Payment Processing · Buyer guide
Most church giving platforms quote a rate that looks like everyone else's: something close to 3% plus 30 cents. The differences show up when you put the same gift through each one, and they are larger than the headline rates suggest. On a $100 online card gift, the fee runs from about $2.30 to $5.29. On a one-time $1,000 gift paid from a bank account, it runs from 30 cents to $25.
We read the published pricing of the giving platforms the site has reviewed, the general-purpose processors churches also use, and the card networks' interchange schedules. Prices are as published on 2 October 2026. Where a platform does not publish a price, we say so.
The figures below are for a $100 gift made online with a Visa, Mastercard or Discover card. American Express usually costs more.
For context, two giving platforms the site has not reviewed publish lower or similar rates: Planning Center Giving charges 2.15% + 30 cents ($2.45 on the same gift) on top of a subscription that is free for up to 10 donations a month and costs $15 to $239 a month above that, and Givelify charges 2.9% + 30 cents ($3.20).
On a church receiving $20,000 a month in card gifts at an average of $100, the gap between $2.45 and $3.20 a gift is $150 a month; after Planning Center's $32-a-month subscription for up to 200 gifts, the saving is $118 a month, or $1,416 a year. Between $3.20 and $4.79 it is $3,816 a year.
Regular givers who set up a weekly or monthly gift from a bank account are the cheapest donors to process, and the platforms price them very differently. What matters most is whether the fee is capped, because on a percentage fee every large gift costs more.
Tithely runs its payments on Stripe, which charges its own direct customers 0.8% capped at $5 for the same kind of payment. A church that moves its large givers onto bank transfers saves most on a platform with a cap or a flat per-gift fee.
Every card gift carries interchange, the fee the donor's bank receives, and the processor adds its own margin on top. The card networks set lower interchange for some kinds of organization. Which organizations count is where sources disagree.
Wells Fargo's merchant services qualification matrix, effective April 2026, lists Visa's "CPS/Charity and Religious Organizations" program as open to "Charitable and Social Service Organizations (MCC 8398) and Religious Organizations (MCC 8661)", at 1.30% to 1.35% plus 5 cents on consumer credit cards, rewards and premium cards included. A Bank of America Visa schedule from April 2023 lists the same two codes and adds that the organization must be recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3). Visa's own published rate table, effective 18 April 2026, shows the charity rate at 1.35% + 5 cents but does not list which merchant category codes qualify. At least one processor's published guidance says only MCC 8398 qualifies, so ask your own processor which reading it applies.
Mastercard is narrower. The same Wells Fargo matrix lists Mastercard's charity program for MCC 8398 only, and Mastercard's own April 2026 schedule shows the charity rate at 2.00% + 10 cents on every consumer credit tier. A church coded 8661 would not qualify for Mastercard's charity rate.
On a $100 Visa credit card gift, the charity rate is $1.40 of interchange. You only benefit if two things are true: your merchant account carries MCC 8661, and your processor charges you interchange plus a margin rather than a flat percentage. On a flat 2.9% + 30 cents, the church pays $3.20 whatever the interchange was. On Helcim's interchange-plus pricing, an online gift costs interchange plus 0.50% + 25 cents at under $50,000 a month in card volume, which on the same gift is about $2.15 before the networks' own small assessment fees.
If you want to see which rates you are actually paying, our guide to reading a merchant processing statement walks through where interchange and markup appear. A flat-rate giving app will not show you interchange at all, which is the point of a flat rate: it is simpler, and you pay for the simplicity.
Most giving platforms let a donor add the processing fee to the gift so the church receives the full amount. Pushpay, Tithely, Blackbaud and several platforms the site has not reviewed offer it. The uptake figures are the platforms' own: Tithely says "about 60% of donors" choose to cover the fee, and its help centre says the option is enabled by default, though donors can switch it off at the point of giving.
Blackbaud runs a different model it calls Complete Cover. Blackbaud pays the fees on eligible transactions under 3,000 in the organization's home currency, and the donor is invited to add an extra amount. That extra amount goes to Blackbaud, not the church, and Blackbaud's help page says it is not tax-deductible. Your donors should be told that plainly.
Visa defines a surcharge as a fee a merchant adds to a consumer's bill for using a particular form of payment, allows it on credit cards only and caps it at the lower of the merchant's card-acceptance cost or 3%. Its published surcharging guidance does not address an optional amount a donor can decline. Our guide to surcharging rules covers what the networks and states require of businesses that do surcharge. For a church, the safe course is to keep the fee optional, show the amount before the gift is confirmed, and ask the platform how it treats the feature.
PayPal's confirmed-charity rate of 1.99% + 49 cents is among the lowest published donation rates, and it requires the organization to be "a valid US 501(c)(3) or equivalent" with proof that the account holder is authorized to run the account. That can be awkward for a church. The IRS says churches that meet the requirements of Section 501(c)(3) "are automatically considered tax exempt and are not required to apply for" recognition, and its current search tool, Tax Exempt Organization Search, warns that churches and churches covered by a group ruling may not be listed. Under a group ruling, only the parent organization is listed by name.
PayPal publishes nothing church-specific. The United Methodist Church's finance council tells its congregations that PayPal generally accepts a denomination's group-ruling letter but "does not always accept" it, because PayPal cannot confirm the church's EIN in the IRS search tool. A church that has its own IRS determination letter is in the simplest position. Stripe's nonprofit discount asks for an EIN or an IRS confirmation letter in the same way.
The rate is not the only thing you sign up to. The terms differ more than the rates do.
