Before you start
- A PayPal Business account (free to create or upgrade to).
- Your site served over HTTPS.
Create a REST app
- Sign in at developer.paypal.com with your PayPal account.
- Go to Apps & Credentials.
- Pick the environment with the toggle: Sandbox for testing, Live for production.
- Click Create App, give it a name like "Donation form", and create it.
- Copy the Client ID and Secret.
Paste into Donor Merchant
- Open Donor Merchant → Settings → Payments, scroll to PayPal.
- Set Mode to Sandbox, paste the sandbox client ID and secret, and save.
Test it
PayPal sandbox gives you fake buyer accounts under Testing Tools → Sandbox Accounts. Open your donation page, choose PayPal, and pay with a sandbox personal account. The gift should appear in Donor Merchant → Donations as completed, with the capture ID stored as the transaction reference.
Go live
Switch the developer dashboard to Live, create (or open) a live app, copy its credentials into the live fields, and set Mode to Live.
One-time gifts only (for now)PayPal handles one-time donations. Recurring gifts run on Stripe — donors who choose a recurring frequency are steered to card payment automatically.