Store, Gift Cards & Donations

MakerVera includes a tiered platform subscription for your makerspace, a built-in store, gift card system, and donation campaigns. This guide helps you understand how these features work together.

Who Is This For?

• Administrators — Manage your platform subscription, set up products, configure gift cards, create donation campaigns, and manage orders
• Members — Browse the store, purchase gift cards, make donations, and view order history

Quick Links

Guide	Description
Platform Subscription	Manage your makerspace’s MakerVera platform plan, add-ons, and billing
Store Guide	Create and manage products in your makerspace store
Gift Cards	Configure, purchase, and redeem gift cards
Donations	Set up and manage donation campaigns

Feature Overview

Feature	What It Does	Who Manages It
Platform Subscription	Your makerspace’s MakerVera plan — determines features, user limits, and add-ons	Admins with manage_billing permission
Store	Sell physical items, digital products, services, and consumables	Admins with manage_store permission
Gift Cards	Sell and redeem stored-value cards	Admins with manage_billing permission
Donations	Accept donations toward specific campaigns	Admins with manage_donations permission

How Payments Work

All payments flow through Stripe Connect. Your makerspace connects a Stripe account, and MakerVera handles checkout, payment processing, and order tracking.

Key Concepts

• Single-item checkout — Each purchase goes through its own checkout session. There is no shopping cart.
• Cover fees — Buyers can optionally cover the payment processing fees so your makerspace receives the full amount.
• Member pricing — Products can have a discounted price for members.
• Platform fees — A small percentage goes to MakerVera. The exact amount is shown on your billing settings page.

What Happens During Checkout

1. The buyer selects an item and clicks purchase
2. MakerVera creates a Stripe Checkout session
3. The buyer completes payment on Stripe’s hosted page
4. Stripe sends a webhook confirming payment
5. MakerVera fulfills the order (delivers the product, generates a gift card code, or records the donation)

All monetary values are displayed in your makerspace’s configured currency.

Two Types of Billing

It’s important to understand that MakerVera has two separate billing systems:

1. Platform subscription — What your makerspace pays MakerVera for access to the platform (plan tiers, add-ons, member surcharges). Managed on the Plan page under Settings. See the Platform Subscription guide.

2. Member payments — What your makerspace collects from your own members and visitors (store purchases, gift cards, donations). Powered by Stripe Connect. See the guides below.

Getting Started

• Admins: Review your Platform Subscription to understand your plan, then check the Store Guide to set up your first product
• Members: Browse the public store at your makerspace’s /shop page

Next Steps

• Platform Subscription — Managing your MakerVera plan
• Store Guide — Managing products and inventory
• Gift Cards — Setting up gift cards
• Donations — Running donation campaigns