The Alone theme is one of the most powerful and flexible WordPress themes designed specifically for non-profits, charities, and fundraising campaigns. One of its core strengths is the seamless integration with donation systems. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to create a professional donation page using the built-in tools and recommended plugins.
1. Install and Activate the Required Plugins
Before setting up your donation page, ensure that you have installed the core plugins that come bundled with the theme:
- GiveWP (Highly Recommended): The Alone theme is fully optimized for GiveWP, the most popular donation plugin for WordPress.
- Alone Custom Post Types: Provides the necessary infrastructure for “Causes” and “Campaigns.”
- Elementor Page Builder: Used to design the layout of your donation page.
2. Configure Your Payment Gateways
To start accepting money, you need to connect a payment processor.
- Go to Donations > Settings in your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to the Payment Gateways tab.
- Enable your preferred methods (Stripe, PayPal, or Offline Donations).
- Important: Always start by using the “Test Mode” to ensure transactions work correctly before going live.
3. Create a New Donation Form (The “Cause”)
In Alone theme, a donation page usually centers around a specific “Cause.”
- Go to Donations > Add Form.
- Title: Give your campaign a clear name (e.g., “Clean Water for Children”).
- Donation Options: Choose between “Multi-level” (preset amounts like $10, $20, $50) or “Set a Goal” (show a progress bar).
- Form Display: Select whether the form should appear on the page, in a modal (pop-up), or as a button.
4. Design the Donation Page with Elementor
Once your form is created, it’s time to make it look professional using the Alone theme’s custom widgets.
- Create a new Page (Pages > Add New) and click Edit with Elementor.
- Search for the “Give Forms” or “Causes” widgets provided by the Alone theme.
- Drag and drop the widget into your layout.
- Customize the Style: The Alone theme allows you to change the progress bar color, button styles, and typography to match your branding directly within the Elementor panel.
5. Setting Up Recurring Donations (Optional)
If you want to encourage long-term support, you can enable recurring donations:
- Go to the “Recurring Donations” tab within your specific Donation Form.
- Allow users to choose between one-time, daily, weekly, or monthly contributions.
- Note: This may require the GiveWP Recurring Donations add-on.
6. Create a “Thank You” Page
A professional donation flow always ends with a message of gratitude.
- Create a separate page titled “Thank You.”
- Go to Donations > Settings > General and set this page as your Success Page.
- Customize this page with a heartfelt message and perhaps a video showing the impact of their donation.
Summary Checklist
- Payment Gateways connected and tested.
- Donation Form created with specific goals.
- Page layout designed using Alone’s Elementor widgets.
- Mobile responsiveness checked (Alone is fully responsive by default).
- Confirmation emails configured to send automatically.
By following these steps, you will have a high-converting, secure, and beautiful donation page ready to support your mission.
Article Statistics & Official Verification Links
| Statistic / Fundraising Claim | Verification Source / Link |
| “Mobile donations now account for >50% of all digital giving” | Txt2Give: Mobile Donations in 2026 Report |
| “Security icons near payment fields can increase conversion by 20%” | Lovable: How to Make a Donation Website That Converts |
| “Average donation page conversion rate: 11% (Desktop) vs 8% (Mobile)” | Lovable: 2026 Donation Page Architecture |
| “Removing site headers during the donation flow boosts conversion by 195%” | Lovable: 2026 Donor UX Case Studies |
| “Individual giving accounts for 70% of total charitable donations” | NCH: 2026 Charitable Giving Statistics |
| “Over 44% of nonprofits fail to follow up on matching gift eligibility” | Double the Donation: 2026 Corporate Engagement Report |
| “Specific impact numbers can quadruple donation rates vs vague appeals” | Lovable: 2026 Donation Content Strategy |
Frequently Asked Questions: Setting Up Donations with Alone
Alone is designed to work seamlessly with GiveWP, which is the most powerful donation plugin in 2026. While the theme provides the “Visual Shell” (the beautiful progress bars, campaign grids, and “Donate Now” buttons), GiveWP handles the “Mechanical Logic” processing payments, generating tax receipts, and managing your donor database. This separation ensures your site stays fast and secure.
Recurring giving is a necessity for long-term sustainability. To enable this in Alone:
Install the GiveWP Recurring Donations add-on.
In your form settings, toggle “Monthly” as the default option.
Pro-Tip: In 2026, donors are 35% more likely to choose recurring giving if you clearly state the impact (e.g., “Your $20/month provides 5 meals every month”).
For the fastest 2026 deployment, we recommend:
Stripe: Best for Apple Pay, Google Pay, and global credit cards.
PayPal: Essential for donor trust, as many international supporters prefer not to enter card details directly.
Momo/ZaloPay: For local Vietnamese campaigns, these can be integrated via WooCommerce or custom GiveWP gateways to capture the local mobile-first market.
Alone features high-impact progress bars that sync directly with your GiveWP goals.
The Strategy: Always set a “Realistic Goal.” A progress bar at 70% creates Social Proof and urgency, while a bar at 5% on a $1,000,000 goal can actually discourage small donors. Break large projects into smaller, “Phased” campaigns to keep the momentum high.
Yes. Alone is fully compatible with WooCommerce. Our team of 16 often sets up “Hybrid Stores” where a supporter can buy a t-shirt and add a $5 donation to their cart at checkout. This “mechanical” integration is a proven way to increase your Average Order Value (AOV) for the cause.
In 2026, over 80% of donations are made on mobile. Alone’s donation templates are “Accessibility-First.” The “Donate” button is positioned for easy thumb access, and the forms use Inline Validation to prevent user frustration. If a donor can’t complete the gift in under 60 seconds on their phone, your conversion rate will drop by half.
Security is a “Trust Factor” necessity.
SSL Certificate: Essential for encrypting transaction data.
GiveWP Privacy Settings: Enable the GDPR/CCPA checkboxes in your form settings.
Alone Security: Use the theme’s clean code standards combined with a Web Application Firewall (WAF) like Cloudflare to protect donor profiles from brute-force attacks.
