How to Build a Custom Donor Portal with No Code 

One-time donations are great. But sustainable growth for any nonprofit, foundation, or fundraising campaign relies on long-term donor relationships. To turn casual donors into lifelong supporters, you need a system that does more than process transactions—you need a donor portal that keeps people engaged, informed, and connected.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to build a flexible, fully customizable donor portal using Knack’s no-code platform—without needing any developer or design skills. You’ll learn how to set up donor roles, manage donation records, control page access, and personalize the experience—all in one place.

Getting Started: Three Ways to Build Your Donor Portal

Knack offers three flexible options for getting your donor portal off the ground:

1. Generate with AI – Our recommended option. Just describe what you need, and Knack’s AI will automatically build your app structure, user roles, pages, and reports.
   
2. Start from a template – Search for templates like “Donation Manager” or “Online Donation Portal” to fast-track your build.
   
3. Import your data – Bring existing donor or campaign data from a CSV or Excel file to instantly populate your portal.
   

For full customization, generating with AI is the fastest and most powerful way to get a donor portal tailored to your needs. Once the AI build is complete, you’ll have a working app with data tables, dashboards, user roles, and pages—all pre-configured and ready for review.

Previewing and Customizing the Donor Dashboard

Once your portal is generated, you can immediately preview a live version—complete with demo data for testing. This live dashboard may include donation totals by campaign, preferred contact methods, and more. These visual insights help donors clearly understand the impact of their contributions.

Each section in the dashboard can be modified:

• Change chart types (e.g., switch from line to pie chart)
  
• Edit labels, titles, or descriptions
  
• Reorganize the layout or add/remove data elements
  

This flexibility ensures the dashboard presents the most meaningful data for both your internal team and your donors.

Managing Page Access with User Roles

By default, AI-generated apps do not lock pages. This means any user can access all content unless restrictions are added. To protect donor information and admin tools:

• Enable page protection by selecting “Protect page with login”
  
• Choose whether access is open to all registered users or specific user roles only (e.g., Donors, Administrators)
  
• Apply global login settings to lock all pages by default
  

Once protection is set up, you’ll see lock icons on secured pages—ensuring sensitive data is only visible to authorized users.

Customizing and Creating User Roles

Knack automatically generates user roles like Donors and Administrators, but you can create as many roles as needed for your organization.

For each role, you can:

• Add, remove, or reorder custom fields (e.g., name, email, donation preference)
  
• Choose appropriate data types (text, number, email, date, dropdowns, etc.)
  
• Connect user roles to other tables like Campaigns or Donations
  
• Add validation rules or conditional logic based on role-specific data
  

These features give you full control over what information each user collects, views, and edits within the system.

Working with Data Tables and Fields

Data tables power your portal behind the scenes. These tables store all donation records, campaign data, user profiles, and more.

Each table includes a set of fields, which act like columns in a spreadsheet. If the AI-created fields don’t fully match your needs, you can:

• Add new fields and select the appropriate data type
  
• Edit or delete existing fields
  
• Import additional records from Google Sheets, Excel, or CSV
  
• Create entirely new tables for unique use cases (e.g., donor notes, event registrations)
  

The structure is flexible enough to support both small-scale and enterprise-level fundraising operations.

Controlling Visual Design and Branding

Your donor portal should reflect your brand. With Knack, you can quickly update the visual theme:

• Modify fonts, colors, spacing, and layout
  
• Toggle between light and dark modes
  
• Apply global design changes to maintain consistency across pages
  

Access these options in the Theme Settings panel under the paintbrush icon. You can also preview your custom theme instantly to see how it will appear to donors or staff.

Final Setup and Going Live

Once your portal structure, roles, and design are in place, head to the Settings tab to configure things like:

• App permissions
  
• Login rules
  
• Email settings
  
• Advanced options for automation and embedding
  

When everything is ready, visit the Live App tab to view the working portal. From here, you can test donor workflows, submit demo donations, or invite others to try it out.

Your custom donor portal is now ready to help you build stronger, longer-lasting relationships with supporters.

Conclusion: Build Stronger Donor Relationships with No Code

Donor engagement doesn’t stop after the first gift. With a custom-built portal powered by Knack, you can deliver a professional, secure, and personalized experience that encourages ongoing support.

Unlike rigid fundraising software, Knack lets you design the exact experience your organization needs—from custom dashboards to donation tracking to real-time campaign updates.

And because it’s built with no code, your team stays in control, agile, and ready to adapt at any stage of your growth.

Ready to start building your donor portal?

Get started with Knack today and turn one-time givers into lifelong supporters—without writing a single line of code.