Online Giving FAQs

Here are our most common questions and answers regarding ChurchTrac Online Giving:

What is Stripe?

Stripe is a third-party company that provides a merchant account for your church (and a merchant account is needed to accept payments). You will create (or connect to your existing) Stripe account to use Online Giving. Stripe will securely capture the funds from your donor and deposit them into your bank account.

Does Online Giving Cost Extra?

No. Online Giving is included with every paid ChurchTrac Subscription. However, there are Stripe transaction fees associated with Online Giving for both Credit Card and ACH transactions. Stripe charges 2.9% plus 30 cents for credit and debit transactions, and a flat 25 cents for ACH transactions. However, Stripe could give you a better rate as a non-profit or 501(c)(3).

Can my ministry get a lower transaction fee?

Yes. If your ministry has nonprofit status, email nonprofit@stripe.com with the following:

Your EIN, or a letter from the IRS designating your 501(c)(3) status
Confirmation of the primary email address associated with your Stripe Account
Confirmation that greater than 80% of your payment volume will be tax deductible donations.

When someone gives, does it automatically add the entry to the Giving screen and the Accounting screen?

When a donor gives through online giving, it will automatically create an entry on the Giving screen and assign that contribution to the correct person in your database. The Accounting screen is not updated automatically. Stripe will send a "batch" of contributions together (usually the total of contributions made on the same day) as a single deposit into your bank account, so you'll need to update that manually to match what Stripe has deposited.

Why aren’t my Stripe deposits showing up on the Accounting screen?

For Stripe deposits to appear on your Accounting screen in ChurchTrac, your Stripe payout schedule must be set to Automatic. If it's set to Manual, ChurchTrac won’t be able to track your deposits properly. You can adjust this by logging into your Stripe account and updating your payout settings under Settings > Payout settings.

Do my donors get an automatic receipt for their contribution?

Donors can receive an automatic payment receipt, but this is not enabled by default and is not managed within ChurchTrac. Stripe handles these receipts, and you must configure this setting within your Stripe account. This receipt is separate from contribution statements, which are generated in ChurchTrac. To enable automatic receipts, log in to your Stripe dashboard and adjust the email receipt settings.

Does ChurchTrac (or anyone else) have access to my donor's credit/debit cards or bank accounts?

No one has access to your contributor's credit card or bank account numbers, nor is this information ever transmitted to or saved on our server. Stripe handles all this data and they are fully PCI compliant, which means your donor's account information is safe.

How can people find my online giving page?

We provide a unique URL that can be linked to your website, placed in an email, or posted on social media. Donors can also access your Giving Page with the provided QR code or via Church Connect. Learn more ›

How do I enable Text Giving?

Text Giving is an option already built into the Online Giving link for members who log in. It is one of the tabs as a selection option for the Donor to choose from. Donors must create a Giving or Church Connect account to use Text Giving. Learn more ›

How does a donor manage recurring donations?

For the donor to manage their recurring donations, they can log into their Online Giving portal in Connect, then select the cogwheel icon to the right of “Choose a Payment Source”. A window will appear from the right allowing them to cancel an existing recurring donation. Then they will need to set up the new recurring donation process. As the Admin, you can also manage the recurring donations in ChurchTrac at Giving-> Online Giving-> Manage Recurring Donations. If you don't see the donor here, that means it's a Stripe-managed recurring donation, and you as the Admin can log into your Stripe.com account and view and remove those subscriptions from there.

Why should I require donors to sign in?

We recommend that donors sign in to their profile when giving online. When signed in, donors can utilize recurring giving, ACH giving, and Text giving. Online Giving is integrated with our Church Connect feature, which allows signed in donors to view their giving history. The Church Connect feature also allows members to view and edit their profile, and much more. If a donor does not sign in, ChurchTrac will attempt to match the donation to the correct person on your People screen, but you may need to match the donation to the correct person manually.

Can donors give using ACH without logging into Church Connect?

No, donors must be logged into Church Connect to use the ACH payment option. ACH giving is not available for guest donations.

Can I use Online Giving to manually input card numbers for people in my church?

No. This is also a violation of Stripes Terms for Online Giving. Having access to donor banking information is a security risk.

Do I have to give the donor credit for the full donation amount (including the Stripe fee)?

Even though Stripe's fee is subtracted from the donation before it is deposited into your bank account, you must still give the donor credit for the full donation amount for tax purposes. The amount that appears on the donor's contribution statement should reflect the total amount that was given, even though a smaller amount from that donation was actually deposited into your account.

If you need further assistance, or have any additional questions reach out to our support team!