Tip Collection

> Requires: Fundations Pro

Tip collection lets you add an optional “support the platform” tip to the donation form. Donors choose a percentage tip on top of their donation, and you track, collect, and export those tips from a dedicated admin page.

Why use this

Running a crowdfunding platform has costs. Tip collection is a common revenue model used by platforms like GoFundMe and JustGiving. Instead of taking a percentage from the fundraiser, you ask the donor to optionally cover the platform fee. Because it is opt-in, it tends to have high acceptance rates without reducing donor satisfaction.

What it does

Donation form

The system:platform_tip system field in the Form Builder adds a tip selector to the donation form. Donors pick a percentage (for example 5%, 10%, 15%) or decline. The tip amount is calculated from the donation amount and displayed before submission. See Form Builder for how to add the field to your form template.

Admin dashboard

The tip dashboard is at Fundations → Platform Tips. It shows all tips associated with completed donations and lets you mark them as collected once you have transferred the amount.

Summary cards

Card	What it shows
Total Tips	Count of all tip records in the current filter
Total Amount	Sum of all tip amounts in the current filter
Uncollected	Sum of tips not yet marked as collected
Collected	Sum of tips already marked as collected

Tip list

The list shows 20 rows per page with columns: Date, Donor Name, Donor Email, Donation Amount, Tip Amount, Tip Percentage, Status, Collected Date.

Default view shows uncollected tips for the current month.

How to use it

Adding the tip field to your donation form

1. Go to Fundations → Forms.
2. Open the form template you want to edit.
3. Find the Platform Tip system field and drag it into your form layout.
4. Save the template.

The tip percentage options shown to donors are configured in the field settings.

Viewing and collecting tips

1. Go to Fundations → Platform Tips.
2. Use the date range filters to select the period you want to review.
3. Use the status filter to show all tips, only uncollected, or only collected.
4. Check the boxes next to tips you want to mark as collected.
5. Click Mark Selected as Collected to update their status.

Exporting tips

1. Apply the filters for the export you want.
2. Click Export CSV.
3. The file downloads immediately.

The CSV uses semicolons as delimiters and includes a UTF-8 byte order mark for compatibility with Excel. The filename follows the pattern platform-tips-{from}-to-{to}.csv. A totals row is appended at the end of the file.

Settings & options

Tip percentage options and default selections are configured through the Platform Tip system field in the Form Builder. There are no global tip settings outside the form field configuration.

What you can and cannot do

• You can filter tips by date range and collection status.
• You can bulk-mark tips as collected. This action sets the collected date to the current time.
• You can export tips to CSV.
• You cannot undo a “mark as collected” action through the UI. The meta values can be cleared via the database if needed.
• You cannot delete tip records independently. Tips are stored as metadata on donation posts. Deleting the donation removes the tip data.
• Access requires the manage_options capability.

Examples

Monthly tip reconciliation workflow:

1. At the end of each month, go to Platform Tips and filter to last month, status: uncollected.
2. Export the CSV for your accounting records.
3. Select all tips and mark them as collected.
4. The uncollected total resets for the new month.

Troubleshooting

No tips appear in the dashboard. Confirm the Platform Tip system field is added to at least one active form template. Tips are only recorded when a donor actively selects a tip percentage during checkout. If the field is not in the form, no tip data is stored.

The CSV file shows garbled characters in Excel. The export includes a UTF-8 BOM to help Excel detect the encoding. If you still see issues, open the file in Excel via Data → From Text/CSV and select UTF-8 encoding manually.

A tip shows in the dashboard but the donation is not in the donation list. The dashboard reads donations with post status publish or get_paid. If the donation has a different status it will not appear.

Developer reference

Data storage

Tip data is stored as postmeta on the get_fund_donation post type.

Meta key	Type	Description
_get_donation_tip_amount	float	Tip amount in the donation currency
_get_donation_tip_percentage	float	Percentage chosen by donor
_get_donation_tip_collected	string '1'	Present when collected
_get_donation_tip_collected_date	string	MySQL datetime of collection

AJAX actions

Action	Capability	Description
get_fund_get_tips_data	manage_options	Load tip list for given filters
get_fund_mark_tips_collected	manage_options	Bulk-mark selected tip IDs as collected
get_fund_export_tips	manage_options	Stream CSV download

All three require the get_fund_tips_nonce nonce.

AJAX request parameters

get_fund_get_tips_data accepts: date_from, date_to, status (all / uncollected / collected), page.

get_fund_mark_tips_collected accepts: tip_ids (array of donation post IDs).

get_fund_export_tips accepts: date_from, date_to, status.

No hooks or filters are currently exposed by this class.