How to Display a Top Contributor List on Your Website?

Donors give. You say thank you. Then they disappear into a spreadsheet, never seen again.

That’s the quiet failure of most nonprofit websites: they collect donations but don’t celebrate donors. No recognition, no visibility, no reason for a first-time contributor to feel like they’re part of something bigger.

Donor recognition turns one-time donors into loyal supporters. When people see their name on a public contributor list, they’ll feel, I’m one of the people who made this happen.

A top contributor list does exactly that. It puts your most committed supporters front and center, shows new visitors that real people trust your cause, and creates a subtle but powerful social proof loop that nudges fence-sitters to act.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to display a top contributor list on your WordPress website, using Paymattic’s built-in donor leaderboard features.

Let’s get into it.

What is a donor leaderboard? 

A donor leaderboard is a feature offered by fundraising platforms that displays your top contributors in a ranked, visually compelling list, highlighting the donors who have given the most to a specific campaign.

But it does more than just show names and numbers. It acts as live social proof, showing visitors that real people are actively backing your cause, which nudges fence-sitters to follow. The competitive, scoreboard-style format creates a sense of urgency and participation that a static donor list simply can’t replicate.

For nonprofits, it’s one of the most effortless ways to drive more donations, not through outreach, but through visibility.

Why display the top contributor list on your website?

Most nonprofits work hard to get donations, but do little to showcase them. That’s a missed opportunity. A visible contributor list doesn’t just recognize donors; it actively drives more giving.

Here’s why it works:

Builds instant social proof: When visitors see real people backing your cause, trust goes up. A contributor list tells new donors: others believe in this, and so should you.

Turns recognition into retention: Donors who feel seen come back. Public acknowledgment is one of the simplest and most overlooked tools for improving donor retention.

Creates healthy competition: A ranked leaderboard taps into a natural human motivator. Donors who see their position are more likely to give again to climb or hold their spot.

Attracts new supporters: Visibility breeds momentum. A growing contributor list signals an active, trusted campaign and that signal alone can convert a hesitant visitor into a first-time donor.

Strengthens community: A contributor list turns individual donors into a visible collective. That sense of belonging, I’m part of this group, is what transforms one-time givers into long-term advocates.

5 Fundraising Secrets No One Will Ever Tell You

Paymattic for creating a donor leaderboard

Paymattic is a WordPress donation and payment plugin built for nonprofits, NGOs, and fundraising campaigns. It simplifies the entire donation experience, from collecting payments to recognizing your top supporters, all without writing a single line of code.

The plugin offers powerful donation features, so you can collect donations from anywhere in the world. Its clean interface and zero-coding feature help users create effortless donation forms in a minute!

Some of its notable features include:

• Recurring donations
• Donor leaderboard
• Donation goal
• Donor dashboard
• Donation progress bar
• Donor profile
• 13+ payment gateway
• Currency switcher
• Advance reporting dashboard 
• And more!

The best part is that all you will get is the most affordable pricing. 

Tutorial: Steps to setting donor leaderboard with Paymattic

If you haven’t already, install Paymattic first.

• Head to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins → Add New. Search for “Paymattic,” install the plugin, and click Activate.

Once active, you’ll see the Paymattic menu appear in your WordPress sidebar. You’re ready to move on.

• Then go to the Settings of Paymattic, where you will find the Donation Leaderboard option in the left sidebar.

Now it’s time to set your donation leaderboard in your own way. 

• Choose any template of your choice.
• Then select the Visibility of Donation Leaderboard. If you prefer not to display the donation leaderboard, then you can press the Disable option.
• In the Display donor per page option, you can also select how many donors you want to show in your leaderboard.
• In the Other Settings option, you can choose specifically which information you want to display on the leaderboard.
• At last, select the Donor list display order and press the Save Settings button.

After completing the settings part, to show the leaderboard on your website, copy the Shortcode and paste it where you want to display the leaderboard. 

For example, I select the Donation Page to show the Donation Leaderboard.

Here is the preview of the Donation Leaderboard.

That’s the simplest process of displaying the top contributor list on a webpage of your site.

Once you set the leaderboard on your webpage, it will automatically update whenever the top contributors are changed; you don’t need to do anything.

Final words

A visually appealing donor leaderboard can boost your success. Because the more transparent you make your campaign, the more you get the supporters’ attention. 

So don’t forget to add ‘Donation Leaderboard’ to your upcoming fundraising campaign and show the progress of your campaign. Try the ultimate WordPress donation plugin Paymattic today and enjoy more surprising donation features.

Do you have any questions or feature requests? 

If yes! Then great. We always love to hear from you.

Best of luck with your fundraising efforts. Have a nice day.

Ciao!