Lanternway Foundation
A Malaysian charity’s website and the giving, receipt and volunteer system behind it: appeals, one-off and monthly gifts with tax receipts in LHDN’s format issued at once, volunteer shifts with signed agreements, and one staff desk for donors, receipts, rosters and reports.
The brief
Malaysian charities we studied send tax receipts weeks after a gift, ask bank-transfer donors to email payment slips, and change monthly gifts by phone in office hours; some send donors to outside platforms, one of which has closed. Volunteers are recruited by email, and impact figures rarely say where they come from.
What we shipped
A charity website with appeals that show their progress, company match and budget; giving once or monthly by FPX, DuitNow, cards and e-wallets, with the tax-receipt question settled before payment; official receipts in LHDN’s format issued at once, or an e-invoice on request; a donor area with monthly-gift controls and a yearly statement; a volunteer shift board with signed agreements; and event tickets with an add-on donation. Behind it: a staff queue for today, donor records with masked identity numbers, a receipt register with voids and reissues, rosters with gaps, and the reports LHDN and SSM ask for.
Built for: Charities, foundations and societies that raise money online and run volunteers, from food banks and education charities to community and faith-based funds.
Inside the build
Every part, and what it does
A closer look at what was actually built — screen by screen, so you can judge the depth for yourself.
Give in a minute from the home page
A full-bleed food-drive hero with a giving card, so a visitor can give monthly or once without leaving the home page, in English or Bahasa Melayu.
- Each amount named by what it pays for
- Facts that link to shifts, the appeal and receipts
- English and Bahasa Melayu
Appeal with a live lantern meter
Each appeal shows how far it has got, the company match and what the money buys, with a budget, staff updates and what happens if it raises more or less.
- Exact ringgit raised, gifts and days left
- A company match with the amount left
- Budget, updates and the plan for any surplus
Checkout that settles the receipt first
A four-step checkout that asks whether the donor wants a tax receipt before payment, then offers FPX, DuitNow QR, cards, e-wallets and bank transfer. Nothing is charged.
- No IC asked unless a receipt is wanted
- Gateway fee shown, with an option to cover it
- The gift, the match and the total side by side
Official receipt in LHDN’s format
A printable Malay-and-English receipt with every item LHDN’s subsection 44(6) guideline lists, beside how to use it and its history. A sample document, not valid for tax.
- Unbroken serial and the approval box
- IC masked until the donor shows it
- Issued, cancelled and reissued in its history
Donor area
A donor sees the year’s giving, every gift with its receipt or the reason there is none, the monthly gift, an employer match and the messages they agreed to.
- Year total and receipts this year
- Gifts in kind and tickets say why no receipt
- Employer match status
Monthly gift that manages itself
Donors change, pause or stop their monthly gift, and a failed charge is retried and explained: after 3 days, then 4, with an email and a text each time.
- Failed charges retried and explained
- Change amount, day, card or programme
- A receipt for every successful month
Shift board with places left
Volunteers book a role on a food drive or tutoring evening, with the places left for each role and the reason when they cannot book.
- Places left for every role
- Reminders 48 and 3 hours before
- No double or late bookings
Signed volunteer agreement
Sign-up ends with a versioned agreement, signed by typing or drawing, with a guardian’s consent for under-18s; tutoring opens only after staff clear a safeguarding check.
- Agreement version and time stored
- Photo consent separate and optional
- A member number issued at once
Event tickets with an add-on donation
Ticket types with places left and an optional donation on top. The ticket price buys a benefit, so only the donation gets a tax receipt.
- Adult, student and child tickets
- Only the donation part receipted
- QR tickets checked in at the door
Today’s queue
One queue of what needs doing today, most urgent first: failed monthly gifts, unfilled shifts, hours to record, bank transfers to match and checks to clear.
- Most urgent first
- Call out volunteers or retry a charge in one click
- Shifts, gifts by channel and deadlines
Donor record
Everything about one donor: gifts with receipts, the monthly gift, consent, messages and an audit trail. Showing an identity number needs a reason, and it is logged.
- IC masked, every reveal logged
- Correct details and reissue receipts
- Refunds cancel the receipt
Reports and the lists regulators ask for
The board pack and the exports LHDN and SSM ask for, with identity numbers masked, and spending shown against LHDN’s conditions. Sample data.
- Donations by month and by channel
- Spending against the 50% and 20% conditions
- LHDN and SSM lists as CSV
Click through it yourself
Every screen above is interactive. No sign-up, nothing to install.
Behind the build
Researched first, then built
Before designing anything, we studied 14 charities and giving tools: Malaysian food banks, relief and education charities, international charities known for impact reporting and monthly giving, and the donation, donor-portal and volunteer software behind them. Nothing was copied. Each finding below changed a decision.
Studied (14)
- The Lost Food Project
- Food Aid Foundation
- MERCY Malaysia
- Teach For Malaysia
- Yayasan Chow Kit
- WWF-Malaysia
- charity: water
- GiveDirectly
- Feeding America
- Room to Read
- Give.asia
- Donorbox
- Fundraise Up
- Golden
What we saw
What Lanternway Foundation does
What we saw
Receipts arrive weeks after a gift, and bank-transfer donors are asked to email a payment slip with their IC and address.
What Lanternway Foundation does
The receipt is decided before payment and issued the moment the gift goes through; a bank transfer is matched by staff and its receipt issues on the match.
What we saw
MERCY Malaysia asks whether the donor wants a tax receipt and needs the IC only for yes.
What Lanternway Foundation does
The same question gates the IC and address; identity numbers stay masked on screens and in exports, and a staff reveal needs a logged reason.
What we saw
Two charities set a minimum amount for a tax receipt.
What Lanternway Foundation does
Every gift of money is receipted once its details are complete, as LHDN’s guideline requires; gifts in kind and tickets say why they get none.
What we saw
Some charities send donors to outside giving platforms, and one of those platforms closed in October 2025.
What Lanternway Foundation does
Giving, receipts and donor records live in the charity’s own system; payment gateways are steps that can be swapped.
What we saw
Monthly-gift changes and cancellations are handled by phone in office hours.
What Lanternway Foundation does
Donors change, pause or stop their monthly gift themselves; a failed charge is retried twice and the donor is told each time.
What we saw
Golden shows shifts with places, reminders and hours, but the Malaysian food banks recruit volunteers by email.
What Lanternway Foundation does
Volunteers book shifts with places left and reminders; staff record hours that appear on the volunteer’s page and certificate, and unfilled shifts raise gaps.
What we saw
Food Aid Foundation dates its impact figures and GiveDirectly states overhead plainly, but "RM X = Y meals" figures elsewhere give no method.
What Lanternway Foundation does
Every figure carries its period, source and a sample marker, unit costs link to a method note, and spending is shown against LHDN’s conditions.
Feature checklist
56 of the 62 features the leading sites offer
We listed every feature we found in the research above. Lanternway Foundation has 56 of them; the 6 left out are listed with the reason.
Giving and checkout23
- Give button in the header
- Giving form on the home page
- One-off or monthly
- Monthly preselected
- Preset amounts
- Amounts tied to outcomes
- Named monthly programme
- Appeals with goal and progress
- Choose a programme
- How unused gifts are spent
- Gifts in honour or memory
- Cover the payment fee
- Match challenge on an appeal
- Employer matching
- Corporate partnerships page
- Payroll giving
- Bank transfer
- FPX online banking
- DuitNow
- E-wallets
- Cards
- Gifts in kind
- Recent gifts shown
Donor account and receipts9
- Donor account
- Change, pause or stop a monthly gift
- Failed-payment retry
- Receipts in the account
- Tax-deduction explainer
- Receipt needs IC and address
- Approval reference shown
- Receipt timing stated
- Refund policy
Volunteering9
- Online sign-up
- Roles described
- Locations with map links
- Shift booking with places left
- Automatic reminders
- Hours and attendance
- Certificates
- Consent and checks
- Company team days
Trust and reporting8
- Impact figures with their period
- Annual reports
- Audited accounts
- Spending statement
- Board or trustees
- Registration number shown
- Beneficiary stories
- Impact by place
Other7
- Events and tickets
- Newsletter sign-up
- Bahasa Melayu
- Site search
- Privacy notice
- WhatsApp contact
- Help for people in need
Left out, and why
- Peer-to-peer fundraising pages: page moderation and payouts would double the first system; noted for a second phase.
- Legacy giving: wills and wasiat need legal advice for each religion; it is not a web feature.
- Rating badges: there is no recognised Malaysian rating; the LHDN approval check is shown instead.
- A shop: merchandise is a purchase, not a gift, and adds stock handling.
- Venue booking: not part of a food and tutoring charity’s journeys.
- A minimum amount for receipts: refused on purpose: LHDN’s guideline requires a receipt for every gift of money.
Design research
How the leading sites look, and what we took
We measured the fonts, colours and layouts of the sites we studied, then applied what most of them share in an original design, on the website and the staff desk.
Across the leading sites
In Lanternway Foundation
Across the leading sites
Trust-led charities set headlines in a sturdy serif (charity: water, Room to Read, Teach For Malaysia).
In Lanternway Foundation
Besley for headings and Karla for text and figures, both self-hosted.
Across the leading sites
Short navigation with three to six items and a Give button.
In Lanternway Foundation
Three groups, Our work, Get involved and About, plus a Give button, in sentence case so Malay labels stay readable.
Across the leading sites
One warm giving colour that differs from the brand colour.
In Lanternway Foundation
Glow-yellow Give buttons with ink text, and lantern red for the mark, eyebrows and key figures.
Across the leading sites
Documentary photography in full-bleed heroes.
In Lanternway Foundation
Documentary-style Klang Valley and Penang scenes, text on the darker side, a transparent header and a linked facts strip.
Across the leading sites
Preset amounts with one preselected, goal meters and places left.
In Lanternway Foundation
Presets named by what they pay for, with a dated sample cost; a lantern-string meter; and a shift board with places left per role.
Rules it follows
The business rules, built in
The prototype enforces each of these, so you can test them yourself.
Tax receipts
- Receipts only for gifts of money, with name, IC or registration number and address
- One unbroken bilingual serial a year; cancelled numbers never reused
- A gift over RM 10,000 needs full details from 1 January 2026
E-invoices
- An e-invoice replaces the receipt on request, never both
- Other gifts go into a monthly consolidated e-invoice within seven days
Monthly giving
- A failed charge retries after 3 days, then 4, and the donor is told each time
- Donors change, pause or stop it themselves
Volunteers
- A signed, versioned agreement, with guardian consent under 18
- Tutoring needs a safeguarding check cleared by staff
- Bookings close two hours before; no double bookings
Privacy and permits
- Marketing consent unticked, its wording and time stored
- IC numbers masked; a staff reveal needs a logged reason
- Street collections need an Act 200 licence
Connected roles
One action, every screen
Every role works on the same records, so one person’s action shows up for the others.
- 1
A visitor gives RM 90 to the food-pack appeal; the lantern meter rises by RM 180 with the company match, the donor gets a receipt at once, and staff see the gift and receipt in the ledger.
- 2
A donor asks her employer to match her gift; the partner desk lists the request, and once it is approved her donor area shows Matched and staff see an e-invoice to the company.
- 3
Her monthly charge fails; she is emailed and texted with the retry date while staff see it in Today, and when she stops the gift no further charge is scheduled.
- 4
She corrects her address; her receipts are cancelled and reissued under new numbers, and staff see both numbers and the reason in the receipt log.
- 5
A volunteer books the driver place at a food drive; the staff gap “2 drivers missing” drops to 1 and her reminders are scheduled.
- 6
Staff record her check-in and check-out; the hours appear on her volunteer page and certificate.
- 7
Staff post an update on the appeal; it appears on the appeal page and reaches every donor who agreed to updates.
Services it proves
Where Lanternway Foundation is our example
Each of these service pages uses a part of Lanternway Foundation to show the work. Open one to see what we would build for you.
- Event ticketingShows: Event tickets with an add-on donationCharity event tickets with places left and an optional donation on top; only the donation gets a tax receipt, and QR tickets are checked in at the door.
- Membership systemsShows: Signed volunteer agreementVolunteer membership with a signed, versioned agreement, a member number issued at once and a safeguarding check before tutoring.
- Charities & foundationsShows: Appeal with a live lantern meterA charity’s website and giving system: appeals, one-off and monthly gifts, receipts in LHDN’s format, volunteer shifts, events and the staff desk behind them.
Core systems
What this build is made of
These are systems we build repeatedly — each links to every other project that contains it, so you can compare implementations before deciding what you need.
Industry: Charities & foundations
Unique to this build
Built specifically for this project rather than assembled from the shelf.
Receipts in LHDN’s 44(6) format
Bilingual official receipts with an unbroken serial, the approval box and the donor’s masked IC; a correction cancels and reissues with a log, and cancelled numbers are never reused.
Lantern-string appeal meter
Ten lanterns light up with the exact ringgit raised, the number of gifts and the days left, with a company match counted alongside.
Volunteer safeguarding gates
A booking needs a signed, versioned agreement and guardian consent under 18, and tutoring needs a safeguarding check cleared by staff.
Want a build like this for your business?
Tell us what you have in mind and we'll put together a functional prototype of your project — free.