In the following article, we'll take a look at 10 platforms that receive mobile donations–and how your church might empower your congregation to give through their cell phones.
In 2022, a mobile giving app is a must-have for every church's fundraising efforts. Mobile giving makes it simple and convenient to make online donations. It also makes it easier to track and organize church giving, and even increases the likelihood of generosity.
<a href="#list-1" class="toc-link">1. Tithely</a>
<a href="#list-2" class="toc-link">2. Subsplash</a>
<a href="#list-3" class="toc-link">3. Pushpay</a>
<a href="#list-4" class="toc-link">4. Anedot</a>
<a href="#list-5" class="toc-link">5. GiveWP</a>
<a href="#list-6" class="toc-link">6. Txt2Give</a>
<a href="#list-7" class="toc-link">7. OnlineGiving</a>
<a href="#list-8" class="toc-link">8. Vanco</a>
<a href="#list-9" class="toc-link">9. Give by Cell</a>
<a href="#list-10" class="toc-link">10. eGiving.com</a>
Mobile giving platforms allow users to make online donations with their mobile phones. Sometimes, mobile giving platforms are included as a part of church apps; sometimes, they are standalone apps. In either case, they can help both religious organizations and nonprofit organizations empower smartphone users to make one-time gifts or recurring donations with minimal effort.
You need a mobile giving platform for two reasons.
A mobile giving platform is critical for every fundraising strategy. The challenge is not adopting a mobile fundraising tool; it's choosing the one that's right for your church budget and needs.
An all-in-one fundraising solution includes:
Finally, powerful fundraising tools will have reporting that helps you stay keyed into giving trends at your church.
To choose a good mobile giving platform for your church, you'll want to consider cost, functionality, and ease of use. How will the solution help you stay within budget and drive engagement?
To evaluate the best mobile giving platforms for churches, we looked at several factors. First, we looked at ease of use. Does the tool provide a straightforward process for both donors and admin?
Next, we looked feature set. Does the tool provide a range of helpful features for churches to run a mobile fundraising strategy?
Finally, we looked at price. How much value does the tool offer for the price?
Ultimately, we looked for tools that scored well across the board, potentially providing churches with the ability to see an increase in donations.
The top 10 best mobile giving platforms help churches to improve their digital fundraising efforts and provide a smooth, simple giving process for donors.
Users of Tithe.ly love the sleek interface, which is easy to learn and navigate. Tithe.ly's comprehensive suite of tools and features make for an excellent overall experience, as users are able to toggle from one feature to the next.
Tithe.ly offers features for receiving online donations, financial reporting, building a church website and app, marketing tools for generating awesome media, and a whole range of administrative tools for planning services, organizing and managing contacts, project management for church staff, accounting, and reporting.
Tithe.ly doesn't just help you boost giving with a secure platform; it helps you create an entire online presence with easy-to-use marketing tools for your website and church app. It also makes planning and communications a breeze.
Tithe.ly Giving is absolutely free–making it a great choice for cash-strapped small churches. If you want to upgrade to additional tools, the cost of Tithe.ly increases incrementally. You can use the entire suite of tools (including accounting, marketing, and website/app building for only $119 a month).
Tithe.ly is a cost-effective way to manage your entire digital presence as a church, from outbound communications to internal project management. It also comes with minimal setup fees and add-on costs, making it a solid choice from a pricing standpoint. As far as church management software goes, it's the most comprehensive tool available.
By using Tithe.ly, you may lose the need for all your existing software tools and products!
Generally, Subsplash users say that their mobile giving solution is easy to use. Some users report trouble with the customer support team, but problems seem to be resolved eventually.
Subsplash's mobile giving solution integrates with giving analytics, a text-to-give service, check scanning, optional coverage of transaction fees, and admin gift entry.
Subsplash can be a great solution for churches looking to provide mobile giving options–but it will come with a price.
Subsplash's mobile giving church technology is free.
Subsplash is free to use!
Subsplash's mobile giving solution integrates with their larger suite of church technology. However, some users of their products report a lack of customization and features.
Both donors and admin report that Pushpay's simple user interface for giving on a mobile phone is easy to use and manage.
Pushpay offers features for making recurring gifts, creating a mobile donation pledge (to be processed at a later date), text-to-give capabilities, and tools for creating a special mobile giving campaign.
Pushpay can help faith-based organizations build a strategy for conveniently receiving mobile payments from donors.
Pushpay is pretty pricey, starting at $149 a month.
Pushpay is easy to use.
Pushpay is very expensive, and some users report issues with their software integrations.
Users of Anedot's mobile giving solution say that it provides a smooth, seamless experience.
Anedot provides text-to-give capabilities, tools for ACH processing, recurring giving, an option for covering fees, and giving to separate funds.
Anedot can help your church or faith-based organization develop a donation process that's simple, intuitive, and mobile-friendly.
Anedot is free to use.
Anedot is free and intuitive.
Anedot doesn't have a super wide range of features, and doesn't offer additional church technology tools that can be helpful to integrate with giving (such as an app building tool or church management software).
There's a reason that GiveWP is the most widely used donation plug-in for Wordpress; it's super easy to use and understand. However, GiveWP is only for churches that use Wordpress sites.
GiveWP includes features for creating a customized donation form, storing donor contact info, tracking generosity, and more. Add-ons (which include add-on costs) include peer fundraising tools, the ability to set up recurring gifts, choose a payment gateway, setting up a text-to-give campaign, and more.
GiveWP can be a great solution for church websites that rely on Wordpress to receive donations.
GiveWP offers a free version. If you'd like to upgrade, the pricing plan increases from $149 annually for its most basic plan to $599 annually for the agency plan.
GiveWP offers great customer support and is an excellent choice for churches that use WP sites.
As an online giving solution, GiveWP is restricted to Wordpress sites. That means churches that use other website builders will need to look for other mobile giving tools.
Txt2Give makes text giving simple and intuitive for nonprofits and faith-based organizations. Users say that Txt2Give is "easy and effective" as an online fundraising tool.
Txt2Give provides simple functionality for receiving donations via text message, the ability to set up recurring donations, and a free giving platform.
Txt2Give can help organizations set up basic giving campaigns with text-to-give capabilities.
Txt2Give's monthly plans for text-to-give start at $19 for churches. They have separate pricing packages for events, and they offer a free online donation platform.
Txt2Give makes it simple to get started immediately, with a special launch package and awesome customer support.
Txt2Give isn't part of a larger suite of church software tools. Rather, it functions as a more streamlined, simple solution for helping churches set up donations via text. That can make it less than ideal for churches look for a more comprehensive giving solution.
Users of OnlineGiving report that it's simple to use. However, some users report difficulty with the admin portal.
OnlineGiving provides features for setting up one-time and recurring gifts and text-to-give donations. It also integrates with church management software and offers multiple payment options (including crypto).
OnlineGiving offers churches a secure platform with multiple online giving options.
This all-in-one church fundraising solution is $70 per month for churches with 1,200+ donations.
OnlineGiving provides a comprehensive suite of church giving features, including options to customize forms and accept payments in crypto.
OnlineGiving may work for small- and mid-sized churches with fewer donations. But the more donations you receive, the more the price increases.
Vanco users say that it's easy to set up and offers an intuitive experience. However, users have also reported different challenges with the backend (including double payments and overcharges).
Vanco's mobile giving solution is integrated with a system that includes an online directory, integration with church management systems, group messaging, and a private chat feature.
Vanco offers an entire suite of products to help with mobile fundraising, and integrates with additional software tools.
Vanco starts at $10 a month for small churches; $49 for medium-sized churches, and offers custom pricing for larger churches.
Vanco takes an advanced approach to help churches with their mobile fundraising strategy, offering a number of different features that integrate nicely with church management systems.
More than one user of Vanco report serious problems with the software, including overcharging donors, double reporting, and challenges with the interface.
Give by Cell offers a simple, straightforward approach to mobile giving.
Give by Cell offers tools for mobile giving, giving by text, a "fundraising" thermometer, donor management, making recurring gifts, and making mobile pledges.
Give by Cell allows users to make donations conveniently on their cell phones, and gives admin users the ability to track and customize giving.
Give by Cell starts at $149 a month.
Give by Cell provides all the tools that churches need to create a successful mobile fundraising plan.
Users of eGiving say that "on the whole" it's an effective tool for mobile giving.
eGiving has features for mobile giving, campaign management, donation tracking, event management, pledge management, and more.
eGiving offers churches the ability to receive donations via text, mobile, and desktop. It's an easy way to integrate online giving into a church's fundraising strategy.
eGiving charges $19 per month. However, for the duration of the pandemic, eGiving is free (it's unclear how long this offer will last).
eGiving offers churches all the basics for a mobile fundraising strategy. They also have documentation and resources to help with training.
Users of eGiving report that it's not as easy to use as other tools.
In 2022, a mobile fundraising strategy is critical. While churches have many options for mobile fundraising platforms, Tithe.ly offers an extremely intuitive, affordable solution for churches to receive payments via mobile and text. Tithe.ly also stays abreast of current trends (such as giving with crypto), always offering churches the freshest, most cutting edge way to be generous.
PayPal isn't tailored to churches, making it less than ideal for a church's mobile fundraising strategy. It makes it difficult to set up recurring payments and has an outdated redirect model. To learn more about why PayPal isn't good for churches, click here.
Venmo isn't a platform designed for ongoing payments between a member and an organization. Organizations that receive more than $600 a year are required by law to report these transactions to the IRS. Venmo also lacks the tools churches need to encourage members to make ongoing donations.
The best way to pay tithes online is to set up recurring payments with a system like Tithe.ly.
