Adding Donations & Crisis Support to Your Shopify Store (Without Breaking the Bank)

Helping Your Customers Give Back: Free Ways to Add Donations and Crisis Support to Your Shopify Store

Hey everyone! We've been seeing some awesome discussions in the community about how to integrate charitable giving into Shopify stores, and I wanted to share some insights gleaned from a recent thread. Specifically, the user bash_3 was looking for ways to add a donation option and promote a crisis text line (SHOUT) on their store, SupportUKtoday, without incurring extra costs. It's a fantastic goal, and luckily, there are a few paths you can take.

Creating a Donation Option: Think "Product"

The simplest approach, suggested by Maximus3, is to treat a donation like any other product. Here's how you can set it up:

1. Create a new product: In your Shopify admin, go to Products > Add product.
2. Name it something clear: Like "Make a Donation" or "Support Our Cause."
3. Set the price: You can either create different product variants for different donation amounts (e.g., $5, $10, $20) or leave it open and allow customers to adjust the quantity in their cart.
4. Disable shipping: Since it's a donation, you don't need to charge for shipping.
5. Disable taxes: As prov1 mentioned, make sure to turn off the tax for this "product."

Once you've created the donation "product", you can add it to your cart page or any other relevant page on your store. Some themes might require you to edit the theme's code to display it exactly where you want, but many themes allow you to add product sections to various pages through the theme editor.

Promoting the SHOUT Crisis Text Line

Raising awareness for important resources like the SHOUT crisis text line (text SHOUT to 85258) is a noble endeavor. The key is to make the information easily visible to your customers. Here are a couple of ways to do that:

• Theme Blocks or Sections: Most modern Shopify themes use a block-based or section-based system for building pages. Check your theme's customization options (Online Store > Themes > Customize) to see if you can add a custom text block to your cart page or product pages. Simply add a text block and include the SHOUT information.
• Metafields: Maximus3 mentioned metafields, which are extra pieces of data you can attach to products, collections, or even your entire store. While using a metafield directly to display the SHOUT info might require some Liquid code (as bash_3 inquired about), it's a good way to store the information in a structured way. You could then use a small code snippet in your theme to pull the information from the metafield and display it.

Leveraging Shopify's Built-in Tools

Maximus3 also pointed out the Shopify AI helper Sidekick. It's worth exploring to see if it can provide specific guidance for your theme. You can access it within your Shopify admin.

A Note on Liquid Code

While bash_3 was specifically looking for Liquid code snippets, providing a universal snippet is tricky because themes vary so much. If you're comfortable with code, you can explore Shopify's documentation on Liquid or consult with a Shopify expert in the community. However, the methods described above using theme blocks and product pages often provide a code-free solution.

Also, Maximus3 shared some helpful screenshots showing metafield creation:

Ultimately, adding a donation option and promoting the SHOUT crisis text line are both achievable goals without spending a fortune on apps. By creatively using Shopify's built-in features and exploring your theme's customization options, you can make a positive impact and allow your customers to contribute to important causes. Good luck!