Donation Plugin & WooCommerce Conflict Resolution

Overview

During the January 29, 2026 team stand-up, Ishak flagged that Doodla Farms' donation plugin was actively conflicting with WooCommerce. The plugin was deactivated as an immediate measure, and the team discussed a path forward that avoids reintroducing the conflict.

This issue is part of the broader ^[1] effort, which established that plugins should only be added when the business value clearly outweighs the risk to site stability.

The Problem

The donation plugin allowed users to enter a custom (variable) dollar amount before checking out. However, it conflicted with WooCommerce, causing instability on the site. Ishak deactivated the plugin as a stopgap.

A WooCommerce product for donations already existed on the site alongside the plugin — meaning the plugin was partially redundant even before it was removed.

Decision

Delete the donation plugin. The existing WooCommerce donation product remains in place as the primary donation mechanism.

Path Forward

Two options were discussed for restoring variable-amount donation capability without the plugin:

Option 1: Variable-Price WooCommerce Product

Investigate whether WooCommerce natively supports a product with a user-defined price (common in course sales and donation flows). Ishak was assigned to research this.

Option 2: Fixed Donation Tiers

Create a small set of standard donation amounts (e.g., $100, $500) as separate product variants or simple products. Karly confirmed this level of granularity is acceptable given the effort involved.

Mark's framing: "The juice isn't worth the squeeze" — the complexity of maintaining a dedicated donation plugin outweighs the marginal benefit of free-form price entry.

Action Items

Related

• ^[2]
• ^[3]
• ^[4]