crowdfunding | The Blog Pros

February 28, 2024

21 Best WordPress Themes for Crowdfunding

Are you looking for a WordPress theme for crowdfunding?

Many WordPress themes are geared towards corporate or blogging websites and may not be a good fit to help you raise funds for your organization or cause.

In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress themes for crowdfunding and fundraising websites.

Building a Crowdfunding Website With WordPress

Crowdfunding helps startups, charities, and individuals raise money for their projects. It allows you to collect small contributions from individuals to reach your fundraising goals.

Many of these projects use crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter to run their campaign. However, you will also need your own website to better showcase your idea, mission, or cause.

This is where WordPress comes in. It’s the world’s most popular content management system, powering over 43% of all websites on the internet.

A self-hosted WordPress site gives you the flexibility and functionality to easily integrate with all popular third-party services you may be using for crowdfunding.

To get started, you will need a WordPress hosting account and a domain name. A domain name is your site’s address on the web, like wpbeginner.com or google.com. Web hosting is the storage for all your website files.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest web hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

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Once you have signed up for hosting, you can move on to installing WordPress. Head over to our step-by-step guide on how to make a WordPress site, and you will be up and running in no time.

Next, you will need to choose a theme for your website. You can select any theme from our expert pick below. If you need help installing the theme, then just check out our guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress themes for crowdfunding.

1. Astra

Astra is a fast and lightweight WordPress multipurpose theme that works well for crowdfunding sites. You can easily add a 1-click starter template and customize it to give details about your organization or project.

You can use Astra with any popular drag-and-drop page builder plugin, such as Elementor Pro or Visual Composer. It’s also fully compatible with the WordPress block editor.

Astra also works seamlessly with all popular WordPress plugins, including crowdfunding plugins. This helps you raise money and take donations easily.

2. SeedProd

SeedProd crowdfunding and fundraising site

SeedProd is the best WordPress website and theme builder. It comes with several ready-made website templates, including a fully functional layout for your crowdfunding site.

You can import any template in one click and customize it with SeedProd’s built-in drag-and-drop builder. It’s beginner-friendly and gives you easy access to all the tools you need to design your website.

Moreover, it integrates with your favorite tools and plugins. SeedProd is the best choice for making a crowdfunding website, and we fully recommend it.

3. Divi

Divi is a WordPress theme plus page builder plugin that gives you an easy front-end editor for your website. It uses a responsive design and is also created to be SEO-friendly.

You can use Divi’s thousands of templates to start your website quickly. They have a range of community and non-profit layout packs that could be perfect for your crowdfunding or charity site.

4. OceanWP

OceanWP is a free and flexible WordPress theme. You can also choose the Pro version, which comes with multiple website templates that you can use to start your site quickly.

Because OceanWP is a fully responsive theme, your website will look good on all devices. You can add a custom logo, social icons, and more.

5. Ultra

Ultra is a dynamic and flexible theme that could be the perfect fit for your crowdfunding efforts. It ships with several ready-made websites that can be installed with one click. You can then replace the content with your own to create your site quickly.

Ultra also has an integrated drag and drop page builder, which allows you to create beautiful page layouts of your own. Inside, you will also find sections to add a portfolio, photo galleries, testimonials, events, and more.

You may also want to add a plugin such as Easy Digital Downloads if you are providing an exclusive download in return for a donation.

6. Hestia Pro

Hestia Pro is a beautiful multipurpose WordPress theme that could work perfectly for your crowdfunding website. It is fully compatible with all the best WordPress plugins, so you can easily extend your WordPress website with new features.

Plus, Hestia Pro is retina-ready. That means your website will look great on all devices, even the most recent smartphones.

7. Monochrome

Monochrome is a minimalist WordPress theme that is stylish and simple at the same time. It’s optimized for great performance and won’t slow your site down.

Monochrome features a widgetized homepage layout, which helps you set up your website easily. It also includes a customizable header, theme options panel, widget areas, and full WooCommerce plugin support.

StudioPress is now part of WP Engine, the most popular managed WordPress hosting company. You can get this theme and all 35+ other StudioPress themes when you sign up for WP Engine hosting to build your website.

Bonus: WPBeginner users also get an additional 20% OFF. Get started with WP Engine today!

8. Struct

Struct is another modern WordPress theme that is perfect for crowdfunding. Designed for businesses and startups, it features a drag-and-drop homepage layout with a large fullscreen header at the top.

It includes unlimited color choices, custom widgets, a portfolio, photo galleries, projects, testimonials, an FAQ section, and more. It also works with all popular page builder plugins, so you can create your own page layouts if needed.

9. Nayma

Nayma is a multi-purpose WordPress theme that can be easily used for crowdfunding projects. It uses modules as building blocks to create page layouts and has all the commonly used web elements available as modules. You can drag and drop them anywhere on your pages.

Plus, Nayma includes several ready-made websites that you can use as a starting point. It has unlimited custom sidebars, sliders, icon fonts, Typekit font support, testimonials, pricing tables, a contact form, and more.

10. Sydney Pro

Sydney Pro is another powerful WordPress theme with flexible customization options. It can be used as a one-page or multi-page theme and comes with built-in sections for your portfolio, team members, testimonials, clients, and galleries.

The theme also includes several starter templates, page layouts, custom widgets, and social media integration. It’s also eCommerce-ready with full WooCommerce support. It can also be used with popular WordPress membership plugins.

11. Essence Pro

Essence Pro is an elegant WordPress theme suitable for crowdfunding, landing pages, and sales page websites. The homepage features a large fullscreen header with prominent call-to-action buttons. It has a widgetized layout, allowing you to set up the homepage using drag-and-drop content widgets.

The theme uses beautiful parallax effects to create an engaging experience for your users. It’s WooCommerce-ready and comes with a simple theme options panel and WordPress live customizer support.

12. Charity Fundraiser

Charity Fundraiser is a free WordPress theme for charities and non-profits to create crowdfunding websites. It features an elegant layout designed to showcase your cause and encourage donations from your supporters and backers.

The theme customization options can all be accessed using the live theme customizer. You can change the header image, image slider, and background colors and add social media links.

13. Inspiro

Inspiro is another great choice for a WordPress crowdfunding theme. It comes with built-in support to easily add videos as a fullscreen background. It also includes a beautiful video lightbox popup for an engaging viewing experience.

Inspiro has a drag-and-drop homepage layout and offers integration with a free page builder plugin. Other notable features include page templates, a portfolio section, a hero banner, gallery templates, custom widgets, and full WooCommerce support.

14. Corner

Corner is one of the best WordPress themes for tech startups, small businesses, and non-profits. It comes with a sidebar homepage layout that lets you display your welcome message, navigation menu, and social media icons in the sidebar.

The theme integrates with several plugins to let you add a portfolio, testimonials, a contact form, Google Maps, and more. All the theme options are easy to set up, and a 1-click demo content installer is also available for a quick start.

15. Brizy

Brizy is a multipurpose WordPress theme with lots of template options. Their Hope template is perfect for charities and non-profits engaging in crowdfunding and fundraising campaigns. The theme includes slider layouts, a 1-click demo content installer, and Brizy’s visual drag-and-drop page builder. It has support for popular WordPress plugins for non-profits.

Brizy’s features include multiple color schemes, event management, multiple layouts, and social media integration. It can also be used to create multilingual WordPress sites with WPML.

16. Balance

Balance is a great business theme designed to put your brand in the center. Perfect for a crowdfunding website, Balance is a great theme that comes with a modern and stylish homepage layout. This allows you to feature your projects and boost your conversions, supporters, and backers.

It’s eCommerce-ready and has beautiful templates for shop and product pages. Other features include multiple blog styles, color schemes with unlimited customizations, an Instagram widget, custom fonts, and a logo.

17. Spencer

Spencer is a multipurpose WordPress theme in the minimalist design tradition. It has a sticky navigation menu with multiple sections on the homepage where you can add featured blog posts, social media icons, and an email subscription form.

The homepage can be set up by simply adding content widgets to create your page layout. It also includes social media integrations and content discovery features.

18. Advance Startup

Advance Startup is a stylish and free WordPress theme for business websites. It’s easy to set up and features beautiful typography, an elegant design, and a simpler theme setup.

The theme supports a custom header, custom footer formats, and a custom background. It has different page templates and is multilingual-ready with RTL language support.

19. Presence

Presence is a sleek WordPress theme for mobile apps or any other product website. Its homepage features a prominent call-to-action button on top of a full-width header image.

The theme comes with a dual navigation menu, social media integration, icon fonts, and custom widgets. It can be used on multilingual sites using WPML.

20. Indigo

Indigo is a stunningly beautiful and very easy-to-use WordPress theme. It’s designed to be a multipurpose theme, allowing you to choose your own layouts and styles without writing any code. It includes several ready-made websites that you can install with 1-click to import demo content.

If you don’t want to start with a ready-made website, then you can just drag and drop modules to create your own layout. Indigo features beautiful typography, stunning templates for galleries, portfolios, services, testimonials, and many more customization options.

21. Polity Lite

Polity Lite is a stylish and modern campaign theme that could be a great crowdfunding option for a charity, NGO, or political organization.

It includes the options for a custom header and custom logo and is also translation-ready to create a site for a global audience. Polity Lite also includes a social media icon menu.

Crowdfunding With WordPress: Tips for Success

How you run your crowdfunding campaign in WordPress depends on what platform you are using to raise funds. Here are some brief instructions for Kickstarter and WPForms.

Adding Your Kickstarter Project in WordPress

If you are using Kickstarter, you will first need to visit your Kickstarter project page.

On your project page, click on the ‘Embed’ button.

Click the embed button on your Kickstarter page

This will bring up a popup.

You need to click the link to embed your project on an external site.

Click the link for embedding your code on an external site

Then, simply copy the embed code.

You can copy it for either the project video or the widget.

Now, you need to edit the post or page where you want to display your Kickstarter project. You can also add it to a text widget in your sidebar.

You can add the code into an HTML block in the WordPress block editor. If you are using the Classic Editor, then don’t forget to switch to the text editor mode.

Simply paste the embed code and save your post, page, or widget. You can now visit your website to see it in action.

Accept Donations Using WPForms

If you are fundraising for a non-profit cause, then you can use WPForms to create an online donation form.

WPForms is the best contact form plugin for WordPress. It has over 1300 built-in form templates, including PayPal and Stripe online donation forms.

You can also collect recurring donations with WPForms. And the best part is that WPForms is easy to use with a drag-and-drop form builder to add fields, text, and donate buttons and integrate payment methods to your WordPress forms.

For more details, you should check out our guide on how to add a PayPal donate button to your WordPress site.

You can also check out our step-by-step guide on how to create a donation form for nonprofit organizations in WordPress.

Alternate: You can also use WP Simple Pay to accept donations with other payment methods. WP Simple Pay is the best Stripe payment plugin for WordPress. It lets you accept Giropay payments and Affirm payments for donations.

Convert Website Visitors into Subscribers

Most people visiting your website will probably leave without donating to your project or cause, even if they support it. The best way to keep those users engaged is to start building your email list right away.

You will need to sign up with an email marketing service and use lead generation software like OptinMonster.

OptinMonster helps you convert abandoning visitors into subscribers. This allows you to keep those users engaged and eventually convert them into donors.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress themes for crowdfunding. You may also want to check out our other WordPress guides for crowdfunding, donations, and fundraising campaigns.

Best WordPress Guides for Crowdfunding Sites

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The post 21 Best WordPress Themes for Crowdfunding first appeared on WPBeginner.

January 12, 2023

The Modern Techniques of Crowdfunding, Fundraising, & Charity

These days, the internet dominates nearly every aspect of modern life. Whatever you are trying to do with your life and time, the internet is a huge part of your ability to be successful in...

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November 22, 2022

How to Raise Money with Crowdfunding in WordPress

Are you looking for a way to raise funds through crowdfunding using a WordPress website?

Raising funds for a project can be a challenging task. Most people use crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo to raise money. However, why work on the terms of third-party platforms when you can do it all on your own with a few simple clicks?

In this article, we will show you how to raise money with crowdfunding in WordPress.

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is an organized effort by a person to raise funds for a project, an organization, or their own needs.

Often entrepreneurs use crowdfunding to raise startup money by presenting their ideas to potential customers and allowing them to fund the project rather than giving up equity to investors. Instead of receiving equity, each donor gets a reward of some kind.

Usually, these rewards include getting a shirt, stickers, other goodies, or an actual product. The reward each donor receives is based on the amount they donate.

Besides startups, crowdfunding is a great way for an individual or even nonprofit organizations to raise money for any cause.

Many people use sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo to crowdfund, but there are a few downsides to those sites. For example, Kickstarter takes 5% of any money you raise, plus processing fees. And if you don’t meet your fundraising goal, all the donations are returned and you won’t receive anything.

That’s why making a WordPress site can be a better alternative. It gives you much more control and flexibility over your crowdfunding campaign.

That said, let’s see how you can raise money through crowdfunding using WordPress.

How to Start Crowdfunding with WordPress

The easiest way to start crowdfunding is by using a WordPress plugin. There are many donations and fundraising plugins that help you collect online payments from investors and crowdfund your project.

We’ll show you 2 plugins that you can use to kickstart your crowdfunding in WordPress. Simply click the link below to jump ahead to any section:

Create a Crowdfunding Form Using WPForms
Raise Money with Crowdfunding using WP Charitable

Create a Crowdfunding Form Using WPForms

The easiest way of starting crowdfunding in WordPress is by using WPForms. It’s the best contact form plugin for WordPress and super easy to use.

You can use the drag and drop form builder to create any type of form in minutes without editing code. Plus, it easily integrates with payment services like PayPal and Stripe, allowing you to collect online payments from investors.

We’ll use the WPForms Pro version for this tutorial because it includes a nonprofit crowdfunding form template and payment gateway integrations. There is also a WPForms Lite version you can try for free.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the WPForms plugin on your website. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon installation, you can head to WPForms » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and enter your license key. You can easily find the license key in your account.

Visit the WPForms » Settings Page to Enter Your License Key

After that, you’ll need to integrate different payment services to raise money through crowdfunding. WPForms supports payment providers like PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Authorize.net.

Simply go to WPForms » Addons from the WordPress admin panel and click the ‘Install Addon’ button for your preferred payment addon.

Once the addon is active, you can now create a crowdfunding form for your WordPress website.

To start, you can go to WPForms » Add New from the WordPress dashboard. This will launch the WPForms drag and drop form builder.

Next, enter a name for your form at the top and then search for the ‘Nonprofit Crowdfunding Form’ template from the menu on your left. Simply hover over the form template and click the ‘Use Template’ button.

From here, you can use the drag and drop form builder to customize the template.

WPForms will already have form fields added to the template. However, you can add more fields by dragging them from the menu on your left or rearranging the existing fields.

You can further customize each individual form field.

Simply select a form field, and you’ll see more options in the menu on your left. For instance, you can change the label and format of the field, make it a required field, and more.

Next, you can go to the ‘Payment’ tab in the WPForms form builder.

Go ahead and select a payment gateway you want to connect to your crowdfunding form.

For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll select PayPal.

After that, click the checkbox for ‘Enable PayPal Standard payments’ in the settings.

You can then provide a PayPal email address and select ‘Donation’ from the Payment Type dropdown menu.

Below that, there are more options where you can enter the Cancel URL. This is a great opportunity to stay connected with your users if they decide the cancel the checkout process.

You can also customize the shipping address options and ask buyers to include a note with payment.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top.

Next, you can head to the ‘Settings’ tab in the form builder and go to Notifications.

Here you can customize the notification settings sent to the site administrator. For example, you can change the email the notifications are sent to, edit the email subject line and message, and more.

Next, you can go to ‘Confirmations’ in the Settings tab and ensure your donors receive a confirmation email for funding your project.

You can show a message when someone submits the crowdfunding form or take the user to another page or URL on your site.

When you’re done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top.

The next step is to add your crowdfunding form to your WordPress blog. You can simply click the ‘Embed’ button in the form builder at the top and choose whether you’d like to select an existing page or create a new page for your form.

Let’s select the ‘Create New Page’ option for this tutorial.

After that, enter a name for your new page and click the ‘Let’s Go!’ button.

WPForms will automatically embed your crowdfunding form to the new page you just created.

Alternatively, you can add a WPForms block in the WordPress content editor and select your form from the dropdown menu.

Go ahead and preview your crowdfunding form.

You can then click the ‘Publish’ button and visit your website to see the form in action.

You can also see our guide on how to create a donate form for a nonprofit organization in WordPress.

Raise Money with Crowdfunding using WP Charitable

Another way you can start fundraising for your project is by using WP Charitable. It is one of the top-rated WordPress donation and fundraising plugins. Over 10,000 nonprofit organizations use WP Charitable to raise money through crowdfunding and donations.

The plugin offers numerous extensions and features that help you kickstart your crowdfunding campaign. For instance, you can set up peer-to-peer fundraising in WordPress and use word-of-mouth marketing to raise funds.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the WP Charitable Pro license because it includes the Ambassador extension for peer-to-peer fundraising and additional payment gateways.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the core WP Charitable plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll see the WP Charitable welcome screen in your WordPress dashboard. You can head to Charitable » Settings from the admin panel and go to the ‘Licenses’ tab.

Simply enter your license key and click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

After that, you can head to the ‘Payment Gateways’ tab.

Go ahead and click the ‘Enable Gateway’ button for your preferred payment method.

The default payment gateways offered by WP Charitable will be an offline method or PayPal.

However, you can add more payment methods like Stripe, GoCardless, Payrexx, Mollie, Paystack, Braintree, Authorize.net, and more.

After enabling the payment option, simply click the ‘Gateway Settings’ button.

For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll set up PayPal as the payment gateway.

In the PayPal gateway settings, you’ll need to enter your PayPal email address and the API credentials.

You can find the API credentials by going to your PayPal business profile.

When you’re done, click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

The next step is to create a fundraising campaign in WP Charitable.

Simply go to Charitable » Add Campaign from your WordPress dashboard and enter a name for your campaign at the top.

There are also options to enter a campaign description, set a goal, and add an end date to the campaign.

You can leave the goal field blank if you don’t have a set target amount you’d like to collect, and also leave the end date fields blank if it’s an ongoing campaign.

Besides that, you’ll see ‘Campaign Settings’ if you scroll down. Here you can add suggested donation amounts for your campaign. Simply click the ‘+ Add a Suggested Amount’ button and enter the amount.

When you’re done, click the ‘Publish’ button to set your campaign live.

Then you can visit your website to see your crowdfunding campaign in action.

Setting Up Peer-to-Peer Fundraising in WP Charitable

WP Charitable also lets you set up peer to peer fundraising in WordPress. This allows your team members and individuals to create their own campaign and help achieve your overall crowdfunding goal.

First, you can install and activate the Ambassadors extension on your website. It’s just like adding a new plugin. You can follow our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for more details.

Upon activation, you can go to Charitable » Settings from your WordPress admin area and then click on the ‘Ambassadors’ tab. Next, click the checkbox to enable the ‘Fundraisers for existing campaigns’ option.

Enable fundraiser for existing campaigns

There is also an option to disable the requirement for users to register an account before submission.

Don’t forget to save your changes when done.

After that, you can edit an existing campaign in WP Charitable or add a new one. Next, you can go to the ‘Peer to Peer Fundraising’ tab in the Campaign Settings section.

Go ahead and click the checkbox for the ‘Allow peer to peer fundraising for this campaign’ option.

You should now see different settings under Peer to Peer Fundraising. You can select who can participate in the fundraiser, customize fundraiser fields, set a goal, add a photo, and more.

Simply publish your new campaign or update an existing one when you’re done.

A fundraiser option should now appear in your campaign. You can also add a fundraiser button anywhere on your website using the [charitable_fundraise_button] shortcode.

When users click the fundraiser button, they can choose what type of fundraiser they want to create.

After that, users can simply enter details about the fundraiser and confirm their email addresses. Once that’s done, they can help raise money for your crowdfunding project.

We hope this article helped you learn how to raise money with crowdfunding in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to start an online store and the ultimate guide on WordPress SEO.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Raise Money with Crowdfunding in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.