Donations

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Overview

• Donations allow customers to make charitable contributions during checkout or from a dedicated browse page.
• Donations can be created at the event level (specific to one event) or at the company level (available across all events).
• Pricing can be fixed (preset amounts such as £5, £10, £20) or variable (customer chooses their own amount within optional bounds).
• Donations use a variant structure — a parent donation item holds one or more variants, each representing a different price option. Customers select a variant when donating.
• Customers can purchase one donation per donation type per order.
• Donations do not use stock management and have unlimited availability.
• The donations feature must be enabled on your company.

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Use Cases

Event-specific fundraising

A charity run creates a donation item on the event with variants at £5, £10, and £25, plus a variable-price option for custom amounts. Customers are prompted to donate during checkout after selecting their tickets.

Suggested donations at checkout

With suggested donations (round-ups) enabled, customers see options to donate a percentage of their basket total — such as 5%, 10%, or 15% — during checkout. This provides a frictionless way to encourage contributions without requiring a specific amount.

Site-wide charitable giving

A company-level donation item is created so that customers purchasing tickets for any event are offered the opportunity to donate. Gift Aid is enabled so the charity can claim tax relief on qualifying donations.

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Creating Donations

Donations are created from the event dashboard (for event-level) or from the Donations section in the admin navigation (for company-level). Donation items can also be created and updated via the API.

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Variants

Each donation item has one or more variants representing the available donation options:

• Fixed-price variants — preset amounts (e.g. £5, £10, £25) that the customer selects from a dropdown.
• Variable-price variants — the customer enters a custom amount. Optional minimum and maximum bounds can be set per currency.

A donation item can mix both fixed and variable variants, giving customers the choice between a quick preset amount or a custom contribution.

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Configuration

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Customer Experience

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Checkout Step

Donations appear as a dedicated step during checkout. This step shows:

1. Event-level donations — grouped under a “Based on items in your basket” heading, relevant to the events the customer is purchasing for.
2. Suggested donations — percentage-based round-up options calculated from the basket total (if enabled).
3. Company-level donations — available regardless of which events are in the basket.

For each donation, the customer can:

• Select a preset amount from the variant dropdown.
• Enter a custom amount if a variable-price variant is available.
• Skip the donations step entirely via Skip and Continue.

After selecting a donation, the customer clicks Donate and Checkout (or Donate and Continue if further checkout steps remain).

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Browse Page

A dedicated browse page at /donations displays all available donation items. This page can be customised with:

• A title and description to introduce the cause.
• A header image displayed at the top of the page.

Customers can add donations to their basket directly from this page.

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Gift Aid

Gift Aid is a UK tax scheme that allows charities to claim additional money from the government on qualifying donations. The platform supports Gift Aid collection as an optional checkout step.

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Setup

1. Enable Gift Aid in the donation settings and set the Gift Aid percentage (e.g. 25%).
2. Mark individual donation items as Attracts Gift Aid.

The feature is available in two modes:

• Donations only — donations without Gift Aid collection.
• Donations with Gift Aid — donations with the Gift Aid declaration step enabled.

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Checkout Flow

When a customer adds a donation that attracts Gift Aid, an additional Gift Aid declaration step appears in the checkout:

1. The customer’s name and address are displayed (collected during account creation or checkout).
2. The customer reads the Gift Aid declaration statement.
3. The customer ticks a checkbox to confirm: “I acknowledge the above details are correct and I want to Gift Aid my donation of [amount] to [charity].”

If the customer declines, the donation still proceeds without Gift Aid.

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What Is Recorded

For each Gift Aid declaration, the platform records:

• The donor’s name and address.
• The original donation amount.
• The total amount including Gift Aid (donation multiplied by 1 + the Gift Aid percentage).
• The declaration body and statement.

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Suggested Donations (Round-Ups)

Suggested donations allow customers to donate a percentage of their basket total rather than selecting a fixed amount. This provides a low-friction way to encourage contributions.

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Setup

1. Enable suggested donations in the donation settings.
2. Define up to 6 percentage tiers (e.g. 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%).
3. Optionally select a parent donation item — suggested donations appear as variable-priced donations under this item. If no parent is selected, one is created automatically.

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How It Works

During checkout, the customer sees the suggested donation tiers alongside any event-level or company-level donations. Each tier shows:

• The percentage (e.g. “Round up 10%”).
• The calculated amount based on the current basket total.

The customer selects a tier or enters a custom amount, and the donation is added to their order.

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Donation Settings

Global donation settings are managed from the Donation settings panel in the admin:

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Fees

Donation fees can be configured separately from other item types:

• Fixed fee — a flat amount added to the donation.
• Percentage fee — a percentage of the donation amount.
• Minimum / maximum fee — bounds on the calculated fee amount.

Donations do not support sales tax.

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Fundraising Integration

The platform integrates with JustGiving to support event-level fundraising pages. When configured, customers can create personal or team fundraising pages linked to the event’s charity after completing their purchase. This is separate from the direct donation feature but complements it by enabling peer-to-peer fundraising.

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Restrictions

Donations have a narrower set of capabilities compared to other sale item types:

• Cannot be bundled or used as add-ons.
• Cannot belong to timeslots or sale item groups.
• Cannot be scanned, downloaded, or shared.
• Cannot have prerequisites or attract discounts.
• No stock management — donations have unlimited availability.
• Quantity is fixed at one per donation type per order.