Donate Page — Payment Options (Mail, PayPal, Stripe)
Overview
During the VCEDC website pre-launch review meeting (2025-12-02), the team confirmed that the donate page must present three distinct payment options to visitors. The PayPal link was found to be broken and required investigation before launch.
This decision was made in the context of the December 15 launch target. See [1] for full project context.
Required Payment Options
The donate page must include all three of the following options, in this order:
- Mail a check — traditional offline donation method
- Donate via PayPal — most recognizable to general audiences; prioritized for visibility
- Donate via Stripe — online card payment option
Kathy Schmitz (VCEDC Executive Director) specified all three options explicitly:
"It should include three options. Mail a check, donate via PayPal, donate via Stripe."
Known Issue: Broken PayPal Link
At the time of the meeting, the PayPal donate button was not functioning correctly. Tracey Pilsner confirmed she had sent the correct PayPal link (sourced directly from the existing VCEDC website's donate flow) to the developer, and the developer acknowledged receipt.
The leading hypothesis was that the link may only work correctly once the site is live, as payment integrations sometimes fail in pre-launch/staging environments:
"Could it be glitching just because it's not live? I know that happens when I usually don't have one live." — Tracey Pilsner
AAG (Asymmetric) was tasked with investigating whether the broken link was a pre-launch environment issue or a configuration error, and confirming it works post-launch.
Action Items
| Owner | Action |
|---|---|
| AAG (developer) | Investigate broken PayPal link — determine if staging environment issue or misconfiguration |
| AAG (developer) | Confirm all three payment options (check, PayPal, Stripe) are present and correctly ordered on the donate page |
| Kathy / team | Test donate page payment flows once the near-final review link is delivered (target: Dec 12) |
Related Notes
- The donate page was noted as one of several areas where full functionality may only be verifiable after go-live (alongside contact forms)
- See [2] for full meeting context
- See [1] for project timeline and launch details