Tribute Gifts: Letting Donors Give in Honor or Memory of Someone

Last updated: March 26, 2026

Tribute gifts let your donors dedicate a donation in honor or memory of someone special. When a donor makes a tribute gift, they can include the honoree's name, a personal message, and an email address — and WeGive can automatically send a notification to the honoree (or their family) letting them know a gift was made in their name.

This guide covers how to enable tribute giving on your checkout, what the donor experience looks like, and how to set up the automated tribute notification email.

How Tribute Gifts Work

When a donor makes a tribute gift, three pieces of information are collected:

  • Tribute Name — The name of the person being honored or remembered

  • Tribute Message — An optional personal message from the donor

  • Tribute Email — The email address where a notification should be sent (optional)

This information is stored on the transaction record and can be viewed on the donor's profile or in transaction details. If an email address is provided, WeGive can automatically send a tribute notification to the honoree.

Note: WeGive treats all tribute gifts as a single category. There is no separate "In Honor Of" vs. "In Memory Of" distinction built into the system — the donor can express that intent in their tribute message. If you'd like to capture this as a structured field, you can use a Custom Question on your checkout to ask donors to specify.

Enabling Tribute on Your Checkout

Tribute giving is configured at the checkout level. To enable it:

  1. Go to Elements → Checkouts and open the checkout you want to edit

  2. Find the Tribute tab in the checkout settings

  3. Toggle tribute on

Once enabled, donors will see a tribute option on the checkout form. When they select it, a dialog opens where they can enter the honoree's name, a personal message, and an email address for the notification.

All tribute fields are optional from the donor's perspective — they can provide as much or as little information as they'd like. If they open the tribute dialog but don't enter a name, the tribute flag won't be set on the transaction.

What the Donor Sees

When tribute is enabled on your checkout, donors will see a tribute option during the giving flow. Selecting it opens a dialog that asks for:

  • The name of the person they're honoring or remembering

  • A message they'd like to include (optional)

  • An email address to notify about the tribute (optional)

The donor completes the tribute information as part of the normal checkout flow — it doesn't add extra steps or redirect them away from the giving page.

Tribute Gifts and Recurring Donations

Tribute information carries over to recurring donations. When a donor sets up a recurring gift with tribute details, each subsequent transaction in the series will automatically include the same tribute name, message, and email. If a tribute email is provided, the notification will be sent each time the recurring gift processes.

Setting Up the Tribute Notification Email

To automatically notify the honoree when a tribute gift is made, you need to set up the "Tribute Made" triggered message. Without this, tribute information will be saved on the transaction but no email will be sent to the honoree.

Creating the Triggered Message

  1. Go to Engagement → Triggers

  2. Find "Tribute Made" in the list of available triggers

  3. Click into it to create or edit the associated message

  4. Customize the email content using merge tags (click the Merge Tags button in the editor to see all available variables for this trigger type)

  5. Set the message to Live to activate it

Important: The triggered message comes in draft mode by default. It won't send until you set it to Live.

What Triggers the Email

The tribute notification email is triggered when all of the following conditions are met:

  • The donation is marked as a tribute gift

  • The donor provided a tribute email address

  • The donation is made to an organization (not a peer-to-peer fundraiser)

  • The "Tribute Made" triggered message is set to Live

If the donor doesn't provide a tribute email, no notification will be sent — but the tribute details (name and message) will still be saved on the transaction.

Available Merge Tags

When composing your tribute notification email, you'll have access to merge tags that pull in dynamic content. The available merge tags update automatically based on the trigger type, so when you select "Tribute Made," you'll see the relevant options. Common merge tags for tribute messages include:

  • Tribute name, message, and email

  • Donor name and contact information

  • Donation amount and date

  • Organization name and details

Click the Merge Tags button in the message editor to browse and insert all available variables.

Customizing the Email Template

You can optionally assign an Email Template to your tribute triggered message for consistent branding. If no template is selected, the message will use your organization's default email template.

Viewing Tribute Information

Tribute details are visible in several places:

  • Transaction details — Open any transaction to see whether it's a tribute, along with the tribute name, message, and email

  • Donor profile — Tribute transactions are marked in the donor's giving history

  • CRM integrations — If you have a CRM integration enabled (such as Raiser's Edge), tribute data is included in the transaction sync

Tips and Best Practices

Always activate the triggered message. Enabling tribute on the checkout collects the information, but the notification email won't send unless the "Tribute Made" trigger is set to Live. Make sure both are configured.

Write the notification from the honoree's perspective. Remember, the tribute email goes to the person being honored (or their family) — not the donor. Write the message accordingly: "A gift has been made in your honor by [donor name]" rather than "Thank you for your tribute gift."

Consider the recurring gift experience. Since tribute details carry over to every recurring transaction, the honoree will receive a notification each time the gift processes. If this isn't desired, you may want to note this in your checkout or follow up with the donor.

Test your setup. After enabling tribute on your checkout and activating the triggered message, make a test donation with tribute details to confirm the notification email arrives at the tribute email address with the correct content.