5 best church donation tracking software for 2024

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Faith-based organizations—including local churches, national networks, and religious nonprofits—receive millions of dollars in charitable contributions each month. In fact, Americans annually donate over $100 billion to religious organizations. 

With so many incoming donations given to churches and Christian nonprofits annually, pastors and their staff deserve a simple means of tracking tithes and contributions. 

In this guide, we take a look at the top church donation tracking software to help you select the best option for your organization.

Why church donation tracking is important

Ask any church treasurer, bookkeeper, or administrative assistant, and they’ll tell you how much they need straightforward processes to easily track the incoming cash flow, acknowledge active donors, and analyze their giving patterns to maintain a positive financial standing.

Church donation tracking software empowers clergy to identify current giving trends and analyze historical donation patterns. This information empowers church leaders to make educated decisions to advance their fundraising strategy, whether it’s increasing calls to action during services or introducing alternative donation gateways, such as online giving solutions. 

Church giving tracking software helps save significant time, energy, and resources on financial reporting and related administrative tasks. Not to mention, 501(c)(3) churches and other faith-based nonprofits should regularly compile financial reports in order to maintain transparency and avoid any fraud or embezzlement. 

What to look for in church donation tracking software

Though traditional offering plates are ideal for in-person services, and cash and paper check donations can be accepted in person or through the mail, online donations are now the primary way people give to churches.

Here are the key features that your staff should look for when evaluating church software for tracking donations. 

• Online & physical donation tools. With a rise in virtual services and digital donations, it’s wise to seek church accounting software that supports both in-person and online donation tools, as well as accepts and tracks a variety of payment methods including debit cards, credit cards, cash, checks, Apple Pay, etc. 
  
  
• Compliance & security features. Keep your church and members’ information safe and confidential. Any tracking software that handles sensitive financial data must have robust compliance and security features, so be sure to seek software that’s Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant and protected by encryption technology.
  
  
• Church & congregational customer service capabilities. Friendly customer service is helpful for rolling out new software solutions for tracking donations; however, it’s equally important for any donor payment questions or concerns.
  
  
• Available software integrations. Now that many modern churches and nonprofits have digitized their church and donor management tools, the ability to seamlessly integrate new church software with existing applications, like your favorite accounting tools, is key. This makes it easier to complete church bookkeeping tasks, like your monthly bank reconciliation.
  
  
• Associated expenses & setup fees. Stick to your technology budget when sourcing a church giving tracking software—while many are “free,” their hidden transaction and platform fees can quickly inflate the total costs of a new solution.

Top 5 church donation tracking software

Here’s an overview of the top solutions for churches, including features, costs, as well as pros and cons for each giving tracking software.

1. Subsplash 

Subsplash Giving is a comprehensive online giving solution specifically built for churches. The platform offers a suite of features for churches to manage and track donations effectively. This includes real-time analytics on giving trends, donor management tools, and the ability to create custom giving reports. You can dive deeper into month-over-month donations, trends, and payment methods, and compile and send out year-end tax statements with ease. 

Subsplash Giving also empowers your donors to easily edit their account, view their giving history, update their payment methods, and more. They can set up recurring giving to ensure they never miss a chance to give, and choose the donor-covered-fee option, making sure that your church keeps 100% of their donations. 

Subsplash Giving is easy to use and allows donations through various channels like your church's app, website, SMS, and even during your live streams. It supports a range of payment methods including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH. You can also accept donations from guests and log cash and check donations with the Donation Entry feature. Even better, churches that use Subsplash Giving can transform a tablet into a giving kiosk to collect cashless donations at any time in your lobby or other public setting. 

Pros

• No monthly fees: Subsplash Giving does not charge a monthly subscription fee. Transaction fee rates decrease as the volume of online giving increases. 
• No extra fees: Many giving providers charge extra fees for using their platform, issuing refunds, and monitoring security. With Subsplash, you get these same benefits without additional fees. 
• Onboarding support: You can expect to receive support and onboarding resources in order to switch from another giving platform or start online giving for the first time. 
• Multiple ways to give: You can collect donations on mobile, web, and by text as well as Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, cash, and checks. 
• Donor-covered fees: Give your donors the option of covering all processing fees to ensure your church receives 100% of their giving. 
• Security & compliance: Subsplash Giving provides the highest level of security and compliance with it being PCI Level 1, SOC1, and SSAE 16 compliant. 
• Text-to-give & kiosk features: Subsplash includes extra features like SMS giving and kiosk functionality at no additional cost. 

Cons

• Focused on churches: The features and services are tailored specifically for churches, which may not be as suitable for other types of nonprofit organizations.

Pricing 

Subsplash Giving has no setup costs or monthly fees. Their card processing rates are as low as 1.9% for credit cards and 0.5% for ACH payments, thanks to the GrowCurve feature. You can lower the processing rates even further by activating features that allow donors to cover the transaction fees.

2. Donorbox

Known as the “fundraising engine of choice for 50,000 organizations,” Donorbox has a suite of church donation tracking features that offer congregations the tools they need to keep funds flowing. Donorbox MinistryMatters, in particular, is catered to church fundraising. 

Donorbox accepts more than 40 currencies, integrates with any website or website builder, and connects to 2,000 apps for a seamless donation-tracking experience. Their platform offers donor-facing features, like automatic tax receipts and notifications for donor milestones (like sign-up anniversaries), so they can be acknowledged for their contributions. There are also donor filters for churches to easily track donation frequency and the average amounts.

Pros

• Zapier integrations: Donorbox integrates with over 2,000 cloud-based applications and software programs through Zapier. (Note: many of their add-on integrations are only available with a monthly fee.) 
• Currencies: Donorbox is one of the only church donation tracking software to accept crypto and stock donations, as well as 44+ currencies and all major payment methods, including ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, and more. 
• Ability to waive fees: Donor forms can ask donors to cover all transaction fees, meaning 100% of donations go towards the church or nonprofit.  
• Company matching: Donorbox has several recurring donation options, including a ‘company matching’ feature that can double gifts from local businesses and trade groups.
• Security & compliance: With 24/7 automated security monitoring, fraud prevention, and encryption technology, Donorbox protects church finances, including donor payment details. 

Cons

• Clunky user interface (UI): Some users report challenges toggling through various Donorbox menus and claim that reports may not be as detailed as desired. 
• Additional fees: Donorbox charges an extra 1.75% platform fee for each donation on top of their regular credit card processing fees, an additional monthly $19 or $50 for text-to-give, and $50 each month for their kiosk functionality. 
• Limited data analytics: Detailed data analytics reports for church donations are not included in the free base price and are an extra fee, which can inflate technology budgets. 
• Difficulty exporting data: Though Donorbox deploys several integrations, users report challenges when exporting data and syncing with systems that lack explicit integrations. 
• Restricted customer support: Faith-based organizations that utilize the free version of Donorbox claim that customer service is very restricted compared to paid plans. 

Pricing

A standard Donorbox Plan is free for up to five team members. Each transaction is charged a 1.75% platform in addition to their 2.9% + $0.30 credit card processing fee. An upgraded Pro Plan is $139 monthly and supports 10 team members.

3. Gyve

Tailored to the unique needs of churches and congregations, Gyve is a popular free church giving tracking software. Donors can track their giving history at any time by logging into their account. 

Gyve also empowers churches to fundraise better and faster, allowing members to give daily through a simple Round-Up feature on recurring purchases. Churches can automatically send branded confirmation emails to donors, as well as create monthly, quarterly, or annual tax receipts.

Pros

• Daily deposits: Gyve enables churches to deposit funds into their accounts daily. 
• Sync all donations: With an understanding that many donations are physical cash or checks, your team can track offline and online giving in one dashboard.
• Automatic weekly insights: Gyve automatically creates weekly summary reports, so faith-based organizations can seamlessly track progress against budget or donation goals.
• Simple refunds & reconciliations: Payments made through Gyve can be refunded at any time, and both the church and the donor are instantly notified when payment is reconciled. 
• No hidden fees: Gyve only provides free plans, meaning there are no minimums, direct contracts, or donation commitments to get started. 

Cons

• Processing fees: Though there are no hidden fees, Gyve implements a 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction processing charge for each donation, which can eat into the funds raised. 
• Confusing UI: Many Gyve users point out that the interface is not intuitive and there is a significant learning curve when discovering the available features.
• Limited integrations: Gyve integrates with some church planning software, such as Church Community Builder and Planning Center, but lacks integrations for member management.
• Minimal analytics filters: While some current Gyve users enjoy the software’s reporting features, they cite a lack of filters that would simplify drilling into donor data.
• Lack of segmentation: Gyve supports automatic donor thank-you messages; however, churches may prefer to control the verbiage and frequency of messages for members who make one-time donations versus recurring donors.

Pricing

Gyve is completely free to set up, though the software does incur a 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction processing charge for each donation. 

4. Snowball Fundraising

Snowball Fundraising is touted as the number one “all-in-one fundraising platform” and may be an option for churches looking for new ways to raise donations. What’s most unique about their platform is their software’s auction features. Churches can list items for auction, add photos and descriptions, select bid increments, and allow members to bid online or by texting the name of the item. When the auction ends, the receipts are instantly sent. 

Snowball Fundraising’s outbound text messaging and mobile features also extend to the platform’s Supporter Outreach tools, which include email marketing and interactive QR codes. Churches can even create custom QR codes to track member donations from each campaign. 

Pros

• Text-to-give: Snowball Fundraising allows churches to select a local, toll-free, or short code number as their custom Text-to-Give number to collect donations. 
• Unlimited fundraising campaigns: Even with a free plan, Snowball Fundraising empowers churches to create unlimited campaigns, each with a unique URL to share online. 
• Segmented member marketing: Referred to as Supporter Lists, Snowball Fundraising groups donors by campaign activity and donation frequency to personalize marketing.
• Automatic thank-you notes: Snowball Fundraising helps keep track of top donors and frequent supporters to send automated updates and thank-you notes.
• Campaign-specific reports: Churches can choose to track donations for the week, month, or quarter, or pull reports of campaign-specific donations to gauge progress.

Cons

• Difficulty reconciling deposits: Many users have pointed out that the deposit details provided do not always account for transaction activity, especially when issuing refunds.
• Lack of member management: Without church management software (ChMS) tools, Snowball Fundraising makes it a challenge to extract a consolidated donor list. 
• Disjointed mandatory fields: Email is a mandatory field for the donor database on Snowball Fundraising, which can be tricky for churches that accept mostly cash and checks.
• Limitations in payment: Members are not able to add multiple bank accounts for various fundraising campaigns, which can limit the donation potential for families and businesses.

Pricing

The Essential Snowball Fundraising Plan is $0 per year, though it does incur a 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction processing fee. The $55 per month Premium Plan adds in unlimited Text-to-Give Campaigns, whereas the $85 per month Professional Plan includes unlimited auctions. 

5. Donately

Donately offers a detailed church donation tracking software with a robust dashboard that provides valuable insights into donation data at a glance, including the most active donors, common donation amounts, and current campaign progress. 

The Donately dashboard also allows for real-time filtering, so churches can set date limits and gift types to narrow in and create reports on specific donor segments. Likewise, Donately can serve as a church’s hub for tracking all member details and behaviors or integrate with dozens of other tools.

Pros

• Seamless dashboard & UI: The Donately dashboard has been designed to give church leaders the data they need at a moment’s notice, saving time searching for insights. 
• Quick to set up: With saving time at the top of mind, Donately takes just five minutes to sign up. 
• Granular data insights: Donately has various filters to sift through donor data, including the average donation amount and the highest volume day of the week.
• Multiple ways to donate: Donately supports text-to-give functionality, event fundraising, scheduled tithes, and peer-to-peer fundraising, which allows congregation members to create their own fundraising campaigns for your church to share online.
• Excellent customer service: Aside from a speedy setup, Donately is also preferred for its leading customer service, which includes training resources and live chat support.

Cons

• No direct integrations: Though Donately supports tons of integrations, none are direct and all are set up through and powered by Zapier. 
• Lack of customizations: Current Donately users cite a lack of different templates and customization options for donation receipts as a drawback in the donation experience. 
• Confusing fee breakdown: While Donately powers detailed donor reports, the fee breakdown for payment processing often lacks key details that can sway the total budget. 
• Staggered processing fees: Donately processing fees are the highest for unpaid plans, which can inflate the technology budget for smaller churches and local organizations. 
• Minimal marketing features: Donately can help to segment donors, however, it lacks internal or integrable marketing features to enhance fundraising efforts. 

Pricing

Donately offers a Free plan that includes donor and donation reporting for a 4% processing fee per transaction. The Starter Plan, which includes embeddable donor forms, is $15 per month and has a 3.5% processing fee, while the $49 per month Team Plan is more customizable with a 2% fee. 

Grow donations with trusted church donation tracking software 

Donations are the lifeblood of faith-based organizations. However, they’ve become increasingly challenging to manage. With robust church donation tracking software, organizations can streamline and scale member donations.  

The best giving solutions, like Subsplash Giving, give you the added benefits of detailed analytics and reporting, so you can gauge donation trends over time. [.blog-contact-cta]Book your free demo today[.blog-contact-cta] to learn more about how Subsplash can help you increase generosity and better understand your donors!

More resources you may find helpful

• 5 free church offering templates to track donations
• 7 best church accounting software: Pros, cons, & costs
• Church Budgeting Guide [ebook]
• Free Church Health Assessment Tool
• New! Apple Pay & Google Pay giving on the Subsplash Platform