David Bisset

@daktulus Thanks for reaching out we understand this is a critical issue for your donor communications. We have had no reports of email issues with offline donations (with or without PHP updates) so please read our suggestions below and let us know if you have any questions.

You mentioned this worked perfectly before the PHP/Plugin updates. To help us identify if this is a regression in the code or a specific environment conflict introduced by the update, we need to gather a bit more data.

1. Please Provide Your System Info We need to review your full active environment (Plugin versions, Theme info, Server config) to rule out known conflicts.

• Go to Charitable → Tools → System Info.
• Copy the entire report.
• Paste it into a text-sharing tool like Pastebin.com or Gist.
• Reply here with the link to that paste.

2. Clarification on Previous Version Since this started after an update, do you happen to recall which version of Charitable you were running previously? (e.g., jumping from 1.7.x to 1.8.x). Knowing the specific gap helps us troubleshoot. We can also guide you obtaining the previous version of Charitable on wordpress.org if you wish to try reverting to resolve.

3. Check “Offline” Specific Settings Please navigate to Donations → Settings → Emails and confirm:

• “Donor: Offline Donation Receipt” is set to Enabled. (This is distinct from the standard receipt).
• Donation Status: Check a failed offline donation in the dashboard. Does the status show as Pending? Why this matters: Offline donations must start as “Pending.” If a conflict forces the status immediately to “Processing” or “Completed,” the Offline Receipt trigger will be skipped.
• Check the donor logs for any offline donation that hasn’t sent an email. Does it have in the log that an email was sent (see above reasons why if no mention… if there is a mention it will note if it was sent and/or if it failed, so supply this information as well).

4. Can you manually “Resend” an email? To verify if Charitable can send any email on your current server setup, please try this:

1. Go to Donations and open a specific donation record.
2. Look for the “Resend Email” link usually in the donor logs, when emails have been sent.
3. Click “Resend” for the Donation Receipt. Confirm if the email arrives. Note: The button usually requires the donation to be Approved/Completed to send a standard receipt.

Regarding the Preview Redirect: Can you clarify the “Backend email preview redirects to the homepage” that the AI mentioned? Provide step by steps walkthrough on this so we know exactly what link (and on what URL) you are clicking on and confirm the exact URL.

Default Theme: Your report didn’t mention switching to a default theme for testing. I would do this first. Switch to a default WordPress theme with all non-Charitable plugins deactivated and see if the issue continues.

We will wait for your System Info link and the results of the tests I mentioned above to investigate further. Thank you.

@sibelius123 I’ve confirmed from the team that the only contact information they have would be through the contact email on the website you shared at the start of this thread. I would check that email first, make sure to check spam folder as well. If you still cannot locate that again I would consult the documentation link I provided as it was updated to cover misc topics and it might be fruitful for you in case. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.

That is an excellent tip thank you for sharing it @apeacewithin

Stripe Radar is incredibly powerful. I do believe the ability to create Custom Rules (like blocking @example.com specifically) and the AI Assistant you mentioned are features of the “Radar for Fraud Teams” plan. Standard Stripe accounts get the machine learning protection (which is still good) but the custom rules engine usually requires that upgrade.

PayPal has a similar feature called “Fraud Protection” (found I believe under Business Tools > Manage Risk). they have different levels (including free) and unique features as well.

Hi @sibelius123

I am very sorry to hear this is happening. Here’s some information that I hope helps.

To start with I would refer you to this documentation article which covers ways to remove pending donations and some steps to help secure your site.

In summary (from the guide):

• Install a free “Bulk Delete” plugin. This will allow you to select the “Donation” post type and “Pending” status to delete them in batches without crashing your site. If that doesn’t work, the guide includes a link to a specific code snippet (Plan B) that handles the deletion for you.

Note the clear warning at the top of the article to backup your site before attempting any plugin or coding solutions.

That same guide has listed steps for prevention including free methods you can use right now:

• Increase Minimum Donation: Edit your campaign and raise the minimum donation amount (e.g., to $5 or $10). Bots often target $1 amounts. (Note: Do not rely on this alone, as bots can adapt).
• Cloudflare: Using their free plan to block bots at the DNS level is often the most effective way to stop these massive attacks.
• Hosting: Ask your host to block the IPs generating this traffic.

WordPress security plugins can be of help. If you are able to identify the IP addresses or patterns, your host is your best friend here!

Let me know if this helps or if you have any questions.

Good to hear @mileswhiticker – i’ll share this with the team. Glad to know you got things working in the theme.

We are going to go ahead and close this thread for now. But if you’d like us to assist further, please feel welcome to continue the conversation (since i know you were getting back to this).

Thanks!

@mileswhiticker Thanks for reaching out and providing those details.

To help our team review the styling issue you’re seeing, we’ll need a bit more information to narrow down the cause.

The symptoms you described (placeholder class, “wait” cursor) often point to a script or style conflict. Do you see any errors in the web console? We see you mentioned using Elementor. As a key troubleshooting step, could you please check if this issue persists after:

• Temporarily deactivating Elementor?

• Temporarily switching to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-Four)?

Please navigate to Charitable > Tools > System Info, click the “Download System Info” button, and send that information. Also could you please provide a direct URL to a campaign page where we can see the “placeholder” styling in action? This will give us a complete picture of your site’s environment and get a clearer idea of what’s happening. Thanks!

We are going to go ahead and close this thread for now. But if you’d like us to assist further, please feel welcome to continue the conversation.

Thanks!