Setting up online giving

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. Setting it up takes about five minutes, and once you're done, gifts flow directly to your church's bank account. Psalmly never holds your money.

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. Only a church's lead or admin can do this.

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. Stripe will ask for:

• Your church's legal name and address.
• A representative — a real person authorized to manage the account (often the pastor, treasurer, or an administrator).
• The bank account where payouts should be deposited.
• Tax information, such as your EIN and nonprofit status, for accurate reporting.

Everything is entered on Stripe's encrypted pages. When you finish, Stripe sends you back to your Giving page automatically.

The setup states

Your Giving page always shows where you stand, and it updates on its own as Stripe works:

• Not set up — you haven't started yet. Click Begin setup.
• In progress — you've started but a few details remain. 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, and the page flips to Active on its own the moment Stripe finishes — no need to refresh or come back and check.
• Active — giving is live. Members can now give to your funds.
• Action needed — Stripe needs a bit more information to keep things running. The page shows exactly what to resolve, and a button takes you straight there.

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, 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 bank-grade security and PCI compliance — 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.