A donation form is a payment form with the price left to the donor, and that one difference changes everything about how it is built: preset amounts instead of a line with a quantity, a box that lets the donor cover the processor's fee instead of a rule that passes it on, and a receipt that has to say more than a sales confirmation. This page is how to create a donation form for a small organisation running its own site, from the amounts to the acknowledgement, and it works the arithmetic on the free payment form calculator so the organisation knows before the first gift what reaches its account from each amount on the form.
Preset amounts, a custom amount and the monthly box
Three or four preset amounts, one custom box, and a monthly option are the whole first screen. The presets do the asking; the custom box is for the donor who has a figure in mind; the monthly box turns one gift into twelve. Nothing else goes on that screen. The name, the email and the card are the second screen, and the address is asked only where the receipt or the card processor needs it. A cause line at the top, one sentence, is the only copy the form carries.
The fee, worked, and the box that covers it
On the payment form calculator a $120 gift with no tax, at a processor rate of 2.9% plus $0.30, has the processor keeping $3.78 and $116.22 reaching the account. A box that lets the donor cover the fee is the calculator's last input switched to the customer paying: the charge is grossed up so the whole $120 lands. Put your own processor's rate in and the calculator prints your figures; the rates here are a worked example, not a processor's price list.
The receipt and the acknowledgement
The confirmation email is the receipt, and for a single gift of $250 or more the donor needs a contemporaneous written acknowledgement from the organisation to claim a deduction, per the IRS page linked below, so the receipt should carry the amount, the date, the organisation's name and a statement about whether any goods or services were given in return. Each gift is an entry with its payment and its receipt status in Shortcodo Pro, so the year-end acknowledgements are a filter on a list.
Questions people ask about donation form
Should the donate form ask donors to cover the fee?
As an optional box, ticked by default or not as you decide. The calculator prints what lands either way, so the box's value is known.
Is sales tax due on a donation?
Generally a gift is not a sale, but the calculator publishes no rule; set the tax rate to zero for a gift and ask your accountant about anything that is a purchase.
What must the donation receipt say?
The amount, the date, the organisation's name and whether anything was given in return; the IRS page linked below sets out the acknowledgement rule for gifts of $250 or more.