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Adding a Donation Link or Selling T-Shirts on Your Website

Practical guide on using Edlio Forms with Payments to create simple online stores, sell t-shirts and spirit wear, and accept custom donations on your school website.

Schools and parent-teacher organizations often need quick, simple ways to raise funds, collect donations, or sell school merchandise like spirit wear and t-shirts. With Edlio Forms with Payments, you can create a dedicated online storefront or giving page in minutes—completely free to set up and self-serve.

💡 Best-Practice Adoption Tips for School Fundraisers & Stores

  • Self-Serve & Instant Setup: Unlike enterprise accounting stores that require merchant bank underwriting and SIS sync, Forms with Payments is 100% self-serve. You can create your forms, configure your items, and begin collecting payments through Edlio Payments immediately.

  • Pair Questions with Payment: Forms with Payments is the ideal tool when you need order details alongside funds (e.g. t-shirt size, student homeroom teacher, personalization text, or donor acknowledgment names).

  • Watch the On-Demand Training: For a visual walkthrough of setting up school stores and donation drives, watch our recorded training: Raising Funds with Forms: Creating a School Store in your Edlio CMS [Edlio Webinar].

Use Case 1: Selling T-Shirts and Merchandise

To sell spirit shirts, field day apparel, or class gear directly from your school website:

  1. In your CMS admin, navigate to Forms and click New Payment Form.

  2. Enter a clear title such as "2026-2027 Wildcat Spirit Shirt Order".

  3. Add essential student information fields:

    • Text Field: Student Full Name (Required).

    • Dropdown / Single Choice: Grade Level and Homeroom Teacher (essential for distributing shirts to classrooms!).

    • Dropdown Field: Shirt Size (e.g. Youth Small, Youth Medium, Adult Large, Adult XL).

  4. From the Payment Fields panel on the left, drag an Itemized Option or Fixed Amount field onto your form:

    • Itemized Option: Set prices by style (e.g., Short Sleeve $15, Long Sleeve Hoodie $30).

    • Quantity Selector: Allow parents to order multiple shirts in a single transaction.

  5. Under Form Settings, select your Deposit Account and specify an order cutoff date under Schedule.

  6. Click Publish, then link the form directly on your website homepage or share it in a CMS Newsletter!

Use Case 2: Adding a School Donation Link

To collect online donations for school booster clubs, annual giving, campus beautification, or athletics:

  1. In Forms, click New Payment Form.

  2. Title your form "Support Our School: Annual Booster Club Donation".

  3. Add donor details fields (Name, Email, Phone, and optional "In Honor/Memory Of" notes).

  4. Drag a Variable / Payer-Defined Amount payment field onto your form:

    • Label the field "Donation Amount ($)".

    • Leave the amount open so donors can contribute any custom amount ($10, $50, $250, etc.).

    • Optionally add a radio button field above it with suggested tiers ($25 Friend, $50 Supporter, $100 Champion, Other).

  5. Configure the Confirmation Email to automatically thank the donor and provide tax receipt language.

  6. Click Publish and copy the form's direct URL to feature in your homepage navigation or social media announcements.

Forms with Payments vs. Edlio Payments Store

Edlio gives your school two distinct ways to accept money online. Both are free to schools, but have different setups:

  • Forms with Payments: Self-serve, instant, and processed through Edlio Payments. Ideal for individual events, clubs, donations, and shirt sales requiring size questionnaires.

  • Edlio Payments (OSP Store): A comprehensive district-wide e-commerce store with centralized accounting, cafeteria deposits, and SIS obligation tracking. To launch a full Payments store, reach out to your Client Success Manager or email [email protected].

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