How to add donations to a Shopify charity shop

I was recently looking into donation apps for Shopify for a client: we wanted to add a feature to allow customers to top up their order on the online charity shop with an optional donation. After researching and testing a number of donation apps, most of which were clunky and didn’t quite do what we needed them to do, I found out that donations are actually built into Shopify, and don’t require an app. Happy days! I recently installed it on one charity online shop I work with, and in about three weeks, it’s increased income by more than 10%.

The reason this information took a while to find, is because the feature is known as ‘Tips’ rather than donations. It’s really easy to customise the Tip feature so that it behaves as a donation feature instead:

    1. In Shopify Settings > Checkout, turn on the ‘Tip’ function – https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/checkout-settings/tips
    2. In the theme content editor for your Shopify theme, change the wording so instead of being described as Tips, they’re described as donations. Just search the theme language for Tip and you’ll find it https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/customizing-themes/language/change-wording. You’ll need to change:
      1. The heading on the donation area
      2. The line of text below the heading – this allows you to add a short line of text explaining why people should donate, and where the money goes.
      3. The field where people enter a custom amount
      4. The text on the Add a Tip button
      5. The thank you line

You can keep track of the income from tips in the Analytics > Reports > Tips report, and also see in individual orders when a customer has added a donation.

It’s that simple. The donation workflow is built into the checkout, and really seamless and easy for shoppers to use. Here’s how it looks on the Dogs Trust Ireland Shop:
Shopify donation feature at checkout
I’d really recommend adding this if you have a Shopify shop for your charity – it’s easy for customers to skip if they’re not interested in donating so it’s low risk, and you may find that it tops up your shop income in a significant way.

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