Setting up online giving
How to turn on online giving — what to gather first, the personal details Stripe requires and why, what to use if your church has no website, the setup states you'll move through, and how money reaches your church's bank without Psalmly ever holding it.
Read the transcript
Let's turn on online giving. It runs through Stripe, and the money goes straight to your church's bank — Psalmly never holds it. Before you start, have these on hand: the church's EIN, its tax ID number, and its bank's routing and account numbers. Then one person who can act for the church, often the pastor or treasurer: their date of birth, home address, and the last four digits of their Social Security number. If that's not you, sit down together before you begin.
Your setup guide shows this step. Press Set up online giving. On the free plan, Psalmly adds a small platform fee to each online gift; paid plans have none. Stripe's processing fee applies on every plan. When you're ready, press Begin setup with Stripe.
On Stripe's secure pages, start with an email. It becomes your church's Stripe sign-in. We've filled in what we know, like your address, phone and published website, and set your church up as a nonprofit, so Stripe won't ask who owns it. What's left, only you can give: the church's legal name and EIN, that person's details, and the bank account. Last, you review and agree to Stripe's terms. Need to stop? Stripe saves what you've entered.
Stripe then brings you back to your Giving page. If you stopped partway, it lists what Stripe still needs, in plain words. Press Continue setup to pick up where you left off. Once everything's in, it says Pending review. That means Stripe is checking what you sent, and there's nothing for you to do. When it's finished, we'll email you, and your Giving page will show Active.
Now your website gets a Give button on its own, and members can give in the app. When your first gift comes in, it shows up here, under Recent gifts. Open it to see the processing fee, and what reaches your church. Stripe pays it out to your bank. That's it — online giving is on.
Online giving lets your members give tithes and gifts right inside Psalmly — by card or straight from a bank account. You'll find it under Giving in the admin sidebar. Once you're done, gifts flow directly to your church's bank account. Psalmly never holds your money.
The setup itself is short. What takes the time is gathering a few pieces of paperwork Stripe is required to ask for — so it's worth reading the next section before you begin, rather than starting and having to stop halfway.
How giving works, in plain terms
Psalmly's giving runs on Stripe, the same payment company trusted by millions of businesses and nonprofits. When you set up giving, you're creating a secure Stripe account that belongs to your church. From then on:
- Members give through Psalmly, and the money settles into your church's bank account on a regular schedule.
- Your church is the merchant of record — the gifts are yours, and so is the relationship with Stripe.
- Psalmly never touches the money. It moves from the giver straight to your bank; we just make the experience simple on both sides.
Starting setup
Open Giving in the admin sidebar and click Begin setup with Stripe. This is limited to lead admins and to admins a lead has given finance access — other admins don't see the Giving page at all.
You'll be handed off to Stripe's own secure, hosted setup. This is where you provide the details a financial account requires — there's no Psalmly form trying to re-create it, because your banking information should live with Stripe, not with us.
Everything is entered on Stripe's encrypted pages. When you finish, Stripe sends you back to your Giving page automatically. Stripe saves your progress, so you can stop and pick it up again — but it's much less frustrating to have everything ready first.
What to have ready
About the church:
- Its legal name, as it appears on your bank account and tax paperwork.
- Your EIN. If you don't know it offhand, it's on your W-9 or on the paperwork from opening the church's bank account.
- The bank account where gifts should be deposited — routing and account numbers.
Psalmly fills in the rest from your church's details, so Stripe doesn't ask: the church's address and phone number, its website once it's published, and what the gifts are for. If something is missing from your church's details, Stripe asks for it instead. If it asks for the name givers will see on their bank statements, your church's name is the usual choice.
About one person — this is the one that catches people out:
Stripe requires a named representative on the account: someone authorized to act on the church's behalf. Usually the pastor, the treasurer, or a board officer. For that person, Stripe asks for their full name, date of birth, home address, and the last four digits of their Social Security number.
That surprises people, so it's worth saying plainly: this is a federal requirement for any organization that accepts money online — not a Psalmly rule. Every giving platform asks the same thing. Stripe uses it to verify that a real, accountable person stands behind the account, and nothing else.
If that person isn't you, it's far easier to sit down together than to start the form and stop partway through.
"It's asking for our website and we don't have one"
Stripe asks every account for a business website, and most small churches don't have one. If your website is published when you click Begin setup with Stripe, Psalmly gives Stripe its address for you, and Stripe won't ask.
If Stripe does ask, you don't need to go build anything. Your church's Psalmly website is a real
website, and it works for this. Its web address looks like yourchurch.psalmly.app. Your Giving
page shows you the exact address and gives you a button to copy it, so you can paste it straight
into Stripe. If your website is still a draft, publish it first: its address doesn't open until
you do.
The setup states
Your Giving page always shows where you stand, and it updates on its own as Stripe works:
- Online giving not set up — you haven't started yet. Click Begin setup with Stripe. (On the Community and Growth plans, recording cash and check offerings already works in this state.)
- In progress — you've started, but Stripe's form isn't finished, so your church can't receive online gifts yet. The checklist on your Giving page lists what Stripe is still waiting on, in plain words, under the step it belongs to — the representative's date of birth, the bank account, and so on. Pick up where you left off; Stripe saves your progress.
- Pending review — everything's submitted and Stripe is verifying it. This usually takes anywhere from a few minutes to a day. If it finishes within the first minute or two, the page flips to Active on its own; otherwise, come back and reload your Giving page to see the new status.
- Active — giving is live. Members can now give to your funds. Occasionally Stripe finishes verifying your charging ability before your payout details; if so the page says so plainly, gifts are held safely in your Stripe balance, and payouts start as soon as Stripe clears the rest.
- Action needed — you finished Stripe's form, and Stripe has come back needing something more. The page tells you whether your church can still receive gifts in the meantime, lists exactly what to resolve, and a button takes you straight there.
- Account disconnected — if you ever disconnect Psalmly from inside your Stripe dashboard, giving pauses and the page offers Reconnect with Stripe. Your history stays safe, but any recurring gifts keep running on your Stripe account, where Psalmly can no longer show or stop them — so cancel them in Psalmly first if you're winding online giving down.
Your giving funds exist from the moment your church does, so you can define them at any point — before, during, or after setup. See Managing giving funds. The same is true of recording cash and check offerings on the Community and Growth plans, which never requires Stripe at all — see Recording cash and check gifts.
Your Stripe dashboard
Because the account is genuinely your church's, you also get a full Stripe dashboard of your own. Day-to-day, you'll manage everything inside Psalmly — but the deeper, sensitive tasks live in Stripe, where they belong:
- Changing your payout bank or payout schedule.
- Handling disputes or issuing refunds.
- Updating tax documents and representatives.
Wherever one of those comes up, Psalmly gives you a clear link straight into your Stripe dashboard. You sign in there with the Stripe login you created during setup.
Is it secure?
Yes. Card and bank details are entered on Stripe's own pages and handled under the PCI Data Security Standard — they never pass through Psalmly's systems, and neither you nor we ever see a full card or account number. That's the whole point of building on Stripe.
Once you're live, head to Managing giving funds to set up what members can give toward, and Payouts, fees, and where your money goes to understand the money side.