How to Collect Offline Donations in WordPress?
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A donor lands on your fundraising page, ready to give, then hits a payment screen that only takes cards, and closes the tab.
That’s a donor you just lost, not because they didn’t want to help, but because the only option didn’t work for them. Some people trust a cheque more than a card form. Others prefer a straight bank transfer. If your WordPress donation form doesn’t offer that choice, you’re filtering out donors before they even get to give.
The fix: let donors pick how they pay.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up offline giving alongside your online donations using Paymattic.
TL;DR
- Donors who don’t want to pay online often just leave; offering offline payment keeps them from walking away.
- Offline donations cover bank transfer, cheque, and cash, given outside a standard online checkout.
- You can still collect these “offline” gifts right through your WordPress site with Paymattic.
- The fastest setup is a prebuilt offline payment form template, not building from scratch.
- Templates come with form fields already in place; you just customize and save.
- Publishing is a shortcode copy-paste, no code required.
- Once live, donors choose their own payment method: card, bank transfer, or cheque on the same form.
What is offline donation?
An offline donation is a gift made outside a standard online checkout by direct bank transfer, cheque, or cash instead of entering card details on a website.
Donors choose this route for different reasons. Some don’t want to share card information online. Others simply trust a bank transfer or a cheque more than a digital form.
“Offline” doesn’t mean disconnected from your website, though. With a WordPress donation plugin like Paymattic, you can collect these offline donations right through your online donation form. Donors just pick bank transfer or cheque as their payment method instead of a card.
Why nonprofits still need to collect offline donations?
Not every donor wants to enter card details online. Some prefer writing a cheque. Some trust a direct bank transfer more than a checkout form. Older donors especially tend to default to what they already know.
If your WordPress donation form only supports online payment, you’re filtering out donors before they even get to give. They land on your campaign, don’t see an option that works for them, and leave.
Offering both online and offline giving isn’t about choosing one over the other; it’s about matching how your donors actually want to pay. A donor who gives by bank transfer today is still a donor. The goal is to remove friction from the decision, not force a payment method.
This matters most for:
- Campaigns targeting recurring major donors, who often prefer bank transfer for larger gifts
- Nonprofits with an older donor base who default to cheque or bank transfer
- Faith-based and community organizations where in-person or mail-in giving is already the norm
Types of offline donation methods
Here’s how the common offline donation methods compare, so you know what to support first:
| Method | Best for | What to Consider |
| Bank transfer | Larger or recurring gifts | Donor needs your account details upfront; confirmation isn’t instant. |
| Cheque | Donors who avoid digital payments entirely | Slower to process; needs manual reconciliation |
| Cash (in-person) | Events, fundraisers, walk-in donors | Requires manual entry into your donor records |
| Mail-in donations | Direct mail campaigns | Needs a clear form + mailing address on your donation page |
Paymattic: Donation plugin for WordPress
When hearing the term “offline donation,” many may assume there is no online option. It may be a manual donation, and anyone who wants to donate offline needs to go to the place where they want to donate. But in the present circumstances, an offline donation can be collected online via the WordPress donation plugin.
The WordPress donation plugin Paymattic has an amazing feature, offline payment, for people who want to avoid the hassle of online payment. This feature lets your supporter pay through direct bank transfer or cheque via the offline payment feature.
Another benefit of offline payment is that it is very user-friendly for those donors who do not want to provide card information online. Donors can create orders on your website and exit the checkout page without providing any personal data.
Paymattic also provides 13+ payment gateways along with offline payment, such as Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Payrexx, Paystack, Xendit, Square, Billplz, Razorpay, Authorize.net, Flutterwave, and SSLCOMMERZ.
The most interesting thing is that Paymattic supports 135+ currencies, through which you can collect payments globally.
Ready to get started?
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Tutorial: Steps to collect offline donations with Paymattic
You can set up offline payments in Paymattic in two ways: start with a prebuilt form template or build a form from scratch. We’ll cover the faster route here, using a prebuilt template.
Set offline payment method with donation templates:
- First, go to Paymattic > Add New Forms > Choose Templates.
- You’ll see all available form templates here. Since you’re building a donation form, click the Donation tab. You’ll find two options: Simple Form and Advanced Form.
- Offline payment form templates live under Simple Form. Type “offline payment” into the search bar, and a ready-made template will show up. Click it to open the template for customization.
- The template comes pre-set with the necessary form fields; add or remove fields as needed. Once you’re done customizing, click Save.
That’s it; your offline payment form is ready to publish.
Embed offline payment form on your website
- To publish the form, copy its shortcode. Go to your Paymattic dashboard, click All Forms, and select your form. You’ll find the shortcode in the right sidebar. Copy it and paste it into any page or post where you want the form to appear.
Here is the preview of Paymattic’s offline payment form.
Madhobi
This is Madhobi, a content writer at WPManageNinja with expertise in technical writing and email marketing. Outside of work, she likes traveling and exploring new places.
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