Welcome to Giving! This article will help you get your Giving account up and running, and provide you with links to learn more about the app.
Be sure also to see our Giving Overview so that you're up to speed on the key concepts of the app.
Initial Setup
When setting up Giving, we'll walk you through each step of the process. See the sections below for additional information for each step.
The person who completes the setup process for Giving will be set as the default Administrator. In all other Planning Center applications, Organization Administrators have full access to any subscribed application. However, in Giving, only those who have been added as an Administrator have access.
You can learn more in this article on Permissions in Giving.
Giving supports US and Canadian Dollars only. If your currency has not yet been set in your Account Settings, you can choose your currency.
Because Planning Center Registrations supports additional currencies, you will have the option to choose from a list. Make sure to choose from USD or CAD in order to continue setting up Giving.
An active Stripe account is required to complete the setup process for Giving. Stripe is used to process all online donations initiated in Giving, and can also be used to process event payments in Planning Center Registrations.
If you have an exiting Stripe account, you can use your login information to connect that account. If you need to create account, you can do so during this step of the setup process.
Church Center is the domain used to house your donation form for Giving. This URL can be shared or embedded on your church's website, and can also serve as a portal to your public Planning Center Registrations or Groups sites (if subscribed to those apps).
Your Default Fund is the fund automatically selected on your donation form or in a batch. This is also the fund selected if another is not designated while using Text-to-Give. For this reason, we typically suggest that your default fund be set up as your church's discretionary fund.
Text-to-Give is an optional feature that can be enabled to allow donors to give via text message. This feature requires a campus to be added in your Account Settings, so if you don't already have this set up, you can do that during this step in the setup process.
Next Steps
Once you've gone through the Initial Setup, follow these steps to prepare your account to receive donations:
Get Training and Support
If you want to dive in a little deeper, we have created a training video that will continually be updated. It's approx. 50 minutes long and has chapters for you to jump around easily.
If you need any help as you're getting set up, we are here to help you! The best way is by clicking the question mark in the upper right when you're logged in. When you click that, you'll see this helpful dialog box.
- Suggested articles will give suggestions based on the page you're on when you click the question mark.
- Type in what you're looking for. This will search our online manual and return articles on that topic.
- Click browse our documentation to be taken directly to our online manual. You'll be able to see all of our help articles and open them from there.
- Send an email to our Support Team. For the most efficient support, be sure to include specifics about what you're working with. This might include the email address of the donor or the date of the payout or batch you're viewing.