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Technology affects just about every aspect of our daily lives. At the same time, online giving has become an increasingly popular and effective way for churches to collect tithes, offerings, and other gifts. In fact, giving online is now the number one way churches receive donations!
Some church leaders feel like there are simply too many online giving platforms to choose from, and trying to study and compare them could take more time than they have available.
That’s why our team has compiled a list of the top 10 online giving platforms for you. Before we dive in, let’s take a quick look at some reasons your church should use online giving, which features offer the most benefits, and which church giving platforms provide the best tools for encouraging generosity, saving money, and helping your church reach its financial goals.
There are a multitude of reasons your church should offer an online giving solution. For example, studies show that by offering a digital giving option, churches see an average increase of 32% in overall donations!
Let’s take a look at the following benefits and consider just how valuable these could be in helping your church fulfill its mission.
Online giving is convenient by enabling your community to donate anytime, anywhere, and from any device with an internet connection. It eliminates the need for physical checks or cash. With Subsplash Giving, your donors can easily set up recurring donations, making it easy to give more consistently, even if they’re unable to attend church in person.
Offering an online giving option opens up new opportunities for receiving donations beyond the regular Sunday offering. For example, with Subsplash Giving, your church can create unique funds for specific needs or special projects—such as building funds, missions, or outreach programs.
When giving online, your donors provide your church with their name and email addresses. Church giving platforms like Subsplash Giving offer features such as donation tracking and reporting. These tools save your team time, reduce administrative burdens, and increase transparency which is crucial for building trust and confidence among your church members.
Younger people are accustomed to digital transactions and prefer electronic methods of giving. Millennials and Gen Z, who are a growing part of church communities, are known to prioritize convenience, speed, and technology in their everyday lives. Modern church giving options encourage younger generations to support your church and engage in philanthropy in a way that aligns with their preferences and lifestyle.
The best online giving platforms use encryption and other security measures to protect your members’ financial information and ensure secure transactions. For example, Subsplash Giving is PCI Level 1 Compliant and offers the most secure data security in the industry. Knowing that their donations are processed securely and with integrity builds trust and provides peace of mind to both your church and congregants.
Every church is unique, and so are their giving needs. At the same time, there are several church giving features that are essential for most churches. Check out the following list of features, and if your current giving solution is missing any of them, it may be time to consider making the switch to a better, more complete giving platform.
Churches should never be forced to pay a setup fee or monthly fee for using an online giving platform. The giving provider covers the costs for their services through processing fees. (We’ll discuss this a little later.) It’s also a good idea to check your monthly giving statement for any hidden costs, such as merchant account fees, interchange fees, PCI compliance fees, etc.
Download your free ebook, Hidden Fees Exposed, to learn more.
To encourage generosity, it’s crucial to make the online giving experience as simple and enjoyable as possible. That’s why Subsplash offers Guest Giving— tothat eliminates the requirement for your donors to create a new church account in order to give online. This will streamline the process and delight your people with a hassle-free way to support your mission!
Most online giving platforms charge processing rates around 2.7% to 3% plus a $0.30 transaction fee. Only Subsplash Giving offers GrowCurve—a feature that automatically lowers your processing fees to as low as 1.9% as your giving grows. Our team is proud to have saved churches millions of dollars in processing fees over the years through GrowCurve.
This exclusive feature is available to every church to ensure the lowest rates possible—without needing to haggle or negotiate!
People are 6 times more likely to abandon their online gift if your giving page doesn’t clearly look and feel like it belongs to your church. That’s why it’s crucial that your online giving solution allows you to customize your website and church app pages with your church’s brand elements, such as your name, logo, and color palette.
Everyone has their own personal preferences when it comes to online transactions. For example, younger people tend to use their smartphones and apps for nearly everything, while older adults tend to prefer their tablets or computers for navigating the web.
That’s why your church’s giving platform needs to offer multiple ways to make a donation—through your church’s website, mobile app, and text-to-give. In addition to these, your provider should also offer ACH payments (a.k.a. “direct debit” or “electronic checks”) for donors who prefer giving online through their bank account instead of credit or debit cards.
Just as its name suggests, recurring giving is a feature that allows your online donors to schedule their tithes and offerings ahead of time. With Subsplash Giving, 37% of donors use recurring giving, and you can see scheduled donations through your dashboard which helps your team more accurately forecast upcoming donations.
Adding a donor-covered fees option to your online giving pages allows your donors to cover the processing fees on behalf of your church. This can greatly reduce the overall cost to your church for providing the convenience of online giving to your congregation. For example, 36% of donors using Subsplash Giving choose to cover the processing fees when the donor-cover-fees feature is activated!
It’s important to note that some providers cover only a portion of the processing fees through this feature to pad their profits. Subsplash Giving’s donor-covered fees, however, covers 100% of the processing fee amount every time it’s used.
Churches often need to collect payments for non-charitable items such as event tickets, Bibles and books, clothing, and more. That’s why your church should use a versatile platform that allows you to receive not only donations, but also collect payments for goods and services that are not considered charitable contributions.
Pastors, treasurers, and church administrators know the stress and pressure that comes from having to send out end-of-year charitable donation tax statements every year. Your online giving provider should have tools to make it simple and convenient to pull bulk or individual statements and email them to your donors. This will also streamline the communication process so your statements arrive in a timely manner.
Think about how many digital tools your church uses every week. For example, 72% of churches have a website and 85% of churches live stream their services. Add to these other online services like church management software (ChMS), mobile church apps, and online giving—that creates a lot of passwords, dashboards, and platforms to manage!
Upgrading to a single, unified platform like Subsplash brings all of your digital tools under one roof, simplifying your tasks, streamlining your processes, and saving you money. Your church will have the best online giving solution with all of the features listed above, as well as all the tools you need to reach, engage, and disciple your people!
So which church giving solution is best for your church? Each of the following platforms provide a wide range of functionality and pricing options. To find the ideal partner for your church, check out the list below.
Subsplash Giving is the top online giving platform that offers exclusive features to give you the lowest giving rates while delighting your donors with a beautiful user experience. Subsplash has been leading in church tech and engagement since creating the very first church app back in 2009, and today partners with over 16,000 churches and organizations to reach more people with the gospel.
Subsplash Giving is easy to set up, simple to use, and designed to save your church money. Let’s take a look at the features that make this possible.
It’s easy to get started with Subsplash Giving! Our Client Success Team will help you with the process with powerful tools like bulk import of online giving history and donor information.
PayPal is a popular payment platform for businesses worldwide that can also be used for receiving non-profit online donations. To create a PayPal account for your church, you’ll need to set up a business account and then register as a non-profit. It’s important that your church is officially registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) organization in order to qualify for using their non-profit services.
Despite its popularity, PayPal is a stand-alone giving tool that is not integrated with a larger church growth platform. It’s missing some important donation tools such as donor-covered-fees, and their “Acceptable Use Policy” has also gained attention due to fines that may be incurred by their customers for any activity that PayPal deems discriminatory, intolerant, or hateful.
Givelify is a basic online giving platform focused on helping non-profits and is a good alternative to very expensive giving platforms. In order to give, donors need to download their app, search for your church, and then make a donation. There is also an option to embed a giving page on your church’s website.
At the time of writing this article, Givelify also lacks some key features such as guest giving, donor-covered fees, and an ACH payment option for donors who prefer giving online through their checking account rather than using a credit or debit card.
Venmo is a peer-to-peer payment mobile app that now offers an online giving option for churches and nonprofits through their website or mobile app. To make a donation, donors can search the app for their church and make a donation.
Because Venmo is primarily used for payments, they currently do not offer any way to manage a church’s charity profile, recurring giving, donor-covered fees, or automatic tax receipts. It’s also important to note that using a personal Venmo account can create potential IRS implications.
RebelGive is a website-based giving platform that charges a monthly fee based on your church’s attendance size along with per transaction processing fees. They take pride in their simple design and straightforward pricing compared to other providers who are less than up front about their fees.
At this time, their donation webpage customization is limited to adding a church logo and selecting a background color. They also do not offer some features such as text-to-give and guest giving. This could be a bit too basic for churches that want to offer more robust giving features and a better branding experience to their donors.
Blackbaud is a global giving platform that supports all types of non-profit organizations around the world with fundraising technology, including a CRM (client relationship management), financial software, and event management tools.
Blackbaud was primarily built for managing fundraising organizations, so collecting charitable donations is just one part of their larger church management system. Their multi-year contracts offer extensive training in order to use their intricate platform, which can be less than ideal for churches looking to quickly set up online giving with no long-term commitment.
Tithe.ly is an online giving platform with features designed to help churches collect and manage their donations. Beyond giving online, they also offer other services at an additional fee, such as church apps, ChMS, events, and websites.
While Tithe.ly offers a reputable giving platform, their processing rates are fixed at 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Without a feature like GrowCurve by Subsplash that automatically lowers online giving rates, churches may find themselves paying a lot each month in exchange for a “free” giving platform.
Pushpay is a company that offers online giving and donor management solutions for churches of various sizes. They also offer a range of other tools focused on congregational engagement, with varying degrees of integration across their services.
Pushpay does not share prices or processing fees publicly. With any giving provider, make sure you learn upfront about all fees that will be charged for their services. These include such things as monthly subscription fees, processing fees, batch header fees, sales fees, and so on. Together, these fees can add up quickly and drastically impact your “effective rate.” To learn more, download a copy of our free ebook, Questions to ask your app or giving provider. For more information about Pushpay, visit their pricing page to request a quote.
Mogiv is an online giving solution built for nonprofit organizations that offers multiple ways to give, along with text giving and a MinistryOne Church App. Mogiv offers a free 30-day trial and does not require a contract. On the other hand, they do charge monthly fees for their services and require a minimum monthly giving amount.
EasyTithe provides an online giving platform with donor management, multiple giving options, and reporting tools. Churches can choose between a “basic” giving plan or a “pro” plan that adds a ChMS and MinistryOne app. They do require a monthly fee, however, and their processing rates do not automatically lower to save churches money.
Not all online giving platforms are created equal. Some promise a lot of solutions but deliver poor results. Others promise to increase your donations while taking advantage of charging high processing fees. Others charge monthly fees for no reason at all.
Our founder and CEO, Tim Turner, shared what makes Subsplash different from those companies:
If you’re ready to partner with a team that wants to help your church encourage generosity and spread the gospel, [.blog-contact-cta]schedule a free Subsplash Giving demo today! [.blog-contact-cta]
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