On a fundraising website, transparency and trust are everything. Enabling WooCommerce’s built-in product ratings allows donors to leave feedback, share their personal impact stories, and give campaigns star-rated validation. This “social proof” can dramatically increase a new visitor’s confidence to contribute.
Here is a step-by-step guide to activating and managing ratings on your donation site.
Step 1: Enable Global Product Ratings
To allow ratings and reviews across your entire fundraising platform, you need to turn the feature on in your global settings.
- Navigate to your WordPress dashboard and go to WooCommerce > Settings.
- Click on the Products tab at the top.
- Scroll down to the Reviews section.
- Configure the settings to match your fundraising strategy:
| Setting | Action / Recommendation | Why It Matters for Nonprofits |
| Enable product reviews | Check this box. | Opens up the comment and feedback section on campaign pages. |
| Show “verified owner” label | Check this box. | Highlights feedback from people who actually donated through your site. |
| Reviews can only be left by “verified owners” | Highly Recommended (Check this box) | Prevents spam or fake feedback; only real donors can leave reviews. |
| Enable star ratings | Check this box. | Displays the visual 5-star metric on grids and campaign pages. |
| Star ratings should be required | Check this box. | Ensures that anyone leaving a review also provides a clear visual score. |
- Click Save changes at the bottom of the page.
Step 2: Ensure Ratings are Enabled on Individual Campaigns
Even if ratings are enabled globally, they can be turned off on a project-by-project basis. If a specific donation project isn’t showing the review section, check its individual settings:
- Go to Products > All Products and click Edit on your donation project.
- Scroll down to the Product data box beneath the main editor.
- Click on the Advanced tab on the left side.
- Ensure the Enable reviews checkbox is marked.
- Update or Publish the page.
💡 Quick Tip: You can also toggle this quickly without loading the whole page by clicking Quick Edit directly from the All Products list view and checking the Enable Reviews box.
Step 3: Moderating and Managing Donor Feedback
In a fundraising environment, it is vital to monitor feedback to keep the community safe and supportive.
When a donor submits a rating and comment, it will not always appear immediately if your WordPress site requires comment moderation. You can manage them in two places:
- The Global Hub: Go to Products > Reviews to see a dedicated dashboard of every rating, filter by specific donation campaigns, and quickly approve, reply to, or trash entries.
- The Notification Area: You will also see them appear under the standard Comments tab on your WordPress sidebar.