Set Up Public Fundraising

Public fundraising connects your shelter profile, payment methods, donation presets, wishlist items, donation records, and donor profiles. Once it is configured, supporters can make general donations from your public profile or fund specific public wishlist items by card through Stripe Connect.

Use this guide when you want the public support card, public wishlist, and Stripe checkout to work together.

Before You Start

You need:

• Account owner or Admin access for payment methods, donation amounts, and profile visibility.
• Privileged access to review the Fundraising Hub, Donations, Donors, and Wishlist pages.
• Your organization's legal and banking information for Stripe onboarding.
• At least one public profile already published or ready to publish.

PawPlacer does not collect card data directly. Stripe hosts checkout and sends PawPlacer webhook updates when payment succeeds, fails, expires, or is refunded.

Setup Checklist

Complete these steps in order:

1. Connect Stripe in Settings > Payment Methods.
2. Add any external payment methods you also want to offer.
3. Add suggested donation amounts in Settings > Donation Amounts.
4. Turn on your public profile and the fundraising visibility toggles in Settings > Organization > Profile Visibility.
5. Create public wishlist items and choose whether each item accepts monetary donations.
6. Open the public shelter profile and confirm the support card and wishlist actions appear.
7. Watch the Fundraising Hub and Donations page for test or first-live activity.

Step 1: Connect Stripe

Stripe Connect is required for card donations. It powers general public donations, full-profile embed donations, and public wishlist item funding.

1. Open Settings > Payment Methods.
2. In the Stripe card, choose Configure Stripe.
3. Complete Stripe's onboarding flow with your organization details, representative verification, and payout bank account.
4. Return to PawPlacer after Stripe redirects you back.
5. Confirm the Stripe card shows Active.

Stripe must be active before supporters can complete card checkout. If Stripe is Pending, select Configure Stripe again to resume onboarding. Stripe may need additional documents, tax information, or banking details before charges and payouts are enabled.

When Stripe is active, PawPlacer can create checkout sessions and automatically mark successful donations Received after Stripe confirms payment.

Step 2: Add External Payment Methods

External methods are optional. They give supporters more ways to give, but they are not automatic like Stripe.

From Settings > Payment Methods, you can add:

• PayPal
• Venmo
• Cash App
• Zelle
• Bitcoin
• Ethereum

For public donations and wishlist funding, these methods create a pending PawPlacer donation first. The supporter sees a reference and is sent to the provider link or instructions. Your team then confirms the provider transaction and marks the donation Received from the Donations page.

Use external methods when you want to accept non-card gifts, but rely on Stripe when you want automatic card checkout and automatic donation fulfillment.

Step 3: Add Donation Amounts

Donation amounts are the preset options supporters see in the public donation dialog.

1. Open Settings > Donation Amounts.
2. Add suggested amounts or create your own.
3. Keep each description short and concrete, such as "Cover vaccines" or "Feed a foster litter."
4. Save four to six options so supporters have a clear range.

General public donations use these presets. Wishlist items with a fixed price use the item's price first; wishlist items without a price can fall back to your donation presets and custom amount field.

Step 4: Turn On Public Fundraising Visibility

Public fundraising is controlled from profile visibility settings so you can publish your shelter profile without accidentally accepting donations.

1. Open Settings > Organization.
2. Find Profile Visibility.
3. Turn on Enable Public Profile if it is not already enabled.
4. Turn on Payments.
5. Turn on Donations.
6. Turn on Wishlist if you want public wishlist items to appear.
7. Use View Public Profile to open the supporter-facing page.

The public profile must be enabled before supporters can reach the support card. Payments must be enabled before public donation buttons can accept Stripe or external payment method gifts. Donations controls the general support card donation flow. Wishlist controls whether public wishlist items appear on the profile and full-profile embed.

Step 5: Create Fundable Wishlist Items

Wishlist setup controls which needs supporters can see and fund.

1. Open More > Wishlist.
2. Choose Add Wishlist Item.
3. Add a clear item name, category, priority, quantity needed, and details.
4. Add a per-unit price if you want PawPlacer to calculate fixed-price funding.
5. Add a product URL if supporters may buy the item from a retailer.
6. In Public Support, turn on Public Visible.
7. Leave Accepts Monetary Donations on if the item should accept Stripe or external payment funding.
8. Save the item.

Only public items in an open status appear to supporters. Fulfilled and archived items are hidden automatically. Items also stop showing support actions when all remaining units are received, funded, reserved in an active checkout, tied to a pending external payment, or pledged for delivery.

Use Public Visible and Accepts Monetary Donations separately:

• Turn both on when supporters should be able to see the item and fund it.
• Turn on Public Visible and turn off Accepts Monetary Donations when you want supporters to use the product link or pledge a physical item instead of giving money.
• Keep Public Visible off for internal-only needs.

Step 6: Confirm the Public Experience

Open your public shelter profile after setup:

1. Go to Settings > Organization > Profile Visibility.
2. Select View Public Profile.
3. Confirm the Support card appears.
4. Choose Donate and confirm your preset amounts appear.
5. Scroll to the public wishlist and confirm public items appear.
6. Open a wishlist item action and confirm the expected buttons appear.

Supporters may see different actions depending on setup:

• Donate appears for general public support when donations and payments are enabled.
• Fund Item appears for public wishlist items that accept monetary donations and have Stripe available.
• Pay another way appears when external payment methods are configured.
• Pledge Item appears for public wishlist items that can receive a physical item pledge.
• View Product appears when the item has a product URL.

If an action is missing, check the troubleshooting section below.

What Happens After a Supporter Gives

For Stripe donations:

1. PawPlacer creates a donation record and Stripe Checkout session.
2. For wishlist funding, PawPlacer reserves the selected quantity while checkout is open.
3. Stripe sends PawPlacer a webhook when payment succeeds.
4. PawPlacer marks the donation Received.
5. PawPlacer links or creates the donor profile when the supporter provided identity information.
6. For wishlist funding, PawPlacer updates the linked item progress.

For external payment methods:

1. PawPlacer creates a pending donation with a supporter-facing reference.
2. For wishlist funding, PawPlacer reserves the selected quantity while the donation is pending.
3. The supporter completes payment in the external provider.
4. Staff open Donations, match the reference or provider transaction, and mark the donation Received.
5. PawPlacer updates donor history and linked wishlist progress after reconciliation.

For physical item pledges:

1. The supporter submits their name, email, quantity, and a message with delivery or order details.
2. PawPlacer creates a pending in-kind donation.
3. The pledged quantity is reserved so another supporter cannot claim the same remaining units.
4. Staff mark the pledge Received after the item arrives.
5. PawPlacer updates the wishlist item's received quantity.

Monitor and Reconcile Gifts

Use these internal pages after launch:

• Fundraising Hub: review setup status, recent gifts, pending reconciliation, high-priority wishlist needs, and donor activity.
• Donations: search, filter, reconcile, cancel, edit, or review donation records.
• Donors: review giving history and supporter profiles.
• Wishlist: review item progress, pending support, and received quantities.

Stripe donations usually need no manual reconciliation after webhook completion. External payments and physical item pledges stay pending until staff confirm them.

Troubleshooting

The Donate button is missing: Confirm the public profile is enabled, Payments is on, Donations is on, and at least one payment method is configured. Stripe must be active for card checkout.

Stripe is not available: Open Settings > Payment Methods and check the Stripe card. If it is Pending, resume onboarding. If Stripe says charges or payouts are not enabled, finish the outstanding Stripe requirements.

Wishlist items are not showing publicly: Confirm Wishlist is on in Profile Visibility, the item has Public Visible enabled, the item is not fulfilled or archived, and the item still has available quantity.

Fund Item is missing on a wishlist item: Confirm Payments and Donations are enabled, Stripe is active, and the item has Accepts Monetary Donations enabled.

A supporter paid externally but the item still looks pending: Open Donations, find the pending donation by supporter name, email, reference, or wishlist item, confirm the provider transaction, and mark it Received.

A supporter says Stripe charged them but PawPlacer still shows checkout created: Check the payment in Stripe first. Webhook delivery may still be pending. If Stripe shows a successful payment and PawPlacer does not update, contact PawPlacer support with the donation reference and Stripe payment ID.

A wishlist quantity looks reserved but not received: Check for open Stripe checkouts, pending external payments, or pending item pledges linked to that item. Cancel stale pending records or mark received records after confirming the support.

Related

• Fundraising Hub
• Stripe Connect
• Payment Methods
• Donation Amounts
• Public Donations
• Public Wishlist