Every church relies on tithes. These donations pay for church buildings, your staff’s salaries, and funds missions work in the local community. More church giving equates to more good things that your ministry gets to do.
But where does this giving come from? Traditionally, it was all picked up as cash or checks in the weekly offering basket on Sunday morning. However, you’re no longer constrained to physical gifts. Online giving to churches is now the standard. But your church needs an online platform to accept and process these digital donations.
<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">Donorbox</a>
<a href="#list-4" class="toc-link">Continue to Give</a>
<a href="#list-5" class="toc-link">PayPal</a>
<a href="#list-6" class="toc-link">RebelGive</a>
<a href="#list-7" class="toc-link">Subsplash</a>
<a href="#list-8" class="toc-link">Pushpay</a>
<a href="#list-9" class="toc-link">Givelify</a>
<a href="#list-10" class="toc-link">easyTithe</a>
Depositing cash and checks into the bank isn’t an overly complicated process, even for churches. However, processing payments from a variety of virtual services is a different matter. This takes some sophisticated technology to handle the technical details.
The best online giving platforms are turn-key solutions for your church to connect digital donations to the rest of your software suite. This allows you to see who made each donation, how much and how often they give, and gives you the power to manage communication with those people.
If you don’t already have an online giving solution, there are a number of benefits to getting one:
The benefits of having a giving platform is obvious, but knowing which one to choose isn’t.
Given the popularity of online giving, it’s no surprise that there’s a wide range of donation platforms. These solutions come with a range of different features, prices, and experiences. Choosing the right one means taking the time to research a few and evaluate which is best for your church’s specific needs and expectations.
To help make this decision a little easier for you, we’ve done some research on a few of the top giving platforms for Christian churches. This is your high-level guide to a few things you’ll need to know about each. You’ll still need to find the best fit for your church, but maybe this will help you narrow the list down a bit. Good luck!
Here are some of the Best Online Giving Platforms for Christian 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 donors.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Having an online platform to accept gifts is one thing, but actually asking for donations is another challenge. It helps to build a culture of generosity in your church—don’t only talk about giving once per year. Tell your congregation where the gifts are going and how they make an impact. It’s easier to convince people to donate when they see the direct impact.
Here are just a few examples of how some larger Christian churches ask for their online donations:
Growing Christian generosity isn’t about speed—it’s about creating a culture of generosity for the long run. However, there are sometimes when your church needs to fundraise for a specific need. The best way to start is by clearly expressing that need and why it’s important. You can also create a dedicated capitol campaign if that need is large enough. This helps you focus your congregation’s giving toward one end and use urgency to build momentum.
