A great question that I’ve been asked a number of times has been:
What’s the best online giving and/or online payment solution for ministries and churches?
I got the question again in the most recent Sunday Special (Thanks Anthony!).
So, let’s hear it. What are some of the best choices out there for this type of thing? Paypal, Amazon, etc? Or are there some really great ministry-specific solutions that are servicing this demographic?
[Image from Andres]
Dale Kline says
Easytithe.com works great for us. No hang-ups, good customer service and has other features such as online registration, forms, etc. Some church data base software company's have it as a added feature (i.e. Fellowship One). But for straight giving purposes, I like EasyTithe.
Ben Dyer says
Kimbia. I've used them over and over again for lots of clients. Easiest thing in the world to setup and use on a site. It's just embedded JavaScript that you drop into a page or a site design. http://www.kimbia.com/
Kyle Reed says
Paypal, at least in my experience
Anthony says
We just switched from paypal to amazon payments because it is slightly cheaper, and no extra cost for recurring payments.
Ryan says
Really, because I just got declined by Paypal Japan because I am a ministry. Others have been “investigated” by Paypal for “hate speech” because they express orthodox views on same sex marriage and abortion. Paypal even held their funds and wouldn’t allow them access. So I would offer a bit of caution when using Paypal for ministry donations.
Herb Halstead says
Some people don't like paypal because of some of their social stances, but it is easy.
human3rror says
what are there social stances?
Dan says
They are boycotting the state of North Carolina for passing a law that protects women and children from predators in bathrooms, locker-rooms and public showers. They closed down a Paypal business center in North Carolina completely in direct response.
@dianamarsh says
One of the best ways is to work with a Web Development company that can build the full site – including any items that require money transactions like donation, event registration, capital campaigns, etc. The Church/Ministry sets-up an Authorize.net account and works directly with them and their bank to process all funds. It is easier and less expensive then PayPal fees. Authorize also has the ability to do online checks and recurring donations which is really important to those setting up a regular tithe to the church.
stephenbateman says
thanks for this.
@mtthwphlps says
The problem with Authorize.net (and other payment gateways) is, in most cases, you also need to secure the website that is collecting the information (usually the church website) with a SSL certificate, which can be expensive. If you decide to go this route it may be worthwhile to look for hosting companies that offer a SSl certificate bundled with a hosting plan, and guarantee the security of the certificate. I know of at least one company that offers this on a $18/month plan. I personally prefer PayPal since there is no monthly fee (for the plan I'm using), and it isn't used too much.
Christine Dattilo says
Great question with lots of answers. There are a number of ministry focused payment processors. I have a client who uses Egiving Systems. They have one service particularly for churches, and one for Christian ministries. My client has been very happy. They find them very responsive. Here's the link – http://www.egivingsystems.org/
Since I work with a number of ministries and NP's I am particularly biased towards Network for Good. They are great people to work with and work exclusively with 501c(3) orgs. They provide custom donate pages that look exactly like your webpage (website), no merchant account required, and automatically receipt your donor with a customized receipt. Here's a link http://www1.networkforgood.org/for-nonprofits/fun…
I'm not crazy about Paypal. There customer service to nonprofits is terrible. Google checkout is good and easy. But as John Saddington is constantly preaching to us – "eliminate barriers to entry", Google does require you to sign-in with your Google account and associate a credit card with that account. Some people may be uncomfortable with that, some may find it too much work – both may abandon the payment process leaving your ministry with nothing.
Lastly, check out TechSoup. They often offer 501c(3) discounted offers for payment processors. Check out fees CLOSELY. All the processors differ and you need to know your giving pattern to pick the best solution. You don't want to lose all the well-intended money to fees.
@earthtent says
Stratum Development offers an integrated donations system built into their ChurchSites content management system that allows you to manage campaigns and track giving. Check out http://churchsites.com/pricing.asp. They also offer a free stand alone option called GiveGiver that is more like a PayPal (that takes a percentage of the transactions) for churches. You can still manage multiple campaigns using this option as well. Visit http://www.givegiver.com/ for more info.
stephenbateman says
Wow…I've done extensive research on this (or so I thought) and I've never seen most of these suggestions!
Suffice it to say there are a ton.
Looking at the numbers, Paypal is a bit pricier than most other options, but easier in most cases. I'm looking at partnering with GivingKiosk but Authorize.net may be a better option…
Eric Granata says
I did the math a few years ago when my church was trying to decide between a solution that used a merchant account or Paypal. I can't remember how I came to it, but I remember figuring that we would have to collect over $30k/year before a merchant account would be cheaper than Paypal. We're about to hit that mark.
We've been using Paypal for the last 3 years and have had no trouble.
@thevisualstudio says
In addition to the ones mentioned so far, here are a few more. PaySimple, Acceptiva, SimpleGive, QGiv. There are pros and cons of each from features to pricing. I've used Authorize.net on a few projects, but my understanding is that the church becomes responsible for doing some amount of PCI compliance when going this route, while the other solutions mentioned so far take care of that responsibility.
stephenbateman says
any idea how hard PCI compliance is?
@dianamarsh says
They way we set-up the information/sites with Authorize is the Web site does not actually store the CC data so no concerns on the Web side. The site is secure and collects the data, but passes it over to Authorize and they process the information. Authorize then talks back to the site and notifies of approval or declination. This allows you to have reporting from the wed site and Authorize. Authorize.net takes care of all of the other PCI compliance concerns.
Julie Libel says
My authorize.net fees totaled 7% last month!! Our church is definitely switching to a cheaper alternative. That fee is ridiculous.
@mdavis says
http://ministrygive.com is a good solution developed by the smart guys over at church media. If my memory serves me right…i think that they have a recommended merchant processing partner that works with it as well.
@timruhter says
I'm at a 2000+ church and we use ACS as our Contrib and people suite with Access ACS as our portal(think thats the term) with Authorize.net doing our backend. Kind of a hassel for more than 20 contribs a week without Sage (ACS works really well with Sage, according to ACS). Also for accounting purposes ACS will be redoing their electronic contrib tracking in the next revision of their Contrib module to better align each contribution with the specific account/fund.
Mike says
Our church has been using eGive for a couple of years now. It only handles electronic checks and not credit cards, so it is cheaper than most of the options that have been listed so far. You can also do recurring transactions as well. Overall, we have been pleased with it. More info at http://www.egive-usa.com/
Anthony says
Thanks everybody, good ideas and now to do some comparisons…
Lantz Howard says
As a youth minister always having events I have been looking for something easy to use for event registration and payment.
I have noticed a few placed using Active http://www.active.com/activegiving/product.cfm
to help with this process. Collects payments, fundraise, registration, etc at the same place.
Anyone else use it?
Marie Smth says
A good online payment solution match for ministries and churches may be PayVision.com. PayVision.com is a company that offers Payment Solutions worldwide. They have a set of credit/debit cards that are in cooperation with several major European, American and Asian banks. PayVision’s payment services accept more than 150 currencies and also offer competitive rates to customers.
Stephanie Collman says
There are many wonderful online giving solutions available. Ardent Giving Solutions provides additional capabilities in that both credit and Debit Card Only giving is available.
AGS is a ministry-focused company with two goals: lower cost for online giving to churches and provide solutions not otherwise available. Debit Card Only giving was developed for ministries who didn’t feel comfortable with accepting credit card offerings which may create member debt.
To learn more about how AGS is working to lower cost and develop for the church you can view the AGS website to read recent articles about the company which were published in Church Executive, Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox, Worship Facilities Mag, Leadership Journal and Your Church.
Ed says
Considering an online giving for our church. Just signed up with PayPal. Great price, terrible service, and a lack of functionality.
Have you heard of clickandpledge.com?
Looks great but I’m not sure if there will be any additional charges for reward cards.
Scott Faerber says
I work in the Church/ Ministry/ Nonprofit space for donation. I really like SecureGive. I integrate with them to do their processing. This allows me to have a better control on the processing fees. My home church has averaged less than 1.89% in fees over the past 6 months! I can integrate with Fellowship One and many others out there.
I am super active in my church and see what I do more as a ministry and less as a job. I would love to offer my perspective into whatever it is you are looking to do.