Payment Methods

Donations can be given through a number of different payment methods and tracked in Giving. When donors give a physical donation, it is tracked as a cash or check donation in Giving. When donors give online, their payment method information is saved in their donor profiles.

Supported Payment Methods

The table shows the different ways people can donate and how the payment methods are entered into Giving.

Payment Method	Processing Method
Cash	Counted and entered in batches
Check	Counted and entered in batches
Credit or debit card	Stripe (online donation) or manual entry
ACH bank transfer	Stripe (online donation) or manual entry
Text message	Stripe
Apple Pay	Stripe
External payment source	Tracked with batches

Payment Method Details

Expand the section for more information about supported payment methods.

Cash

Cash donations in donation envelopes usually identify the donor and fund designation. Loose cash can be counted as an anonymous gift and designated to a general fund.

Cash donations are counted in batches.

Check

Checks usually identify the donor and fund designation. If the check has two names, or the name on the donation envelope doesn't match the name on the check, reach out to the donor for clarification.

Check donations are counted in batches.

Card

Card donations can be initiated by the donors themselves, privately and securely, from your donation form. These donations are processed by Stripe, then immediately added to the dashboard.

If a donor requests an Administrator to add a card donation, you can manually process that donation from the donor's profile.

Canadian Customers: While all major credit cards are supported for Canadian organizations, only a limited number of debit cards will work. Visa Debit is supported, but Interac ATM cards or any card without a 3 or 4 digit CVC code will not.

ACH Bank Transfer

ACH donations are a bank-to-bank transfer, sometimes called an eCheck. Before donating with a new bank account, donors must verify their account credentials in Church Center. After the bank account is verified donors can make donations privately and securely. These donations are processed by Stripe, then immediately added to the dashboard.

Giving Admins can’t add an ACH payment method on behalf of a donor; however, if a donor requests an Administrator to initiate an ACH donation with a saved bank account, you can manually process that donation from the donor's profile.

Canadian Customers: ACH/EFT is not supported for Canadian organizations.

Text Message

Donors can give through text message using Text2Give by connecting their donor profile and preferred payment method to their phone number.

Caution

Text2Give is not available in Canada.

Text donations are handled by Stripe, our payment processor.

Apple Pay

Once enabled by your Giving Administrators, a donor using an Apple device, such as an iPhone, iPad, or the Safari browser, can give through Apple Pay.

Apple Pay donations are handled by Stripe, our payment processor.

External Payment Sources

Donations made using an external donation platform (like PushPay, PayPal, Fellowship 1, Tithe.ly, etc.) aren't initiated through Giving, but they can be tracked using payment sources in batches or imported using the Giving API.

See the Giving Product Integrations article for more information about integrations that are supported for Planning Center Giving.

View and Edit Saved Payment Methods

Saved payment methods can be viewed or edited by the donor on Church Center or by administrators on the Admin side of Giving.

Donor Profile in Church Center

When donating online, donors can enter their payment method information and save it to their profile.

If they've saved a payment method in the past, they can log in to manage their previous payment methods. Donors also complete ACH bank verification here.

Donor Profile for Admins

In Giving, the Pay Methods tab in a donor's profile shows the credit cards, debit cards, or bank accounts that donors have saved to their donor profile. All payment methods except ACH can be added to a donor's profile. Admins can delete payment methods, but they cannot modify them.

Caution

Handling payment methods subjects your organization to PCI compliance and your donors to a greater risk of fraud. To avoid these issues, encourage donors to add their payment information to their donor profile instead of giving account numbers and card details to an administrator.

1. Add a card at the request of the donor.

   The donor's profile must include an email address so donors can be contacted in the case of a problem.

2. Log into Stripe to can view more payment method details.

3. Delete a payment method.

4. If an ACH bank verification is in progress, the status will show here.

   ACH payment methods must be added and verified by the donor from Church Center.