Our #1 choice: Bill Pay with your Bank
The donor uses the bank’s ‘Bill Pay’ feature to designate the church as the payee and schedules a one time or recurring transfer of funds to the church for a certain amount. What most people do not realize is that the bank sends the church a check by mail and the church then has to process it just like any other check it receives during the week. If the check is misplaced or lost, the donor is still out of funds as the bank will deduct the amount from his/her account regardless of whether the check is cashed or not unless the donor notifies the bank of the loss of check in a timely manner.

Our #2 choice: Credit Cards
The popularity of credit cards from the donor’s perspective is obvious. The donor does not incur any additional cost of using it to make a donation to the church. In fact, he/she may receive added benefits such as airline miles, cash-back or some other form of rewards. The cost to the church ranges between 2 and 5% depending on the type of card, card issuing company and the pricing scheme of the payment processor.

(One way to minimize the cost of fees for the church is to offer individuals the opportunity to pay the fee for the church, often they are happy to relieve the church of that cost).

To see a list of some options for online giving go to: www.givingfees.com/#church

Fee Information:
Stripe (non profit)
Monthly Fee $0
Debit/Credit Card Rate 2.20% + $0.30/transaction
ACH Processing Rate 0.80% + $0/transaction

Paypal (non-profit)
Monthly Fee $0
Debit/Credit Card Rate 2.20% + $0.30/transaction

Tithe.ly
Monthly Fee $0
Debit/Credit Card Rate 2.90% + $0.30/transaction
ACH Processing Rate2 1.00% + $0.30/transaction

VANCO
For churches with less than $20k/month in donations
Monthly Fee $10
Debit/Credit Card Rate 2.75% + $0.45/transaction
ACH Processing Rate2 1.00% + $0.45/transaction

Our first choice is PayPal which has nonprofit rates. Why?

• Most people recognize PayPal and are comfortable using it.
• No set up or monthly fees for churches
• Reasonable transaction rates
• You receive an email at the time of every donation with complete information about the Donor
• You can “withdraw” from PayPal in batches, for ease in tracking and accounting rather than trying to match the transaction from your bank account to an individual.
• Ease of setting up a donate bottom

To get started first set up a PayPal account:

• What you need to know to sign up
• Churches sign up here
• Then create the “code” for the donate button