Feature tour Add-on
Online Giving
From the pew, from home, from anywhere.
Members give by card or bank account in the free app or on the web, one time or on a schedule. Visitors can give from a link or QR code without an account. Every gift lands in your records, with a receipt on its way.
- Mobile app & web
- Cards & bank accounts
- Weekly or monthly
- Choice of funds
- Emailed receipts
- Giving history
- Guest giving
- QR code
- Apple Pay & Google Pay for guests
- Contribution report
- Payout report
01Connect
Connect
Press Connect with Stripe in your admin and link your church's Stripe account to Lightpost.
02Choose
Choose
Choose whether to take cards, bank accounts or both, which funds people can give to, and whether to allow recurring gifts.
03Receive
Receive
Members and visitors give. Each gift is recorded for you, and Stripe pays it out to your church's bank account.
Member giving
Giving, right where your members already are.
There is no separate app to download or account to create. Members give from the same Lightpost login they use for the directory and the prayer list.
- App and web
- Give from the free mobile app on iOS and Android, or from the member web app.
- Cards and bank accounts
- Members save a debit card, a credit card or a bank account, and you choose which of these you accept.
- The right fund
- Members pick from the funds you open up for giving, like the general contribution or missions.
- An optional note
- Members can add a note to a gift when they want to say what it's for.
- Emailed receipts
- Every gift gets an emailed receipt, and the member hears from us if one fails.
- Giving history
- Members can look back at what they've given, on the web or in the app.
Recurring giving
Set it once, and it just keeps going.
Travel, sickness and a busy Sunday don't have to change anyone's giving. Members choose an amount and a schedule, and each gift goes through on its own.
- Weekly or monthly
- Give every week on a chosen day, or every month on a chosen date.
- Any open fund
- Each schedule has its own amount, fund and payment method, and a member can have more than one.
- An email every time
- Members get a receipt for each gift, and an email if one doesn't go through.
- Always their choice
- Members can stop a schedule themselves at any time, on the web or in the app.
Recurring giving is a setting you can turn on or off for your church.
Guest giving
For visitors, no account needed.
Grandparents in town, a friend of the church, someone who just wants to help. Turn on guest giving and anyone can give from your own page, with no login.
- A link and a QR code
- Share your giving link, or put its QR code in the bulletin or on a slide.
- Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Guests pay on Stripe's secure page with a credit card, debit card or digital wallet.
- Your name on the page
- Your logo sits at the top of the page, with the same funds your members can give to.
- On your website
- With a Lightpost website, add an Online Giving link that goes right to your page.
- Recorded for you
- Each gift is added under the person with that email, or a new visitor, and marked as a guest gift.
- A receipt by email
- Guests get a receipt by email, so they have a record of what they gave.
Built with guardrails
A public page can be reached by anyone, including scammers. Guest giving stays off until you turn it on and accept those risks, and nothing stops fraud completely. Here's what helps:
- A bot check before anyone can start a payment
- A limit on each gift, $2,000 unless you ask us to change it
- No prepaid cards or gift cards
- An automatic pause after a burst of declined cards, with an email to you and a button to resume
Your records
Every gift, already in your records.
Nobody re-types anything on Monday. When a gift comes in, it's recorded under the right person and fund, and each bank deposit is broken out for you.
- Recorded on its own
- Each online gift becomes a contribution in your records, tied to the giver and the fund.
- Contribution report
- Choose a date range and download your online gifts as a PDF or an Excel file.
- Payout report
- See each deposit to your bank and the gifts in it, as a PDF or an Excel file.
- Year-end statements
- Create contribution letters at the end of the year and email them to your givers.
- Your own funds
- Set up the categories people can give to, and hide the ones they can't.
- Dispute alerts
- If a gift is disputed with the card company, your billing contacts get an email and the contribution is marked.
Tracking checks, cash, expenses and budgets too? See the Financial Management tour.
Fees
Know what a gift costs before it's given.
One flat monthly fee turns on Online Giving. Transaction fees come out of each gift, and a bank account costs a lot less than a card.
- $24 per month turns on every Online Giving feature, including guest giving
- 2.9% + $0.40 for each credit or debit card gift
- 0.9% + $0.10 for each bank account (ACH) gift
- 0.25% of the total processed, as a payout fee to your bank
Transaction fees are charged by our payment processor, and lower rates can be negotiated at volume. See pricing.
Security
Payment details stay with Stripe.
Stripe processes every gift. Lightpost only holds a token that tells Stripe what to do, plus details like the last four digits so people can tell their cards apart. See how we protect everything else on our security page.
Card numbers go to Stripe
Card details are entered in Stripe's own secure fields, so full card numbers never reach Lightpost.
Bank details too
Bank accounts are added through Stripe, and Lightpost doesn't receive the full account or routing number.
Your own Stripe account
Gifts go to your church's Stripe account, and Stripe pays them out to your bank.
Giving stays private
Roles decide who can see online giving, and contribution amounts have their own permission.
Online Giving is an add-on you can turn on for your church. It has a flat monthly fee, plus transaction fees on each gift. The pricing page lists the current rates.
Yes. Stripe processes every gift. You connect your church's Stripe account from your admin, and you can create one along the way if you don't have one yet.
Gifts go to your church's own Stripe account, and Stripe pays them out to your bank account. Your Payout Report shows each deposit and the gifts in it.
Yes. Bank accounts, cards and recurring giving each have their own setting for member giving. Guest giving takes cards, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Bank account gifts cost much less to process: about $1.00 on a $100 gift, compared with $3.30 by card, before the payout fee.
Yes. It comes with Online Giving at no extra monthly cost and stays off until you turn it on. Guest gifts have the same card transaction fees.
We encourage members to give through their Lightpost account. It keeps their contributions together, and makes year-end statements easier. Guest giving is meant for visitors and friends of the church.
A public page can be reached by anyone. Someone could give with a stolen card and the charge could later be disputed, which takes the gift back along with a fee. We and Stripe both use anti-fraud measures, but nothing is 100%. Only ever refund a guest gift through Stripe, never by check, cash or a payment app.
Yes. Online gifts land in the same contributions as your checks and cash, so your budgets and weekly reports include them.
An add-on for any plan
Make giving easy, wherever people are.
Online Giving works with your directory and the free mobile app your members already use. Add it to any Lightpost plan.