Church Solutions
Online Giving for Churches
A church giving platform should support every way your congregation gives, charge transparent and published fees, protect recurring gifts when cards expire, integrate with your ChMS, and provide real support on Sundays. If yours is missing any of these, it’s worth a closer look.
The Checklist
What to look for in a church giving platform
Not every giving platform is built with churches in mind. Many are adapted from general nonprofit or e-commerce tools. The gaps show up in specific places, not as a general feeling that something’s off. Here’s what to check.
Every way your congregation gives, in one system
A complete platform supports online, mobile, text-to-give, kiosk, check scanning, and non-cash giving, including stock and cryptocurrency, without routing donors through third-party redirects.
The test: can a 70-year-old give at a kiosk on Sunday and a 30-year-old set up recurring giving on Tuesday, with your team managing both from one dashboard?
Transparent fees with a published effective rate
The quoted rate isn’t the number that matters. Your effective rate is: total processing fees divided by total dollars processed. It’s the only number that reflects your church’s actual mix of debit, credit, and ACH gifts.
Platforms advertising free software typically recover the cost through higher processing rates. Ask for the effective rate in writing before you compare pricing.
Recurring giving that survives an expired card
Recurring gifts are the financial backbone of most churches. Expired cards are the most common reason they quietly stop.
Ask specifically how expired cards are handled. Not whether recurring giving exists, but what happens when a card on file expires.
Integration with your ChMS
Most platforms claim ChMS integration. What varies is how deep it actually goes. Ask how often giving data syncs, what fields transfer automatically, and what your team still has to enter by hand.
SecureGive integrates with Rock RMS, TouchPoint, MinistryPlatform, Planning Center, Church Community Builder, and more.
Support that works on a Sunday
Church giving doesn’t follow business hours. If a platform routes support through a ticket queue or a chatbot, that’s a signal about how it was built, not just how it operates.
Every church should get the same quality of support regardless of size. When you call, a person should answer, and your question should get resolved that day.
See how SecureGive measures up against your current giving platform.
The Gaps
Where most platforms fall short
Three gaps show up more than any others when a church starts comparing what they have to what’s available.
01
Fee structures that quietly cost more
“Free” software and low advertised rates almost always mean the cost shows up somewhere else, usually in the processing rate. A church processing a meaningful volume of gifts each month can end up paying more in total than they would on a platform with a flat monthly fee and a lower published rate. The fix isn’t finding the lowest quoted number. It’s asking for the effective rate and comparing that instead.
Recurring gifts that lapse without anyone noticing
If a platform doesn’t handle expired cards automatically, lapsed recurring gifts pile up quietly. There’s no alert. The gift just stops. Multiply that across a few hundred recurring donors and the gap in year-end giving is significant, even if no single lapse looked urgent at the time.
03
Support that scales with account size, not church need
Larger accounts often get a dedicated contact. Smaller churches get a help center. A church of 150 and a church of 5,000 both have a Sunday morning that doesn’t wait for a support ticket to get answered.
Built for Churches
How SecureGive approaches online giving for churches
SecureGive was founded in 2004 by Pastor Marty Baker, who also built the first church giving kiosk. Over 20 years later, the platform is still built exclusively for churches, and that shows up in specific ways.
Seven ways to give, all in one system
Your team manages everything from a single dashboard. No third-party redirects, no separate tools to check.
Rates set to cover cost, not margin
We don’t believe in inflating profit margins on top of your congregation’s generosity. Most churches see an effective rate of around 2%.
ACH
Bank transfer/eCheck
$1.50
flat per transaction
Debit
1.75%
+ 30¢
Credit
2.5%
+ 30¢
The rate is the same whether your church processes $5,000 a month or $500,000.
Auto Card Updater
When a donor’s card expires, payment information updates automatically. Recurring gifts stay active without staff follow-up or donor action. Available on Premium and Enterprise plans.
DonorIQ
Surfaces giving trends so your team can see when a donor has quietly stopped giving, before it shows up as a shortfall.
Weekly Summary Emails
Every Monday morning updates on key giving metrics and trends in your church are delivered right to your inbox.
Thinking about switching? Here's what that actually looks like.
The biggest hesitation isn’t usually the product. It’s the disruption: recurring donors who might not follow, giving history that needs to move, timing that could collide with a campaign or a busy season.
SecureGive’s transition process is built around protecting giving momentum from day one, with most churches completing their transition in just 45 days.
Learn more about switching your giving to SecureGive.
Recurring Donors
SecureGive provides structured options for moving recurring donors, including custom donor links that allow givers to confirm their existing gifts quickly and securely.
Giving History
Import historical data so your records stay intact and your get full insight into past and present giving.
Guided Setup
A dedicated Client Success Manager guides every phase: account setup, ChMS integration, staff communication, and go-live planning.
Every Size
Online giving for your church size
Church size shapes how a giving platform gets used, but it shouldn’t determine the quality of what’s available.
For smaller churches
The priority is usually affordability and simplicity. SecureGive’s fee structure doesn’t penalize lower giving volume, and the platform is straightforward enough for a small staff or part-time volunteer to manage.
For larger churches
The priority shifts to scale, control, and data. SecureGive supports unlimited campuses, separate bank account routing, campus-level admin permissions, and the enterprise reporting that finance teams and church leadership depend on.
Frequently Asked Questions About Online Giving for Churches
A church giving platform should support every giving method your congregation uses, charge transparent fees with a published effective rate of 2% or less, protect recurring giving when cards expire, integrate with your ChMS, and provide real human support on weekends. The most important number to evaluate is your effective rate: total processing fees divided by total dollars processed. That number reflects what you’re actually paying, not just what’s quoted.
Divide your total monthly processing fees by your total dollars processed. The result is your effective rate. If your church processes $40,000 in a month and pays $900 in fees, your effective rate is 2.25%. That number is more useful than a quoted rate because it accounts for your actual transaction mix: debit, credit, and ACH combined.
Recurring donors need a clear path to re-establish their gifts on the new platform, along with communication that makes that step easy. SecureGive’s transition process is built around this. A dedicated Client Success Manager plans the move around your church calendar, provides communication resources for your congregation, and guides the full transition. Most churches complete the process in about 45 days.
A ChMS giving module is one feature inside a broader church management system. A dedicated giving platform is built exclusively around donation management, with deeper donor tools, more giving channels, and a transition process designed specifically for protecting giving momentum. The practical difference shows up in recurring giving management, fee structures, and the quality of support available if something comes up.
No. SecureGive doesn’t require a long-term contract. Monthly plans can be cancelled without penalty. Annual billing is available at a discount for churches that prefer it.
Most churches complete the full transition to SecureGive in approximately 45 days. The timeline is built around your church calendar, not a generic onboarding schedule, and a dedicated Client Success Manager guides every step from account setup through launch.
See SecureGive in the context of your church
The right giving platform isn’t the same for every church. Schedule a demo and walk through SecureGive with one of our giving consultants. They’ll show you the platform in the context of your church’s size, structure, and current setup.