Integrating with Stripe for online card payments

About Stripe

Stripe is an online card payment service provider that handles card payments for "pay" event tickets, online card donations and online booking charge payments. Regardless of the cardholder's local currency, card payments are always processed in the local currency set for your ChurchSuite account. No card details are maintained within ChurchSuite.

Stripe deducts a transaction fee for each card payment processed, with the 'net of fees' amount deposited in your designated bank account. Stripe makes card payouts to your designated bank account in batches and at a frequency set in your Stripe account settings. The Stripe Transfers report is designed to help you reconcile the payouts on your bank statement, providing a breakdown of gross payments, transaction fees, net payments and the total payout transfer amount.

UK customers: For eligible UK-registered nonprofit organisations, one-off and recurring card payments accepted through ChurchSuite via Stripe are subject to a 2.2% + 20p transaction fee for UK standard cards (higher fees apply to UK premium cards, EEA and International cards), comprising a 1.2% + 20p gateway fee to Stripe and a 1% application fee to ChurchSuite. To enquire about nonprofit eligibility, email support+prioritygb@stripe.com requesting Stripe's nonprofit pricing be applied to your account - you'll need to send the email from the email address linked to your Stripe account and cite your UK-registered charity name and number.

Stripe's standard UK pricing is 2.5% + 20p transaction fee for UK standard cards (higher fees apply to UK premium cards, EEA and International cards), comprising 1.5% + 20p gateway fee to Stripe and a 1% ChurchSuite application fee.

EU customers: Organisations are subject to Stripe's standard pricing of 2.5% + €0.25 transaction fee for EU standard cards (higher fees apply to EU premium cards and International cards), comprising 1.5% + €0.25 gateway fee to Stripe and a 1% ChurchSuite application fee.

AUS customers: Organisations are subject to Stripe's standard pricing of 2.7% + A$0.30 transaction fee for domestic cards (higher fees apply to international cards), comprising 1.7% + A$0.30 gateway fee to Stripe and 1% ChurchSuite application fee.

USA/CAN customers: Eligible US & Canadian nonprofit organisations can access a special charity rate of 2.9% + 30¢ (+1% for International cards). The transaction fee includes a 2.2% + 30¢ gateway fee to Stripe and a 0.7% ChurchSuite application fee. To enquire about your eligibility as a nonprofit, email nonprofit@stripe.com requesting Stripe's nonprofit pricing be applied to your account - you'll need to send the email from the email address linked to your Stripe account, citing your nonprofit organisation name and proof of IRS tax exemption.

For further information about transaction fees in other regions, refer to Stripe's website - remember to add the ChurchSuite application fee referred to above. The fees above are correct as of 23rd March 2025

Completing the Stripe integration

Navigate into the Integrations section of your Account Settings and click on the Stripe integration.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the Integration. To open a Stripe account, you will need some basic information about your organisation. Click Add account to begin the process.

The Stripe account form opens. You can Connect to an existing account and enter account login details when prompted, or click Create a new account and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the new account opening process.

Follow the remaining on-screen instructions to complete the account opening process. For a new account, you'll be required to enter an organisation email address and set a password for your account. When prompted, be careful to select the appropriate Business location and Type of business. For Non-profit organisations, select the appropriate Business structure.

During the account opening process, you'll be required to supply details about your organisation, contact details, the management or ownership stakeholders (e.g. owners, trustees or directors) and bank account details for payouts. If your organisation doesn't have a Company Number, enter 00000000 (eight zeros). Once the account is opened, you'll be required to verify certain company and stakeholder details before you can begin receiving payments and payouts. Your Stripe account dashboard will show details of any outstanding account verification.

Finally, click Agree and submit to complete the "Connected Account" linking between Stripe and ChurchSuite.

You will then be returned to the Stripe Integration page in ChurchSuite. Subject to any outstanding account verification required by Stripe, you are now ready to receive card payments. You can return to the Stripe integration page at any time should you need to make changes, for example, to Edit and update the Account name and local payment methods (see next section), Delete an account or Reset the integration entirely.

Enabling local payment methods

In addition to Card payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, the Stripe integration supports a range of local payment methods - Przelewy24, Bancontact, iDeal and EPS - based on your Account Country and Currency. The use of additional payment methods is subject to opt-in and may be subject to different transaction fees.

To enable other local payment methods, click Edit:

The Edit pop-up shows the available Payment methods. In the following UK example, only Card is supported (including Apple Pay and Google Pay):

However, this example is for the Netherlands. Select the appropriate payment methods from the list for your country and save the changes.

The selected payment methods will now be available to those making one-off online donations and paying for event tickets and booking charges.

Adding additional accounts

When integrating a single Stripe account, payouts for payments for all Giving Funds, Booking Types and Calendar Categories are made to the bank account designated in that Stripe account's settings. By integrating further Stripe accounts, payments for donations to selected Funds, booking charge payments for selected booking "Types", and ticket payments for selected event Categories can be paid out to different bank accounts. Here's how:

Working within the Stripe integration, click Add account.

Follow the earlier instructions to add additional accounts - either connecting another existing account from the list, creating a new Stripe account, or using the email address drop-down to Switch users to a different existing Stripe account. For each account, remember to click Agree and submit to complete the "Connected Account" linking between Stripe and ChurchSuite, after which you will be redirected back to the integration page.

The additional accounts are added to the Accounts list. The Default account is used for online donations to All funds, online booking charge payments for All types and online ticket sales for events in All categories. You can change the Default account by selecting Set as default from the account Actions of one of the other accounts listed.

You can also Edit a non-default account to assign payments for selected Giving Funds, Booking Types and Calendar Categories so that future card payments are paid out to the bank account linked to one of the other Stripe accounts. On the Edit pop-up, you can optionally change the Stripe account Name, choose local Payment methods, select the Funds, Types and Categories to be assigned to the Stripe account and click Save. All future card payments related to those funds/types/categories will now be paid out as Stripe Transfers to the bank account associated with that Stripe account.

Note: When assigning funds/types/categories to a different Stripe account or changing the Default account, any existing recurring donation pledges (and any card payments currently processing) will continue to be paid out to the original Stripe bank account they were first set up on. Changes to fund/type/category assignments or to the default Stripe account will only affect future card payments and new recurring donation pledges. If you wish for existing recurring card donation subscriptions to be directed to a different Stripe bank account, ask the giver to cancel their existing pledge and set up a new one.

In the example below, card payments for the "Building Project" Fund have been assigned to the second Stripe account. All other card payments for event tickets for all categories, bookings charge payments for all booking types and donations for all other funds remain assigned to the Default Stripe account.

Resetting the Stripe integration

Should it become necessary - and only if advised to do so by ChurchSuite Support - you can Delete an integrated account or Reset the Stripe integration entirely. You should consider carefully the following consequences before taking this action:

• Payment requests for existing recurring donation pledges linked to the Stripe account will stop.
• 'Card' will no longer show as a donation method in Donate, and people will be unable to pay online for event tickets and booking charges.
• Givers will be unable to manage their pledges using the 'Manage giving' link found in My ChurchSuite and pledge confirmation emails.
• Users will be unable to manage a giver's pledge from the Pledges tab of a giver's profile.
• The Stripe Transfers report will cease collecting details of future Stripe payouts.
• The Online Donations and Subscriptions report will no longer show live data from Stripe.
• If a Stripe account is later reintegrated and pledges are still active in the Stripe account, pledge donations will resume being collected from those givers and added to the Giving module.

To reset the integration, navigate to the Stripe integration in the Integrations section of your Account Settings and click Reset: