Your donation campaign is live, and a handful of people keep sharing it for you: the café owner with your appeal on the counter, the podcast host who mentions you every month, the volunteer who posts it everywhere. Gifts are coming in, but you can’t tell which of them sent those donors, or how to thank each one fairly.
A charity affiliate program gives each of those supporters their own tracked link to your campaigns. On WordPress, you can run one with AffiliateWP and the Charitable donation plugin: AffiliateWP records a referral each time someone donates through an affiliate’s link, so you see whose support turns into gifts and, if you choose, reward them for it.
There’s one decision to make before any of the setup, though: whether to pay people a share of what they raise. For many nonprofits the honest answer is “not on gifts”, and there are options that work well instead.
In this post, I’ll walk you through that decision first, then every step of the setup with Charitable, from turning on the integration to recording your first test donation and paying an affiliate.
Should you pay commission on donations?
It’s worth settling this before you build anything, because it shapes every setting that follows. In a store, paying an affiliate 10% of a sale is ordinary. With donations, a percentage of the gift is a different thing in the eyes of donors, regulators and the fundraising profession.
Here are the three considerations I’d weigh first:
- Fundraising ethics: the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Code of Ethical Standards says members shall “not pay finder’s fees, commissions or percentage compensation based on contributions.” If your development team follows that code, percentage commissions on gifts are off the table.
- State registration rules: in the US, many states expect people who are paid to solicit donations for a charity to register as professional fundraisers or solicitors, and the rules differ from state to state. Your state’s charity regulator, which you can find through NASCO, is the place to check before you pay anyone for gifts.
- Donor trust: a donor who later learns that part of their gift went to the person who shared the link may feel differently about giving again. If you do pay on donations, say so plainly on the campaign page.
None of this is legal advice, and the rules where you are may be different. What it does mean is that most nonprofits get more from an affiliate program when they choose one of these structures instead of a straight cut of every gift:
- Recognise instead of paying: give supporters a link, see how many visitors each one sends, and thank your most active supporters publicly. You can switch off commission for any donation campaign, which I’ll show you in Step 5.
- Reward sales, not gifts: if you sell merchandise, event tickets or courses on the same site, AffiliateWP can pay commission on those sales through its WooCommerce integration, while donations stay commission-free.
- A modest flat amount: some organisations prefer a fixed thank-you per donation, set per campaign, over a percentage. Check it against your own policy and your state’s rules first, since a flat fee for bringing in a donor can still count as a finder’s fee.
Once you know which of these fits, the setup takes well under an hour. Let’s look at what you’ll need.
What you need
Before you start, make sure you have these in place:
- A WordPress site that takes your donations: AffiliateWP tracks gifts made on your own site, not on a separate giving platform.
- Charitable: the free version on WordPress.org or any paid plan. AffiliateWP works with both.
- An AffiliateWP license: the Charitable integration, Stripe payouts and PayPal payouts are on every plan. Automatic payouts are on Pro and higher. See the plans.
- A private browser window: you’ll use it for the test donation in Step 7.
How to set up a charity affiliate program with Charitable
Step 1: Create your donation campaign in Charitable
Everything in your affiliate program hangs off a campaign, so it makes sense to start there. Charitable organises giving into campaigns, each with its own page, goal and donation form, and AffiliateWP credits affiliates campaign by campaign.
Install and activate Charitable, connect the payment gateway you’ll accept gifts through, then go to Charitable » Campaigns and create your first campaign. If you already run campaigns, you can use those as they are.
What I like about pairing the two is that donors never see a different checkout. They give on your Charitable form exactly as they do today, and the affiliate tracking happens behind it.
With a campaign ready to receive gifts, the next step is adding the plugin that tracks who sent each donor.
Step 2: Install AffiliateWP and run the setup wizard
AffiliateWP is the part that gives each affiliate a referral link, remembers who sent each visitor, and records a referral when that visitor donates.
Upload and activate AffiliateWP, enter your license key, and run the setup wizard from AffiliateWP » Settings. The wizard walks you through your currency, a default commission and how you’ll pay affiliates. You can change any of these later.
When you activate AffiliateWP, it creates an Affiliate Area page where supporters can register and find their links. We’ll come back to that page in Step 6.
Step 3: Turn on the Charitable integration
AffiliateWP only tracks the plugins you switch on, so this step connects it to your donations.
Go to AffiliateWP » Settings » Integrations, check Charitable, and click Save Changes. From now on, a donation made by someone who arrived through an affiliate’s link creates a referral in AffiliateWP.
If you skip this step, Charitable’s campaign editor will remind you: its AffiliateWP panel shows a notice asking you to enable the integration instead of the rate settings.
Step 4: Set your default commission
Your default rate is what any campaign without its own setting uses, so it’s worth choosing it with the decision from the first section in mind.
Go to AffiliateWP » Settings » Commissions and set the referral rate and rate type, either a percentage or a flat amount. If donations will be commission-free and you only pay on sales, set the rate you’d pay on those sales here, then switch referrals off on your donation campaigns in the next step.
Our guide to commission rates covers how to pick a number if you’re paying on sales.
Step 5: Set a rate for each campaign, or switch it off
This is where the program fits itself to your causes. Each Charitable campaign can have its own rate, or no commission at all, which is what makes the recognise-instead-of-paying approach possible.
Open the campaign at Charitable » Campaigns. In the campaign builder, go to the Marketing panel and choose AffiliateWP. If you use Charitable’s older campaign editor, the same settings sit in the AffiliateWP section of the campaign settings. Either way, you’ll see three settings:
- Referral Rate Type: keep the site default, or choose a percentage or flat amount for this campaign.
- Referral Rate: the number for this campaign. Leave it blank to keep the usual rate.
- Disable referrals for this campaign: donations to this campaign won’t earn a commission.
When you enter a rate here, it’s the rate used for donations to that campaign. That lets you run a flat thank-you on a fundraising event while your general appeal stays commission-free.
Good to know: AffiliateWP checks every campaign a donation includes, so a donation that touches a campaign with referrals switched off earns no commission. The affiliate’s visits still show at AffiliateWP » Visits, so you can still see who is sending people your way.
Now that your campaigns know what to reward, it’s time to bring in the people who’ll share them.
Track which supporters bring in donations. AffiliateWP works with Charitable on every plan, with Stripe and PayPal payouts built in. See AffiliateWP plans
Step 6: Invite your first affiliates
For a nonprofit, the best affiliates are usually people who already care: corporate partners, local businesses, event fundraisers, board members and creators whose audiences overlap with your cause.
Share the Affiliate Area page AffiliateWP created, or add affiliates yourself from AffiliateWP » Affiliates. You can decide whether new registrations need your approval at AffiliateWP » Settings » Affiliates, and our registration page doc covers the options.
I’d invite a handful of people personally before opening registration to everyone. A short note explaining the campaign, what you’ll do with their link data, and how you’ll thank them goes a long way.
Step 7: Make a test donation
This is the step that tells you everything works, so it’s worth doing carefully. By default, AffiliateWP doesn’t credit affiliates for their own donations, so testing as the affiliate looks exactly like broken tracking.
Here’s how to run the test cleanly:
- Log in to the Affiliate Area as a test affiliate and copy their referral link.
- Open a private window, where you’re not logged in, and visit that link.
- Go to your campaign and donate using an email address that isn’t the affiliate’s.
- Back in your normal window, open AffiliateWP » Referrals.
You’ll see a new referral described as “Donation to” followed by your campaign’s name. Its reference is the Charitable donation ID, which links straight to the donation. The referral starts as Pending and moves to Unpaid once Charitable marks the donation complete, and the donation’s own log gets a note naming the affiliate.
Once you’ve seen it, refund the test donation so its referral is rejected, or reject the test referral yourself at AffiliateWP » Referrals. Our testing checklist has a longer version of this check.
Step 8: Pay affiliates, after a holding period
If you’re paying commission on any campaign, the timing of payment matters as much as the amount, because refunds don’t reach back into money you’ve already sent.
When a completed donation is refunded, cancelled or fails, AffiliateWP rejects its referral as long as you haven’t paid it yet. A referral you’ve already paid stays paid. That’s why I’d set a Commission Holding Period at AffiliateWP » Settings » Commissions, a number of days AffiliateWP waits before a commission is ready to pay. The setting’s own guidance is your refund period plus 7 days.
To pay, turn on Stripe or PayPal at AffiliateWP » Settings » Payouts, then go to AffiliateWP » Payouts and click Pay Affiliates. You can also record a payment you made yourself, by bank transfer for example, as a manual payout. On Pro and higher, a payout schedule can run this for you weekly or monthly. The complete guide to paying affiliates walks through each method.
One thing worth knowing for your accounts: AffiliateWP doesn’t take any part of the donation. The full gift goes through your Charitable payment gateway as usual, and AffiliateWP only records what you owe the affiliate.
Where this setup stops
Where the integration runs out of road is worth being upfront about, especially if your program depends on monthly giving.
Recurring donations credit the first gift only. The affiliate earns on the donation the referred visitor makes. AffiliateWP’s Recurring Referrals addon doesn’t support Charitable, so later instalments of a monthly gift don’t create referrals. If you set expectations with affiliates, base them on that first donation.
Supporters share your campaign; they don’t run their own. AffiliateWP gives each affiliate a link to your existing campaigns. If what you have in mind is supporters building their own fundraising pages with personal goals, that’s peer-to-peer fundraising, and Charitable’s Ambassadors extension is built for exactly that. Many organisations use both: peer-to-peer pages for event fundraisers, affiliate links for partners and creators.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay affiliates a percentage of donations?
Yes, technically, but check before you do. The AFP code tells fundraising professionals not to pay commissions based on contributions, and many US states expect paid solicitors to register. Many nonprofits switch commission off on gifts and pay only on sales. This isn’t legal advice, so ask your state regulator or counsel.
Does AffiliateWP work with the free version of Charitable?
Yes. AffiliateWP tracks donations with the free version of Charitable and with its paid plans. The per-campaign settings appear in both the campaign builder and the older campaign editor.
Do monthly donations earn a commission every month?
No. The affiliate is credited for the donation the referred visitor makes on your site. Later instalments of a recurring gift don’t create new referrals, because Recurring Referrals doesn’t support Charitable.
What happens to a referral if a donation is refunded?
It’s rejected, as long as you haven’t paid it. When Charitable marks a donation refunded, cancelled or failed, AffiliateWP rejects an unpaid referral for it. A paid referral stays paid, which is why a Commission Holding Period is worth setting.
Can I run an affiliate program without paying commission on gifts?
Yes. Switch on Disable referrals for this campaign in each donation campaign’s AffiliateWP settings, so gifts never earn a commission. Supporters keep their links, AffiliateWP still records the visits they send, and you can pay commission on sales such as merchandise or tickets instead.
Can affiliates donate through their own link?
They can donate, but by default they don’t earn on it. AffiliateWP’s self-referral protection rejects a referral when the donor’s email matches the affiliate’s. You can change that under the Self-Referrals setting in Anti-Fraud.
Next, decide who you’ll invite first
Now that your campaigns are tracked and you know how each one rewards supporters, the natural next move is choosing the first five or ten people to invite. Start with partners who already mention you, and give them a campaign with a clear goal they can talk about.
For the settings in more detail, our Charitable integration doc covers each one, and the paying your affiliates doc covers payouts.
Start your charity affiliate program
Connect AffiliateWP to Charitable and see which supporters drive your donations.
