Listener Support Overview
Listener Support lets your listeners make voluntary donations to your show directly on your site — no platform taking a cut, no listeners signing up for anything. It works in two modes that can run alongside each other.
Two Modes
Link mode — Benecaster shows a prompt on your episode pages and subscriber account page. Listeners click through to an external platform of your choice: Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee, PayPal.me, Patreon, or any URL you control. No payment processing on your site. See Setting Up Listener Support (Link Mode) for the full walkthrough.
Stripe mode — Listeners pay directly on your site via an embedded Stripe Payment Element. They never leave your page. Requires a connected Stripe account. This is the setup this page covers.
Both modes use the same settings area and can be active at the same time. When Stripe is configured for a show, the auto-injected prompt switches to the Stripe payment form automatically — but you can still place link-mode prompts manually via the shortcode if you prefer.
Setting Up Stripe Mode
1. Connect Stripe
Go to Benecaster → Settings → Listener Support and enter your Stripe publishable key, secret key, and webhook secret. Benecaster displays a read-only webhook endpoint URL — register this in your Stripe dashboard under Developers → Webhooks, listening for the payment_intent.succeeded event.
Use the Test connection button to verify your keys before going live. See Connecting Stripe for the full key and webhook setup walkthrough.
2. Enable Listener Support
On the same settings page, toggle Enable Listener Support on. This arms the feature — the prompt won’t appear until a show is also configured.
3. Configure per show
Open the show’s settings under Benecaster → Shows → [Your Show] → Listener Support.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Suggested amounts | Pre-set amounts shown to donors (e.g. 5, 10, 25). Listeners can also enter a custom amount if you enable it. |
| Donor name | Whether to collect the donor’s name. Optional. |
| Donor email | Whether to collect the donor’s email. When collected, a thank-you email is sent automatically after payment confirms. |
| Donor message | Whether to show a free-text message field for the donor. |
| Thank-you message | Text shown to the donor after a successful payment. Supports {amount_formatted}, {amount}, {currency}, and {donor_name}. |
| Redirect URL | Instead of a thank-you message, redirect to a URL after payment. Benecaster appends ?donation=<intent_id> so the destination page can confirm success. |
4. Place the shortcode
Add [benecaster_listener_support] to any page or episode template. Three display styles are available:
| Style | What it renders |
|---|---|
form |
Stripe Payment Element embedded inline on the page |
button |
A styled button that opens a modal with the Payment Element |
icon |
An SVG icon (heart, star, mic, or custom URL) with a caption that opens a modal |
<!-- Inline form -->
[benecaster_listener_support show_id="3" style="form"]
<!-- Button style in a sidebar -->
[benecaster_listener_support show_id="3" style="button" label="Support the show"]
<!-- Icon style with custom label -->
[benecaster_listener_support show_id="3" style="icon" icon="heart" label="Leave a tip"]
Always include show_id on standalone pages — outside a show or episode page context, the shortcode cannot resolve the show automatically and renders nothing.
The Blocks & Widgets Library add-on wraps this shortcode as a Gutenberg block and Elementor widget with a style picker in the sidebar.
5. Auto-injection
If you prefer not to place the shortcode manually, Benecaster can inject the prompt automatically into episode pages and the subscriber account page. The default_stripe_style setting (per show) controls which style is used for auto-injection — default is button.
Thank-You Email
When a donor provides their email address, Benecaster queues a donation_thank_you email after payment_intent.succeeded confirms. The email template is editable in Benecaster → Emails → donation_thank_you. Available merge tags: {donor_name}, {donor_message}, {donation_date}, {show_name}, {donation_amount}, {donation_platform}. Tags for fields the donor left blank render as an empty string.
Health Check
If Listener Support is enabled but no Stripe keys are configured for a show, Benecaster surfaces a warning notice in the admin. The notice re-surfaces weekly until resolved. See Notifications for how notices work.
Donor Data Retention
In Settings → Listener Support, the Donor data retention field sets how long donor records are kept (in days). Set to 0 to retain records indefinitely.
