PayPal donate links are easy, versatile ways for potential donors to send money to your charity. A PayPal donate link can be shared in numerous ways and is used by wide array of charities and foundations. However, there are a few different types of PayPal donate links which serve different purposes. In this blog post, we break it all down for you so your organization can get the most out of PayPal.
Creating a Branded PayPal.me Link
PayPal.me links are well-loved by everybody from charitable campaigns to businesses big and small. They’re personalized, meaning it’s easy for customers to remember how to donate to you. They’re immediate, meaning you never miss an opportunity take a donation. They can be used anywhere, including social media, in text conversations, in an email signature, on a webpage, or even posted up on a bulletin board. Best of all, they’re easy to set up. Simply follow these steps to get your own PayPal.me link:
Visit this webpage on PayPal’s site.
Enter a business name or a word or a phrase that your organization identifies with, this will be your URL.
Log in or create a PayPal account.
Create a personalized webpage for your PayPal.me account for customers or donors to see when they click your link. For example, you can add your logo to the header of your PayPal.me page.
Share your link wherever you’d like. When people click on your link, it takes them directly to your organization’s PayPal donate checkout page.
Collect donations and withdraw them when you’re ready!
Creating a PayPal Donate Button
PayPal also offers donate buttons, which come in the form of an HTML code that you place onto your website’s coding. Setting this up is also pretty easy. You simply log in to PayPal, click on “Merchant Services”, click “Donations” and then follow the site’s prompts to get your personalized HTML code.
However, this isn’t as versatile as a PayPal.me link or other donation forms, as it can only be used on webpages. That means it can’t be sent via text message, it can’t be shared in person, and it can’t be placed on social media. All donations must be first referred to your website and then must click the “Donate” button from there. It can also be tricky to embed in your webpage, if you’re not familiar with HTML.
Creating a PayPal Subscription Link
PayPal also offers subscription opportunities in both button and link form. Since we already addressed the increased versatility of the link, particularly with the ability to enable text to donate options with PayPal, we’re going to focus more on how to create that. But you can also create a subscription button for added visibility for your website visitors so that they’ll see a big button and click there to donate. To get a PayPal subscription link, follow these steps:
Log in to your PayPal account.
Visit “My Selling Tools” from your profile pane.
Visit the “Selling Online” section.
Click “Update Link” on the row that has your PayPal button.
Click “Create New Button”.
Specify “subscriptions” for the button type and fill out the rest of the fields.
Click “Create Button”.
On the next page, you’ll see the button code. However, if you click the email tab next to it, you’ll get just a link.
Copy and paste that link and use it wherever you’d like people to be able to subscribe for recurring donations from.
Creating a PayPal Donation Link (The Down N' Dirty Way)
The method above requires more steps. You have to log into PayPal, navigate to the button creator section, fill out all the fields and prices, and then get the link. But there is a faster, more direct way to create a PayPal donate link that doesn’t even require you to log into PayPal.
Building the URL
Take a look at this link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=info@milfordmiamitownship.com&lc=US&no_note=0&item_name=Thank+you+for+suppporting+Milford+Miami+Twp.+Chambers+of+Commerce+(idg4471)&cn=&curency_code=USD&bn=PP-DonationsBF:btn_donateCC_LG.gif:NonHosted
This link is a donate link for one of our recent customers, Milford Miami Twp Chamber of Commerce. To customize this link for your nonprofit, all you have to do is change the "&business=" and "&item_name=" parameters to your nonprofit's details.
For example, if your nonprofit's PayPal email is "info@milfordmiamitownship.com, you would simply change the business and item_name parameters to
Click the button below to copy the URL to your clipboard so that you can easily edit it to suit your needs.
Be sure you include the "+" signs in the "item_name" value. Plus signs are encoded spaces and if you don't include them sometimes the link will not work properly.
That's it. That's all you have to do. Now, when a donor visits this link, they will see your nonprofit's PayPal checkout experience:
This will work for any nonprofit, as long as you use the email address that you use to log into PayPal. When a prospective donor clicks "Donate with Paypal" or "Donate with Card," she enters your checkout and funds go directly into your PayPal account.
Doing it this way doesn't require any special scripts. You don't even need to log into PayPal to set up website button.
Our Text to Donate Service
If you sign up for our service, you don’t have to worry about creating any of these links. We create your link and build your mobile-friendly checkout experience on PayPal for you. Place your order now and start getting donations by text today!