Donation Campaigns

MakerVera lets you create donation campaigns to raise funds for your makerspace. Campaigns include goal tracking, progress displays, donor walls, and suggested donation amounts — all processed through Stripe Connect.

Donations are designed for low friction: one-time donations are guest-friendly (no account required), while recurring monthly donations require a signed-in account for Stripe subscription management.

How Donations Work

1. An admin creates a donation campaign with a name, description, and optional goal
2. The campaign is published and appears on the public Donate page (/donate)
3. Visitors browse campaigns, view progress, and select a donation amount
4. One-time donors enter their email and complete a Stripe checkout (no account needed)
5. The donation is recorded, the campaign progress updates, and a confirmation email is sent

For Administrators

You need the manage_donations permission to manage campaigns.

Creating a Campaign

Navigate to Admin > Store > Donations and click Create Campaign.

Campaign Details

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	Campaign name (up to 100 characters)
Description	No	Rich text description explaining the campaign (up to 5,000 characters)
Cover Image	No	Image URL displayed on the campaign card

Goal and Dates

Field	Description
Goal Amount	Optional target amount. Leave blank for an open-ended campaign
Start Date	Optional. When the campaign begins accepting donations
End Date	Optional. When the campaign stops accepting donations

Donation Configuration

Field	Default	Description
Suggested Amounts	$5, $10, $25, $50, $100	Preset donation amounts shown to donors
Allow Custom Amount	Yes	Whether donors can enter their own amount
Minimum Amount	$1.00	The smallest donation accepted

Display Settings

Field	Default	Description
Featured	No	Featured campaigns appear prominently on the donate page
Show Progress	Yes	Display a progress bar showing raised amount vs. goal
Show Donor Names	No	Display donor names publicly. When off, all donations appear anonymous

Tax Settings

Field	Default	Description
Tax Deductible	No	Mark donations as potentially tax deductible
Tax Receipt Text	—	Custom text shown on donation receipts when tax deductible is enabled

Campaign Statuses

Campaigns follow this lifecycle:

Status	Visible to Public	Accepts Donations
Draft	No	No
Active	Yes	Yes
Paused	No	No
Completed	No	No
Archived	No	No

New campaigns start as Draft. Set to Active when you’re ready to accept donations. Use Paused to temporarily stop accepting donations without losing progress. Mark as Completed when the campaign is done, or Archive to remove it from view.

Tracking Progress

Each campaign tracks:

Metric	Description
Raised Amount	Total amount donated so far
Donor Count	Number of individual donations received
Progress Percentage	Raised amount as a percentage of the goal (when a goal is set)

A progress bar is shown publicly (when Show Progress is enabled) and always visible to admins.

Viewing Donations

On the campaign detail page, scroll to the Donations Received section to see a table of all donations:

Column	Description
Donor	Donor name, plus an “Anonymous” badge when the donor chose to stay anonymous publicly
Amount	Donation amount
Status	Pending, Completed, Refunded, or Failed
Date	When the donation was made
Message	Optional message from the donor

Tip

Admins always see the real donor name, email, and linked account — even for donations marked anonymous. Anonymity only hides the donor’s identity from the public donor wall; for tax receipts, financial reporting, and customer service you always have the full record. The Anonymous badge is shown alongside the real name so you can see at a glance which donations the donor chose to keep off the public wall.

Failed Donation Webhooks

On the campaign detail page, scroll to the Failed Webhook Events panel to review donations where the payment processor notified us but automatic processing did not complete. This panel only appears to admins with the manage_donations permission.

Column	Description
Event Type	The kind of payment event (for example, a completed checkout)
Failed At	When the most recent processing attempt failed
Attempts	How many times processing has been tried
Last Error	A short description of why processing did not finish

Click Retry on any row to ask MakerVera to try again using the original payment information. One of three things happens:

• The donation is replayed — the donation is recorded, the campaign total updates, and the row disappears from the panel.
• The donation is already recorded — another retry or a delayed first attempt succeeded in the meantime. The row disappears.
• The donation cannot be replayed — the original payment details are no longer available, or the event is not a donation. The row stays, and you can reach out to support with the event details.

Tip

An empty panel is the healthy state. Rows here mean a donor reached Stripe and paid, but our system hit a snag finishing the paperwork — always safe to retry first.

Example: Equipment Fund Campaign

Your makerspace wants to raise $5,000 for a new CNC router:

1. Create a campaign named “CNC Router Fund”
2. Set the goal to $5,000
3. Add a description explaining why you need the equipment
4. Set suggested amounts to $25, $50, $100, $250
5. Enable Featured and Show Progress
6. Set status to Active

Members will see the campaign on the donate page with a progress bar showing how close you are to your goal.

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For Donors

Making a One-Time Donation

Visit the Donate page (accessible from your makerspace’s public site or at /donate). No account is required.

1. Browse campaigns — Active campaigns are shown as cards with their name, description, and progress
2. Select a campaign — Click on a campaign to see full details, progress bar, and donor wall
3. Choose an amount:
   • Select one of the suggested amounts (e.g., $10, $25, $50, $100)
   • Or enter a custom amount (if enabled by the admin)
4. Proceed to checkout — Enter your email (and optionally your name)
5. Donation options:
   • Anonymous — Check “Make my donation anonymous” to hide your name from the donor wall. Your message still appears (attributed to “Anonymous”) so the campaign page can show your words of support
   • Message — Leave an optional message of support (up to 1,000 characters). Your message is shown on the donor wall whether you donate publicly or anonymously
   • Cover fees — Check the box to cover processing fees so 100% of your donation goes to the campaign. The exact amount added is shown in real time. This option is only visible if the makerspace has enabled it
6. Complete payment — You’ll be taken to Stripe’s secure payment page to finalize your donation

If you’re signed in, your email and name are pre-filled from your profile, and the donation is automatically linked to your account — you’ll see it on the Transactions tab of your profile. Your message and anonymity choice are also saved with the donation.

If you’re not signed in but use an email address that already belongs to an active member of this makerspace, MakerVera links the donation to that account so it shows up on their Transactions tab too.

Tip

Anonymous only hides your identity from the public donor wall — the makerspace admin still sees your real name and email in their records, which they need for tax receipts and financial reporting. For guest (not signed-in) donors, anonymous also turns off the automatic account-linking described above.

Recurring (Monthly) Donations

You can set up a monthly recurring donation for ongoing support:

1. On the campaign detail page, check “Make this a monthly donation”
2. If you’re not signed in, you’ll be prompted to sign in (required for subscription management) — when you sign in we’ll bring you back to the same campaign and amount you were on
3. Proceed to checkout — the checkout page shows a “Monthly donation” badge and tells you exactly when you’ll be charged: “First charge today. Renews on the {day} of each month.”
4. Complete payment via Stripe — a recurring subscription is created

Tip

If you set up a recurring donation on the 29th, 30th, or 31st of a month, the checkout page will note that shorter months (like February) will charge on their last day instead. This is normal — Stripe always charges as close to your start date as the calendar allows.

Managing Your Recurring Donations

Your active and winding-down recurring donations are listed on the Transactions tab of your profile under Active Recurring Donations. The card shows each campaign you support, the amount, the date you started, and a Cancel button.

Status	What it means
Active	You’re being charged each month. The Cancel button is available.
Cancelling	You’ve requested to cancel. You’ll be charged through the end of your current billing period and the donation ends on the date shown. The Cancel button is hidden — there’s nothing more to do.

To cancel:

1. Click Cancel on the row for the donation you want to stop
2. Confirm in the dialog — we’ll show the campaign name and the date the donation actually ends
3. The status switches to Cancelling and the row shows the end date

You will not be charged again after the end date. Cancelled donations stop appearing on this card once the subscription terminates; you can still find the historical charges on your Transactions list.

Tip

Cancel takes effect at the end of your current billing period, not immediately. This is intentional — you’ve already paid for the month you’re in, and the makerspace shouldn’t be expected to refund a partial month. If you need an immediate refund, contact the makerspace directly.

Donation Context on Your Transactions List

Donation transactions on your Transactions list show the campaign you supported in the title (for example, “Donation · CNC Router Fund”), an opening line of any message you left, and a small Recurring badge for charges that came from a recurring donation. This makes it easy to find a specific donation among other purchases when you’re looking for a receipt.

What You See

Each campaign page shows:

• Campaign name, description, and cover image
• Progress bar (raised amount vs. goal, when a goal is set)
• Number of donors and days remaining (for time-limited campaigns)
• Tax deductible notice (when applicable)
• Donor wall — Recent donors are displayed publicly. Donors who chose to stay anonymous appear as “Anonymous” with their message (if they left one) still visible — only their name is hidden
• Share buttons — Share the campaign via X (Twitter), Facebook, email, or copy the link

Donation Confirmation

After you complete payment, you’re returned to a confirmation page. What you see depends on how quickly your payment clears:

What you see	What it means
Confirming your donation… (with a spinner)	Your payment is going through. This usually resolves within a few seconds.
Thank you for your donation!	Your donation was received and recorded. A confirmation email follows shortly. If the campaign is tax deductible, the receipt text is included.
Payment not confirmed	We couldn’t confirm your donation. If you were charged, please contact support — include your email and the approximate time you donated so we can trace it.

Tip

A confirmation email always follows a successful donation. If you close the confirmation page before it updates, the email is your record.

Not Yet Available

The following features are planned but not yet supported:

• Campaign auto-completion — Campaigns do not automatically change to “Completed” when the goal is reached. Admins must update the status manually.
• Campaign-specific social previews — Share buttons generate correct URLs, but social media link previews use default site metadata (campaign-specific OpenGraph tags require server-side rendering).
• Recurring donation management for guest-to-member linking — If a guest donor later creates an account, their past recurring donation is not automatically linked to their account.

Next Steps

• Store Guide — Managing your store products
• Gift Cards — Setting up gift cards
• Overview — Return to the billing overview