All churches, including Catholic parishes, rely on the generosity of their members through tithes and donations. These contributions are essential for the church's operations, covering expenses such as staff salaries, building maintenance, mission trips, and community outreach.
While traditional methods like cash and checks remain viable, online giving is gaining significant traction among parishioners. To effectively leverage this modern approach, Catholic churches can benefit greatly from implementing a dedicated online giving platform
<a href="#list-1" class="toc-link">Tithely</a>
<a href="#list-2" class="toc-link">Breeze ChMS</a>
<a href="#list-3" class="toc-link">RebelGive</a>
<a href="#list-4" class="toc-link">Subsplash</a>
<a href="#list-5" class="toc-link">Pushpay</a>
<a href="#list-6" class="toc-link">easyTithe</a>
<a href="#list-7" class="toc-link">PayPal</a>
<a href="#list-8" class="toc-link">Continue to Give</a>
<a href="#list-9" class="toc-link">Donorbox</a>
<a href="#list-10" class="toc-link">Givelify</a>
Every church, regardless of denomination, requires charitable giving. These tithes and donations are what allow any church to operate, hire staff, maintain a building, send mission trips, and give back to the local community. The same is true for any Catholic parish.
Giving can happen in a number of ways—from cash and checks—but online giving is an increasingly popular choice for automating giving to a place of worship. For Catholic churches to take advantage of online giving, you’ll need an online giving platform.
Online giving platforms provide a turn-key solution for churches to accept and process digital donations. Rather than developing a complex online money processor yourself, there are a number of software companies that have done the hard work for you.
These online giving platforms integrate directly into your parish’s website, social accounts, or mobile app to provide a variety of virtual giving options. This even allows church and community members to give by scanning a QR code or sending a text message.
By not using a pre-built online giving platform, your Catholic church is missing out on a growing portion of your tithes. Not accepting digital donations creates a barrier for the congregation to participate in an important part of church life.
If you’re still not convinced, there are a number of benefits that an online giving solution can provide to any Catholic church:
The various choices for online giving platforms are as different as churches. Therefore, there’s no one right option for your congregation. You’ve got to take the time and do your due diligence to select the right platform given your needs, expectations, and budget.
These platforms also change over time—just like your church. Therefore, it’s also worth reevaluating your online giving platform every few years to ensure that it’s still the best fit for you. You’ll also want to make sure that this platform connects to your other church tools, especially your Church Management Software (ChMS) to make administrative tasks easier.
We’ve collected a few of the top online giving software for Catholic Parishes based on a wide range of criteria including usability, features, benefits, and pricing. This is your quick guide for making the right decision for a giving solution.
Here Are Some of the Best Online Giving Platforms for Catholic Churches:
Tithe.ly’s QuickGive option allows your church members to make a donation with a single tap. The goal is to cut down on the complexity for your users.
Tithe.ly giving integrates directly with the rest of a suite of tools, which also includes Church Management Software (ChMS), website builder, mobile app, and worship planning.
Tithe.ly’s giving platform has no monthly payment or setup cost. The price is covered in the transaction fees per donation.
Breeze was created to be one of the simplest Church Management Software with a built-in giving service. This makes it ideal for smaller churches.
Breeze is now a part of the Tithe.ly family, making it easier to connect to the rest of their tools. Breeze also has one simple monthly cost that includes all features.
Breeze costs $72 per month.
RebelGive uses Giving Flows to create a seamless user experience to make donations without a mobile app.
RebelGive is based on a flat monthly cost and does not take transaction fees. The benefit is that churches get to keep 100% of their donations.
RebelGive costs $29/month.
Subsplash began as a church apps company, so their giving platform is built around an easy-to-use mobile experience.
Similar to Tithe.ly, Subsplash offers a wide range of other products, including ChMS, live streaming, websites, and messaging. All of these work together within Subsplash One.
Subsplash has no monthly cost for giving. The platform is covered by transaction fees.
Pushpay’s online giving platform is considered relatively easy to use for churchgoers.
Pushpay is built around its giving platform, so more focus is placed on the donations side of the technology.
Pushpay offers three pricing tiers for their ChMS—core, advanced, and complete—based on what features you need.
It’s right in the name—the goal of easyTithe is to make giving to any size church simple.
EasyTithe also offers a pro option that connects your giving platform to a ChMS and mobile app. They also offer a wide range of external ChMS integrations.
The pricing is based on church size with $19/month for small churches and $49/month for mid-sized churches. The Pro option starts at $75/month for new customers.
As one of the largest online giving platforms, PayPal is incredibly easy for people to use in a variety of settings.
PayPal is a large technology company that most people will recognize. They offer a quick and easy solution for smaller churches looking to get started fast.
There is no monthly cost for an account, but they do charge higher transaction fees.
Continue to Give has a slightly less modern user experience compared to some of the other options. The appearance is still intuitive but clunkier.
Continue to Give was created for all nonprofits, not just churches. They offer additional reporting and fundraising features beyond just church-giving platforms.
Two options depending on your church size. Silver has no monthly cost, but higher transaction fees, while Gold costs $29/mo with a lower transaction fee structure.
Donorbox features a customizable and modern giving form that can be integrated into your church website.
Donorbox is one of the more prominent nonprofit fundraising tools. They’re used by more than 50,000 organizations across 96 countries.
Donorbox offers three tiers: standard, pro, and premium. Standard has no monthly cost, but multiple fees. Pro has reduced fees but costs $139 per month. The premium account is for enterprise-level clients with custom pricing.
Givelify has a very modern branding that is created to be easy to use. Donors can even give directly from Givelify’s website, offering another source of donations.
Similar to Donorbox, Givelify is a general nonprofit donor platform that serves more than 60,000 organizations globally. People can also find your organization and give from their website.
No monthly fees, just based on transaction fees.
According to one source, the average gift to a church per week was $17 in 2020, and the average churchgoer donated $884 during the entire year.
Different from donation platforms, online donation sites allow people to crowdfund money for specific causes or projects. This includes sites like Go Fund Me and Kickstarter.
There’s no one right answer to this question. There’s only the platform that’s right for your church, and that might change over time.
