Accept donations
Switch donations on, share your donate link, and understand what has to be in place before supporters can give.
Donations let a supporter give your organisation a one-off gift without buying a raffle ticket. You'll find them under Donations in the sidebar, just below Raffles.
Donations are switched on by default. In most cases there's nothing to set up: if your page is claimed and you've added a bank account for payouts, your Donate button is already live.
Where supporters see the Donate button
Once donations are available, the button appears in two places:
- On your organisation page, next to your raffles.
- On each raffle page, beside the Follow button in the organiser's row.
A gift given from a raffle page is recorded against that raffle, so you can see which raffle prompted it. It's attribution only: the money is yours either way, and it never touches the raffle's proceeds, ticket count, or draw.
Your donate link
The Donations section shows a link you can share directly:
https://tickets.rafflelink.com/your-org-slug?donate=1It opens your organisation page with the donation checkout already open, so a supporter arriving from a newsletter or a social post doesn't have to hunt for the button. Use Copy link to grab it, or Preview to see what your supporters will.
It's a good fit for the places a raffle link doesn't quite work: a thank-you email after an event, a post-draw wrap-up, or a supporter who's asked how they can help but isn't after a ticket.
📷 Screenshot: donations-section-overview.png
The Donations section with the donate link panel and the four metric cards (Total received, Donations, Awaiting payout, Last donation). Hand me the file named donations-section-overview.png and I'll place it at /img/donations-section-overview.png.
What has to be true before donations work
Four things decide whether your Donate button shows. If any one of them isn't met, the button stays hidden and the Donations section tells you which one it is.
| Requirement | What it means |
|---|---|
| Donations switched on | The toggle in Donations → Settings. On by default. |
| Your page is claimed | If a fundraiser set your page up on your behalf, your organisation needs to claim it first. |
| You're raising for an organisation | Fundraisers benefiting an individual can't take donations. |
| A bank account for payouts | There has to be somewhere to send the money. |
The last two are worth a word of explanation.
Fundraisers for an individual can't accept donations at all. A gift to a person isn't a donation to an organisation, and it can never carry a tax-deductible receipt, so the switch is disabled and the Donations section doesn't appear in your sidebar. Supporters can still back you by buying raffle tickets.
A page that hasn't been claimed can't accept gifts either. Donations are your organisation's own money, so they wait until your organisation is the one at the wheel. Raffle ticket sales are unaffected.
Tracking what comes in
The top of the Donations section shows four figures, all lifetime totals:
- Total received — the gifts themselves. Processing fees that donors chose to cover aren't included, because they're not yours.
- Donations — how many gifts you've had.
- Awaiting payout — what's due to reach your bank account with your next weekly payout.
- Last donation — when the most recent gift arrived.
Below that, four tabs:
- Donations — every gift, itemised. Search, filter by status, and download or resend a receipt.
- Donors — the same money grouped by person, so you can see who gives repeatedly. A donor who has also bought raffle tickets shows a ticket count here, and supporters who've donated carry a Donor chip in your Supporters list.
- Payouts — each payment of donation money into your bank account. See Donation payouts.
- Settings — the switch, your minimum, and your ABN. See Donation settings.
What it costs you
Nothing. You are never charged a fee on donations, and you receive every gift in full.
When a supporter gives, the checkout offers to add a small amount on top to cover card processing. The box is ticked by default, and they can untick it. If they do, RaffleLink absorbs the cost: your payout is the same either way.
That's deliberately different from raffle ticket sales, where a platform fee is deducted from proceeds. On donations there's no deduction at all, which is also why donation payouts come with a statement rather than a tax invoice. See How fees work for the raffle side.
Who can see donations
Donations are Admin-only. Viewing the section and refunding a gift both sit at that level, because donations are money and donor contact details.
A Reader can see your raffle payouts but never your gifts or your donor list. See Roles explained.