, you do not need to enter the decimal e.g. $15, €50 etc.
19. Add an ‘Option Label’ if required if you use ‘Product Options/Prices’.
20. Use the ‘Custom Button’ section of the widget to add your own customized donation button if desired. Change the button size using the Height and Width options.
21. Complete the widget by adding a ‘Thank You’ and ‘Cancelled’ page’ page to your site, then link them to the ‘Thank You Page’ and ‘Cancelled Page’ dropdown menus in the ‘Additional Options’ section of the widget.
22. For successful PayPal transactions, when returning from PayPal to your site, the Thank You page will be shown. If the transaction fails, the Cancelled Page is displayed.
23. To make PayPal return you to your website when the transaction completes (whether successful or not), go to your PayPal account. In your Profile select ‘Profile and Settings’. Select ‘My Selling Tools’ on the left side of the screen. To the right in the ‘Selling Online’ options, set ‘Website Preferences’ to ‘Return customers to my website after they’ve payed with PayPal’.

You’re finished! Publish your site and test out your donation button to make sure that the PayPal transaction works properly and that you are back to your site when the transaction completes.