Start Taking Donations, Tips, and Contributions for Your Creative and Professional Pursuits

With the Donations block, you can now accept payments for all types of donations — and build a recurring revenue stream.

September 10, 2020

Austin Lau

With our growing suite of payment features, we want to make it easier for you to earn money on WordPress.com. With the Donations block, you can now accept credit and debit card payments for all types of donations, earning revenue and growing your base of supporters. Collect donations, tips, and contributions on your website to fuel your creative and professional projects or to support and grow your business or organization.

Donations block example for an arts organization

What can you accept donations for?

You can collect financial contributions on your website for just about anything — the sky really is the limit. Here are examples of things people support through donations:

  • Creative pursuits for musicians, artists, designers, writers, and more
  • Concrete creations like podcasts, video games, music clips, and photography
  • Bloggers and content creators of all shapes and sizes
  • Everyday passions like news summaries and mindfulness exercises
  • Professional endeavors including civic engagement and professional development
  • Nonprofits and community, religious, and political organizations

Donations block examples for a musician and radio station

Continue to build your community by engaging with your supporters in a unique and authentic way. People can opt to support you through one-time, monthly, or yearly contributions, and the Donations block lets you engage with each level for a more custom experience. For example, you might send your monthly supporters additional content and information on top of what you send your one-time supporters.

As you ask for support, we’ll handle the rest — the credit and debit card payment processing, sending receipts, reporting, and more.

Ask for your first donation

Above all, the first step in earning money on your website is to ask for it. You can add a Donations block to your website in a matter of minutes; watch this short video to learn how. Alternatively, a step-by-step guide follows below.

How to use Donations block to earn money on your WordPress.com website
  • To use the Donations block, you’ll need a WordPress.com website with any paid plan — Personal, Premium, Business, or eCommerce.
  • On any page or post, add the Donations block.
  • To set up your first donation request, create a Stripe account if you don’t have one already. Stripe is the company we’ve partnered with to process credit and debit card payments in a safe, secure, and speedy way.
  • After you’ve connected to Stripe, configure the block’s settings, like how often you’re asking for donations. It can be any combination of single (one-time), monthly recurring, or yearly recurring donations.
  • Set three donation amounts that you’d like visitors to choose from for any of the payment intervals. These are fully customizable. Be sure to set your currency as well.
  • You can also allow visitors to donate what they want — essentially a blank box for them to fill out how much money they would like to give.
  • Review all of the text in your Donations block — you can edit every single letter, so be sure to provide enough information for your visitors about their donation, why you’re asking for it, etc.
  • Publish your block!
  • You can manage your supporters, see earnings, and keep an eye on other metrics in the Earn dashboard.
  • Last but not least, tell others about what you’re doing! Share on social media, email, and however you best communicate with people who might donate to your cause.

A suite of payment features to fit your needs

Looking to accept payments for something else? There are several other payment features on WordPress.com to suit your needs and help you make money with your website. In addition to the new Donations block, here are other features:

  • Payments block: Accept one-time or recurring payments on your website for physical items, digital downloads, services, memberships, subscriptions, and more.
  • Premium Content block: Create one-time, monthly, or yearly subscription options to share select content with those who pay for it — text, images, videos, or any kind of content. Exclusive content can be sent to email inboxes or viewed on your website.
  • Paid newsletters: Using the Premium Content block, you can share your site’s latest premium content via email newsletters in a fully automated way.
  • eCommerce Store: Turn your website into an eCommerce store and sell products and services seamlessly.

If you’re interested in setting up a membership- or subscription-based website, learn more about getting started with memberships and subscriptions.

Add the Donations block and start earning money with your website today!

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68 Comments

Comments are closed.

  1. Observatoire du MENSONGE Sep 10th at 5:20 pm

    Hi Austin,

    How do you put your donation block with one or more images in it?
    Thanks

    We spoke on Tuesday with your charming colleague. I am in France…

    Liked by 13 people

    • Austin Lau Sep 10th at 5:40 pm

      Bonsoir – Good to hear from you again! Right now the Donations block only supports text within the block itself which of course you can edit. You can, however, add images, video, and other content around the Donations block similar to the examples in the post. For other payments features like the Payments block, you can create a single button instead of the full text, amounts, tabs with one-off/monthly/yearly, etc. We’re looking forward to seeing this on your website soon! 🙂

      Liked by 18 people

  2. erin @ Reading On A Star Sep 10th at 5:53 pm

    What plan do you need to be on to use this block?

    Liked by 11 people

  3. Thiago Sep 10th at 6:18 pm

    A great addition! However, the ideal would also be to have another company option for receiving the money, such as PayPal, as Stripe is in a few countries.

    Liked by 13 people

  4. David Cole Sep 10th at 6:55 pm

    Hi Austin,

    Thanks for the help! 🙂

    Please keep up the good work.

    Best wishes,

    Dave.

    Liked by 9 people

  5. kiki | soyvirgo.com Sep 10th at 7:10 pm

    Interesting..might have to make my stripe account 😅

    Liked by 11 people

  6. Pathway of Solitude Sep 10th at 7:46 pm

    Awesome post, man!

    Liked by 9 people

  7. Emmanuel Oyeoka Sep 10th at 7:56 pm

    Amazing

    Liked by 9 people

  8. isaaclupupa Sep 10th at 8:29 pm

    Yes man

    Liked by 10 people

    • Ken Wilson Sep 12th at 6:44 pm

      Wow cool

      On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 4:57 PM The WordPress.com Blog wrote:

      > isaaclupupa commented: “Yes man” >

      Liked by 6 people

  9. jibokhan Sep 10th at 10:28 pm

    Now that’s something that motivates much better then 10 steps to be more successful 😛 😀

    Liked by 10 people

  10. David Thrift 📷 👋 🇺🇸 Sep 11th at 12:26 am

    It would only be useful to me if PayPal gets integrated. I have no desire to set up another money stream.

    Liked by 8 people

    • Austin Lau Sep 11th at 3:36 pm

      Thanks for the feedback, David. I realize it’s another payment platform but keep in mind it is free to setup a Stripe account. The Pay with PayPal block will continue be a way to you to accept payments via PayPal.

      Liked by 4 people

  11. deepanilamani Sep 11th at 10:08 am

    Good for those who are involved in such projects!

    Liked by 12 people

  12. pedalandtringtring Sep 11th at 10:13 am

    These are vital tips, thank you Austin!

    Liked by 8 people

  13. AB-Series.com Sep 11th at 1:00 pm

    nice

    Liked by 11 people

  14. Hanif Ali Sep 11th at 1:11 pm

    How much of a cut does WordPress or Stripe take?

    Liked by 8 people

  15. Mcharjakliwaila Sep 11th at 1:15 pm

    Yes Bro

    On Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 12:38 AM The WordPress.com Blog wrote:

    > Austin Lau posted: ” With our growing suite of payment features, we want > to make it easier for you to earn money on WordPress.com. With the > Donations block, you can now accept credit and debit card payments for all > types of donations, earning revenue and growing your base of” >

    Liked by 9 people

  16. Jaime Gómez C. Sep 11th at 3:11 pm

    Thanks for the information!

    Liked by 9 people

  17. Earth Sep 11th at 3:20 pm

    Not too long I started mine own blog I just need to hit it up

    Liked by 9 people

  18. MamoonMalang #MamoonMalang Sep 11th at 6:09 pm

    GOOD

    Liked by 11 people

  19. OMOJOWOLO OLUWASEGUN DAV Sep 12th at 2:04 am

    Hi am new to blogging looking forward to your help

    Liked by 11 people

  20. Mahmud Sumu Sep 12th at 4:16 am

    Nice

    Liked by 6 people

  21. Prathamkaushal Sep 12th at 8:15 am

    Excellent

    Liked by 7 people

  22. Sebastine Promise Sep 12th at 3:17 pm

    Captivating

    Liked by 7 people

  23. Pefcs Sep 12th at 7:10 pm

    Excellent

    Liked by 5 people

  24. carl lashley Sep 13th at 1:47 am

    Nice

    Liked by 5 people

  25. Helen Sep 13th at 2:29 am

    thankyou:)

    Liked by 7 people

  26. 𝒟𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓎𝒶𝒫𝓇𝒶𝓀𝓇𝓊𝓉𝒽𝓎𝓛ℴ𝓋ℯ𝓇 Sep 13th at 8:26 am

    I am new here 😊

    Liked by 7 people

  27. Blandly Hoffmann Sep 13th at 9:02 am

    Good

    Liked by 5 people

  28. Abi Sep 13th at 7:19 pm

    Great information!

    Liked by 5 people

  29. xpopo2019 Sep 13th at 10:28 pm

    okay so I have a website powered by wordpress. I would like to do what is listed here but my site is experiencing some tech difficulties and I cannot get anyone to help get the site back on track nor access my admin section

    Liked by 7 people

    • Austin Lau Sep 14th at 3:38 am

      The Donations block feature is available to people hosting their websites on WordPress.com with a paid plan – Personal, Premium, Business, or eCommerce plans to be specific. It’s also available to self-hosted WordPress websites that have a paid Jetpack (jetpack.com) plan.

      But if you’re a WordPress.com user and locked out, I’d suggest you go through the account recovery process with our Happiness team to get access: https://wordpress.com/support/account-recovery

      Liked by 3 people

  30. Betterdavies Sep 14th at 1:22 am

    Wow nice one

    Liked by 7 people

  31. rodney_brazil Sep 14th at 12:56 pm

    I’m going to try the paid newsletter block. I’ve wanted to experiment with something like that for awhile.

    Liked by 6 people

  32. Sk gupta Sep 14th at 6:06 pm

    Nice information brother

    Liked by 8 people

  33. divinewisdom6715 Sep 15th at 12:45 am

    Absolutely Awesome 🙂

    Liked by 10 people

  34. Benphillips Sep 15th at 1:15 am

    Thanks for sharing your views

    Liked by 7 people

  35. wangyue1005 Sep 15th at 4:25 am

    With the development of information technology, there are more and more ways to make money and communicate through the Internet.

    Liked by 7 people

    • Austin Lau Sep 15th at 2:47 pm

      Agreed! There are lots of new ways to make money online and with your website. We hope you’ll be able to try to the Donations block and other payments blocks like Payments and Premium Content too. 🙂

      Liked by 5 people

  36. adongomilkayahoocom Sep 15th at 5:37 am

    Wow

    Liked by 9 people

  37. Great Sep 15th at 7:01 am

    That was helpful

    Liked by 10 people

  38. Jack Richardson Sep 16th at 6:57 am

    Amazing Nice

    Liked by 7 people

  39. thepiquedlearner Sep 16th at 7:03 am

    Is using the donations function only allowed on certain plans and not others? (e.g. Business Plan?)

    Liked by 8 people

    • Austin Lau Sep 16th at 2:55 pm

      Yes, the Donations block is only available if you have a WordPress.com Personal, Premium, Business, or eCommerce plan. Any of those paid plans will allow you to use this block along with other payments blocks like the Payments block and Premium Content block. You can learn more about what’s included in each of those paid plans here: wordpress.com/pricing

      Liked by 3 people

  40. Vaishnavi 0821(UD) Sep 16th at 8:37 am

    Amazing!!!

    Liked by 9 people

  41. thetearwiper Sep 16th at 8:56 am

    i have a friend who is looking for something like this and she’s not too tech savvy and hesitant. how do you recommend she goes about this, she currently has a free wordpress account but is considering an upgrade to be able to promote her writing services and receive payments, does this work for wordpress subscribers outside of the US too?

    Liked by 7 people

    • Austin Lau Sep 16th at 2:59 pm

      I would recommend that your friend try upgrading to the Personal plan to test it out, add the Donations block along with other features available on that plan. We have great support resources including email and live chat so hopefully they will be able to figure it all out with our help! If not, we will gladly refund the cost of the Personal plan within 30 days. But we’re making these features like Donations block as easy to use as possible. Please also feel free to share feedback with us. 🙂

      The Donations block does work for people outside of the US. Those signing up for a Stripe account must be in one of the supported countries (https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/donations/#stripe-supported-countries) but the website visitors can be anywhere in the world as long as they have a credit or debit card – visitors don’t need to create Stripe accounts to pay.

      Liked by 5 people

  42. Scribe Dee Sep 16th at 10:06 am

    Thank you for this great insight.

    Liked by 7 people

  43. udohdeborah762 Sep 16th at 1:47 pm

    Good work

    Liked by 8 people

  44. OMOJOWOLO OLUWASEGUN DAV WP Sep 17th at 3:01 am

    Thanks for the article

    Liked by 5 people

  45. devinnewton Sep 17th at 11:03 am

    Thanks for sharing. Great Information.

    Liked by 6 people

  46. Eunice TJ💜 Sep 17th at 12:29 pm

    Hi Austin, this is amazing.

    Can you add more payment options like Paypal maybe for bloggers in place where debit and credit cards are not the norm. Thank you

    Liked by 7 people

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