A practical guide to online giving for your parish

Your parishioners carry phones, not checkbooks. Online giving is no longer a nice-to-have — it's how a growing share of the offertory actually arrives. Done well, it lifts giving, smooths cash flow, and frees your office from counting and re-keying. Here's how to set it up the right way.

Start with the two weekend collections

Most parishes have a regular offering plus, on many Sundays, a second or special collection — a mission appeal, the building fund, the Holy Land. A good online offertory captures both at once, so a parishioner can give to each in a single visit. Printing a QR code for each Mass makes it one tap from the pew.

Make recurring the default

One-time gifts are good; recurring gifts are transformative. They steady your monthly income and quietly raise total giving, because the decision is made once. Saving a card securely means the next gift takes seconds — so make recurring an easy, obvious option, not buried in a menu.

Mind the fees

Every processor charges a fee. What matters is who pays it and whether your platform adds a cut on top. A pass-through model lets the donor cover the processing fee so the parish nets the full gift, and a platform that charges a 0% platform fee (you pay only the processor's standard rate) keeps more in the parish.

Don't forget planned and legacy giving

The largest gifts a parish will ever receive rarely come through the basket. Appreciated stock, IRA charitable rollovers (QCDs) for those 70½+, donor-advised funds, employer matching, and bequests through a will are tax-smart paths most parishes never surface. A simple 'Ways to Give' page makes them visible — and they can dwarf any single Sunday.

Getting started

• Pick a platform that handles both weekend collections, recurring gifts, and saved cards.
• Set up your funds (offering, building, special collections) so gifts are categorized for finance.
• Print a QR code for each Mass and put it in the bulletin and on the website.
• Announce it warmly — from the ambo and in the bulletin — and show how easy it is.
• Add a 'Ways to Give' page for stock, IRA, DAF, and legacy gifts.

Nave does all of this in one place — online offertory with both collections, recurring gifts, saved cards, a Ways-to-Give hub, and a 0% platform fee — in every language your community speaks.