Paypal Button for Widget

Hi Everybody,
I am having a hard time adding a paypal donation button to a text widget. I already have the paypal code and read that the text widget should work, but every time I hit save, most of the code disappears. I then read that I would need a plug in, but there is no plug in option on my dashboard. Help!!
Thank You.
PS, I don’t know what version of WP I have. But it’s free.