Getting started with the Giving module

Introduction to the Giving module

Welcome to the ChurchSuite Giving module! This module is designed to help manage the donations you receive and the givers who have them. The Giving module also includes support for claiming Gift Aid (for UK customers only) and Tax Deductible donations (North America). Through the Giving module, you can track levels of engagement, manage common admin workflows, communicate and report easily. This article is designed to provide you with a broad overview of the Giving module's functionality and highlight key features that may be useful to you, your finance team in their roles and to your church.

We encourage you to read this article in full to familiarise yourself with the module's key features and the customisation options available and to acquaint yourself with some of the basic concepts and terminology you'll see within the module and our other Giving module support articles.

Next Steps

Review the module's settings: Head into the module settings via the cogwheel icon in the top right-hand corner. Review the settings, including module name, module password, additional donation methods you may use, custom fields and your HMRC credentials if you have them and plan to use ChurchSuite to prepare Gift Aid claims. Also review the settings in the My ChurchSuite and Donate tabs.

Create Funds: Check out this Support Article for more information.

Add or import Givers: Check out our related Support Articles for more information. If you have Gift Aid declarations for your Givers, add these too - this Support Article tells you how.

Add or import Donations: Check out this Support Article for more information.

Use Reports to analyse information: Once you've added Givers and Donations, take a look at the various reports available.

Check out our short training videos...

Terminology

Here's a list of terms you may see across the ChurchSuite modules and in our support articles:

Donations refer to each instance of giving, which can be recorded within ChurchSuite. Donations can be manually added or imported (e.g. from a bank statement). Donations made through Donate are automatically recorded against the Giver.
Funds help to distinguish what people are giving to - for example, general tithes or a special offering for a building project or restricted funds.
Givers are people who make donations. Each giver's profile can optionally be linked to someone within your ChurchSuite Address Book. (Note that giving details only appear to users with Giving module access).
Claims refer to an individual Gift Aid claim being prepared and submitted to HMRC.
Pledges refer to commitments made by Givers to give a certain amount regularly or over a specified period of time. Pledges can either be added through ChurchSuite Donate or through My ChurchSuite, or by a module user.
Donate refers to ChurchSuite's online Giving platform, through which Givers can give via card or direct debit, depending on the integrations you've set up.

Giving module features at a glance

Create unlimited funds against which donations can be assigned
Add new givers or import existing ones
Giver profile pages with everything in one view
Manage Gift Aid declarations (the UK only), upload scanned declarations and store electronically-signed declarations added by a giver through the member-facing My ChurchSuite
Categorise and group givers using Tags
Record internal-only notes against givers
Use Flows to process givers through your common admin workflows and receive reminders when tasks become due or overdue.
Add or import donations (perhaps from a bank statement) individually or in batches - intuitive functionality that integrates seamlessly into your financial admin processes
Receive one-off and recurring online donations by card and direct debit through ChurchSuite's online giving platform called "Donate"
Pledge management functionality
Process Gift Aid claims (the UK only) and submit online direct to HMRC, and handle overclaims and refunds
Support for tax-deductible donations (North America and some other non-UK customers)
Communicate with givers by Email and SMS (sending in real-time or scheduling communications) or produce address labels
Wide range of standard reports or perform custom reporting using Smart Tags or the Table Generator
Perform batch updates of information to multiple givers
Archive givers that have moved on from your community or set them active again if they return
Module functionality designed with GDPR best compliance and accounting standards in mind
Givers linked to their Address Book profile can access the 'My ChurchSuite' member-facing platform - designed to promote community engagement, enable people to keep their details up to date, view all your communications in one place and communicate with one another. They can also view their historical donations, add pledges, add Gift Aid declarations (the UK only) and make online donations through ChurchSuite Donate
'Change logs' to help you stay on top of all the changes being made by your Users or members
Multi-site support - assign each giver to a site, perhaps where a "site" represents your different communities, projects or locations (e.g. different worshipping locations for church services or different projects for a charity)
Accessible through any browser or via the free iOS or Android "ChurchSuite" app

Got a question?

You’ll find the answers to most questions in our support articles - they're all available through the Support beacon located in the bottom-right corner of each page in the Giving module - just search by topic, phrase or keyword. You can also access the Support Article library on our website. And if you still can't find something you're looking for, click to get in touch with one of the ChurchSuite team - we’re happy to help!