How to accept donations on Carrd

Donor Merchant is a WordPress plugin, so it cannot be installed on Carrd. This guide covers Carrd's own payment options, which plan each needs, and how to link a Carrd site to a donation page that runs Donor Merchant.

Which Carrd plan do you need to take donations?

Carrd's payment features are on its Pro plans. As published in Carrd's documentation in October 2026 (verify with Carrd):

Carrd's documentation does not mention a Carrd fee on payments. Stripe and PayPal charge their usual processing fees.

How do I add a PayPal Donate button to Carrd?

Carrd's PayPal widget can "accept payments, donations, and subscriptions via PayPal". From Carrd's steps:

1. Click Add Element, then Widget.
2. Set Type to PayPal.
3. Choose the Action. Donate "donates a fixed amount". Subscribe "subscribes to a subscription or service".
4. Enter a Name, Amount and other details, an optional Return URL, and your PayPal Merchant ID.

Each button is one fixed amount, so offering $25, $50 and $100 means three widgets. The Subscribe action is the only recurring option Carrd documents.

How do I use Stripe on Carrd?

There are two routes.

Stripe Checkout widget (Pro Standard). Add a Widget, set Type to Stripe Checkout, and under Product choose a type and enter a Stripe Price ID (it starts with price_). Then add your Stripe API keys. You create the price in your Stripe dashboard first. Stripe can make a "Customer chooses price" price, which lets donors type their own amount, but Stripe says these pay-what-you-want prices "don't support recurring payments". Carrd's documentation does not say whether the widget accepts a recurring Stripe price, so test before you rely on it.

Payment-enabled form (Pro Plus). Select a Form element, open the Button tab, and set On Click to Require payment (via Stripe). Under Product, use a preconfigured Stripe price or a custom price. With a Custom form, the amount can be fixed or variable: Carrd says to add a "Number" or "Select" field with the ID amount. That gives you a donation form with a free amount, followed by Stripe's hosted checkout page.

When is Carrd enough?

Carrd is enough for a small campaign, an event page or a personal fundraiser that needs a working Donate button and nothing else. Payments land in your Stripe or PayPal account, and you see them there. If that is your situation, you do not need a second site.

When do you need more than Carrd?

• Donor records: giving history and totals per donor, totals per campaign, CSV export. Carrd forms pass submissions to services such as Mailchimp, Zapier or Airtable; Carrd is not a donor database.
• Recurring gifts at an amount the donor chooses, weekly to yearly; Stripe donors can update their card or cancel themselves.
• Tax receipts and annual statements. In the US, a gift of $250 or more needs a written acknowledgment stating the amount and whether goods or services were provided.
• Fee recovery, offline gifts such as checks, and Gift Aid for UK charities.
• Several payment methods on one form: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank debit and PayPal together.

How do I link a Carrd site to a separate donation page?

Run a small WordPress site on a subdomain such as give.yourdomain.org with Donor Merchant, and point a Carrd button at it. If your Carrd site uses a custom domain (Pro Standard or higher), add the subdomain wherever your domain's DNS is managed. Our guide to adding a donation page to any website builder walks through it.

1. Add a DNS record for give at your registrar, pointing at your WordPress host.
2. Install WordPress and Donor Merchant with HTTPS on, then connect Stripe or PayPal (Getting started).
3. Create a Donate page with the Donation Form block or [donor_merchant].
4. Match your Carrd colors: copy the hex code of your Carrd button color into Donor Merchant under Settings > Forms > Form style, and pick the button shape (pill, rounded or sharp) that matches your Carrd buttons.
5. In Carrd, set your Donate button's link to the full address of the donation page. Carrd's URL types let you add flags after ||; for example https://give.yourdomain.org/donate/||blank opens it in a new tab. We suggest leaving it in the same tab so donors do not lose track of it.

Should I embed the form with a Carrd IFRAME instead?

Carrd's Embed element (Pro Standard) can show another page in an IFRAME, but we recommend a link. A payment form framed from another domain loses Apple Pay unless the frame allows payments and both domains are registered with Stripe, and Carrd's IFRAME settings are a URL, width, height and aspect ratio. PayPal opens a popup window, which a frame can block. Safari and some other browsers block third-party cookies inside frames. A plain link avoids all of that.

What does the separate page give you?

One-time and recurring gifts on Stripe and PayPal, including Apple Pay, Google Pay and US bank debit, on one form. Printable receipts with your tax ID and your own statement, and annual statements. A donor portal where donors see their history and, for Stripe gifts, update a card or cancel. Campaigns with goal thermometers, fee recovery, offline gifts and Gift Aid for UK charities. Every feature is free. For recurring gifts, set up webhooks so renewals are recorded.

Checked against Carrd's documentation in October 2026. Carrd's builder changes over time; if a label differs in yours, look for the equivalent setting.

Sources

• Carrd: Plans
• Carrd: Adding a PayPal Button
• Carrd: Adding a Stripe Checkout Button
• Carrd: Setting up a Payment-Enabled Form
• Carrd: Embedding IFRAMEs
• Carrd: URL Types
• Stripe: Let customers decide what to pay
• IRS: Charitable contributions, written acknowledgments
• Stripe: Register domains for payment methods (iframes)