Donor Portal: Overview & Configuration

Last updated: April 23, 2026

Donor Portal: Overview & Configuration

The Donor Portal is WeGive's self-service hub where your supporters log in to manage their giving, update their information, start fundraisers, and view their impact with your organization. This article walks through what the portal does, how donors access it, and every setting an admin can configure.

What the Donor Portal Is

When a donor logs into the portal, they land on a branded profile page scoped to your organization. From there they can:

  • View their complete donation history and lifetime giving totals

  • Manage recurring donations (pause, edit amount, change payment method, update frequency)

  • Create and track pledges

  • Start and manage peer-to-peer fundraisers

  • Download tax statements and receipts

  • Update personal info, mailing and billing addresses

  • Manage communication preferences and unsubscribe options

  • Manage a household for family giving

  • See badges, impact stories, and event registrations

The portal runs as a separate app from your admin dashboard. It reads and writes donor data through the WeGive API and respects the configuration you set in the dashboard's Donor Portal Customization area.

How Donors Access the Portal

Default URLs

Every organization has a default donor portal URL on WeGive's infrastructure:

  • Production: https://app.wegive.com/{your-org-slug}/profile

  • Sandbox: https://app.sandbox.wegive.com/{your-org-slug}/profile

Custom Domains (Domain Aliases)

Organizations can brand the portal with their own domain (e.g. donate.yourorg.org). To set one up:

  1. Go to Settings → Installation in the dashboard

  2. Click Add Domain and enter a subdomain (top-level domains are not supported)

  3. Add a CNAME record at your DNS provider pointing to:

    • proxy-fallback.wegive.com (for domains created after September 27, 2024)

    • wegive-production.netlify.app (for domains created before that date)

  4. If you use Cloudflare, set the proxy status to DNS only (gray cloud) during setup

  5. Back in the dashboard, click Refresh Status to verify DNS

  6. Once verified, issue the SSL certificate and set the domain as default

DNS propagation can take up to 24–48 hours. SSL is required for HTTPS, email tracking, and PCI compliance.

Access Tokens

When WeGive sends a donor a magic link (for example, from a receipt or a communication email), the URL includes a wegive_access_token query parameter that logs the donor in automatically. These tokens are generated server-side and tied to the donor's primary user record.

Authentication

The portal uses two-factor authentication as its primary login method. Donors enter their email or phone number and receive a one-time code. There are no passwords.

Two toggles control which methods are available:

  • Email authentication – donor receives a code via email

  • SMS authentication – donor receives a code via text

You can enable either, both, or require one specific method. If both are enabled, the donor chooses at sign-in.

A single donor can have multiple logins attached (for example, a personal email and a work email). Each login tracks its creation date and last-used date so your team can see which contact method a donor is actively using.

Where to Configure the Portal

All portal settings live under Settings → Donor Portal Customization in the dashboard. The customization page is organized into three tabs: Setup, Profiles, and Navigation.

Setup Tab

This tab controls high-level branding that appears in both the donor portal and on checkout pages.

Organization Info

  • Logo – a circular organization logo shown in the portal header and in checkouts

  • Organization Name – the display name used throughout the portal

  • Primary Color – brand color used for buttons, links, and accents (hex code or color picker)

Tab Info

  • Favicon – the browser tab icon for the portal

  • Tab Name – the browser tab title

Profiles Tab

This is the largest section and controls what appears on a donor's profile page and what they can do there.

Appearance

  • Enable group management – shows donor giving history at the household or group level

  • Donor ranking enabled – enables donor ranking and leaderboard features, with configurable percentile tiers

Settings

  • Hide donor contact info – hides the personal info section entirely

  • Disable donor contact info – shows the info but locks it from editing

  • Donors manage communication preferences – lets donors manage their own email/SMS/mail preferences

  • Donors manage visibility – lets donors control how they appear to other donors (used with fundraiser leaderboards)

Authentication

  • Email auth – allow login via email code

  • SMS auth – allow login via SMS code

Communication Preferences

Configure what the communication preferences page looks like and which opt-out controls are shown:

  • Show Do Not Contact, Do Not Email, Do Not Mail, Do Not SMS – individual opt-out toggles

  • Show Unsubscribe from All – a single global opt-out

  • Communication preferences header and subtitle – custom intro copy for the page

  • Show image on communication preferences – optional branded image at the top of the page

  • Communication list order – drag-and-drop ordering of the communication lists donors can subscribe to

  • Reengagement and unsubscribe titles/subtitles – customize copy for each section

Badges

Gamification badges reward donors for specific actions. A master toggle enables badges, and each of the five badge slots can be individually enabled or disabled. Default badges cover: payment method added, first donation, recurring donor, fundraiser started, and fundraising goal met.

Lifetime Impact

A visual summary of a donor's total contribution to your organization over time.

  • Lifetime impact – master toggle for the section

  • Lifetime impact graph – shows the impact graph

  • Include or exclude each contribution type: donations, fundraised, pledged, soft credits

Profile Stats Chips

Small summary chips shown on the donor profile:

  • Show donations count – total number of donations

  • Show fundraisers count – number of fundraisers created

  • Show supporter since – date the donor joined

Recurring Plans

  • Offline recurring plan interaction – controls whether donors can manage offline (non-credit-card) recurring plans themselves

Tax Documents

  • Show tax documents – enable the tax statements section

  • Tax document limit – restrict how many years of documents are available

  • Custom tax doc – use a custom template with your own HTML/CSS

  • Enable Canadian tax receipts – enables CRA-compliant receipts

  • Allow donor CAD receipting – lets donors request Canadian receipts themselves

  • Show individual tax receipts / Show household tax receipts – control which receipt types are visible

  • Receipt issuer name and receipt issuer role – required metadata for Canadian receipts

Payment Methods

  • Show saved payment methods – lets donors see and manage stored cards/bank accounts

Address Settings

  • Show mailing address individual / company – controls mailing address visibility by supporter type

  • Show billing address individual / company – controls billing address visibility by supporter type

Navigation Tab

The Navigation tab controls what appears in the portal's top-right header and in the profile menu dropdown, plus the main feature switches for fundraising tools.

Navigation Settings

Each of the following sections can be toggled independently for the header and for the menu:

  • Checkout

  • Inbox (donor chat)

  • Organization Logo

  • P2P Preset (create fundraiser)

  • Payment Methods

  • Pledge Create

  • Preferences

  • Profile

  • Profile Settings

  • Recurring Plans

  • Tax Statements

Setting a section's header toggle on puts it in the persistent top nav. Setting menu on puts it in the dropdown under the donor's name. You can use both.

Feature Controls

  • P2P preset enabled – master toggle for peer-to-peer fundraiser creation

  • Pledge create enabled – master toggle for donor-initiated pledges

  • Default checkout, P2P preset, pledge create – link to the specific element the portal uses for each

  • Associated campaigns – tie donations/fundraisers/pledges created from the portal to a campaign

Custom Navigation

Add custom buttons that link out to external pages (your website, a survey, a legacy system). Each custom nav item has:

  • Title – button label

  • Description – supporting text

  • URL – where the button links to

  • Icon (SVG) – optional custom icon

  • Header enabled / Menu enabled – where the item appears

Default URLs are shown at the top of the Navigation tab for reference:

  • Default Checkout URL – where the main Donate button goes

  • Default Registration URL – where the Login button goes

Feature-by-Feature Behavior

Recurring Donation Management

When a donor opens Recurring Plans they see every active and inactive plan with amount, frequency, next charge date, designation, and payment method. From the edit screen they can:

  • Pause for 1, 3, or 6 months, or indefinitely (pausing keeps history and installment data)

  • Change the amount, frequency, next charge date, designation, tribute details, or end date

  • Update or add payment methods

  • Toggle whether they cover processing fees

Pause vs. delete: Pausing preserves the plan's full history. Deleting removes all associated records, so use delete only when the donor wants the plan erased.

Known behavior: Some checkout-level restrictions (like disabled tributes or designations) are not always enforced in the portal's edit flow. If a customer reports being able to change something the checkout disabled, that's a known gap — escalate to engineering.

Pledge Creation

When Pledge create enabled is on and a pledge create element is linked, donors can view existing pledges and create new ones right from the portal. The pledge form uses the PledgeCreate element you configured, and new pledges are attributed to the campaign you set on the portal.

P2P Fundraiser Creation

When P2P preset enabled is on, donors can start new fundraisers using the linked preset. The fundraiser's donation checkout uses the portal's default checkout, and all fundraisers show up in the donor's fundraisers list where they can edit, share, or archive.

Custom Tax Documents

Custom tax documents let you deliver receipts with your own branding and layout. Configuration includes the HTML template, CSS styling, dynamic merge fields, and editor type. If you don't enable custom tax docs, donors get WeGive's standard receipt template.

Saving Changes

Changes in any tab are persisted through the dashboard's Save action. The save call hits the WeGive API and updates the DonorPortal record for your organization. Read-only fields (like the resolved URLs) are stripped before sending.

Updates take effect immediately for new portal sessions. Donors already logged in may need to refresh to see branding or navigation changes.

Troubleshooting

Donor can't log in. Check that at least one of email auth or SMS auth is enabled. If the donor is trying SMS but SMS is off, they won't see the SMS option on the sign-in screen.

Donor says a feature is missing from the portal. Check the Navigation tab — it's likely that both the header and menu toggles for that section are off, or the master feature toggle (e.g. P2P preset enabled) is off.

Custom domain not working. Confirm the CNAME is pointing to the correct target (proxy-fallback.wegive.com for domains created after Sept 27, 2024). DNS can take 24–48 hours. If you're on Cloudflare, make sure the proxy is set to DNS only (gray cloud) during setup.

Tax documents don't appear. Verify Show tax documents is on and that the donor has at least one receiptable transaction within the configured tax document limit window.

Branding changes not showing up. Ask the donor to refresh their browser — existing sessions cache the portal config.

Donor edited a recurring plan in a way the checkout shouldn't allow. Known limitation — the portal edit flow doesn't always mirror all checkout-level restrictions. File a Linear ticket for engineering with the specific setting and behavior.

FAQs

Does the donor portal support passwords or SSO?
No. Authentication is magic-code only (email or SMS).

Can a donor have more than one login?
Yes — a single donor record can have multiple emails and phone numbers attached as logins. Admins can add or remove logins from the donor's record in the dashboard.

Can I hide all contact info from donors?
Yes. Turn on Hide donor contact info to remove the section entirely, or Disable donor contact info to show it read-only.

How do I control what's on the header versus the menu?
In the Navigation tab, every section has independent header and menu toggles. Turn on one, the other, or both.

Can custom navigation buttons open in a new tab?
They link to the URL you provide. Standard browser behavior applies (most open in the same tab by default).

Does pausing a recurring plan cancel it?
No — paused plans retain all history and resume on the date the donor selects (or when they manually unpause).

Can donors see other donors' info?
Only if Donor ranking or similar leaderboard features are on, and only within what those features expose (typically names and giving amounts for those who opted in via the visibility setting).