Online Giving FAQ
If your church is using Planning Center Giving to process donations, you can donate from your computer or web browser using your church’s giving site. You can also give from your phone using the Church Center mobile app or Text-to-Give if your church has these features enabled!
Check out this video for an overview of the online giving process, and then read the rest of the article for more information.
Making a Donation
If you are giving from your church’s donation form, you can donate without first logging in. If you give via the mobile app, you’ll need to log in to Church Center before giving.
Some of the steps shown below will look a bit different in the mobile app, but the basic process is the same.
1. Enter Donation Information
On your church’s donation form, you can give a one-time gift or set up a recurring donation.
Add the donation amount and choose the fund you want to give to. If you want to split your donation between two or more funds, click Add donation to chose another fund.
If you decide to give regularly, choose the frequency of the donation and the date that the recurring donation starts.
You can log in to your donor profile at any time to update your recurring donation frequency.
Click Continue to choose your payment method.
2. Choose your Payment Method
After entering your donation information, you can choose to log in to access payment methods you’ve saved in the past, or to add a new bank account or debit/credit card for your donation. If you’re using Safari on Mac or iOS (and your church has enabled this feature), you will also have the option to donate using Apple Pay.
When you give with a bank account, the processing fees are lower than when you give with a credit card. However, the funds will take longer to get to your church (3-5 business days).
Access Your Donor Profile
Church Center automatically creates a donor profile for you after you donate to your church the first time.
You can log in to your donor profile to update payment methods or recurring payments, view your donation history, access tax statements, and set communication preferences.
To log in, you will enter your email address/phone number and a single-use verification code will be sent to you. You don’t need a password.
From your church’s donation form, click the dropdown in the top right corner and select Log in.
To access your profile:
- Enter your phone or email address and click Next.
- Enter the verification code sent to your phone or email.
You’re now logged in to your profile!
From your profile, you can:
- Tap My Giving to add or update payment methods, edit recurring payments, access your donation history and statements, view pledge status, and set your email and receipt preferences.
- Update your contact information. You will use the email addresses/phone numbers added here to log in.
Donation Receipts and Statements
By default, each time you donate (online or in-person), you will receive an emailed receipt. As an online donor, you will likely receive tax statements to your email address as well.
If you’d like to disable donation receipts, or adjust which email address you receive receipts and statements, you can choose from the Notifications options on your profile:
You can also access your donor history and statements at any time from your donor profile.
Donation history will include all the donations you’ve given in the year you have selected. Tax statements will only be available if they’ve been generated by your church’s administrator.
