On January 1st, the code behind the PayPal payment buttons changed without notice.  This rendered the existing donation buttons broken because, while the appearance did not change, the buttons redirected to the home page instead of the intended payment form.  The buttons we first generated a couple years back were all saved.  The new code was copied over and the functionality was restored.  There is an advantage to static pages until the source buttons have to be replaced.  Then you are wise to consider using one of the many tools for displaying and managing payment buttons.  Guidance for implementing online donations and payments is available at Farmer Host.