Connect Stripe, open your giving page, record cash and checks in batches, track pledges, and send year-end giving statements.
Phyle keeps every gift in one place, whether it came through your giving page, the offering plate or the mail. This guide covers online gifts, cash and checks, recurring gifts, pledges, statements and refunds.
Only Administrators and Staff can see giving, and only an administrator can connect Stripe. See roles and permissions.
Connect Stripe
Online gifts are processed by Stripe and paid straight into your church's bank account. Phyle never holds the money and adds no fee to gifts. You pay only Stripe's own processing fees.
- Go to Settings › Connections and find the Online giving card.
- Select Connect with Stripe.
- Stripe opens. Sign in to your church's Stripe account, or create one. Stripe asks for your church's details and bank account.
- When you finish, Stripe sends you back to Phyle with the message "Stripe is connected."
There are no keys to copy. Gifts are taken by your church's own Stripe account, so your name appears on givers' bank statements. Payouts, refunds and disputes are managed in Stripe: select Open Stripe on the same card.
To stop taking gifts online, select Disconnect. The giving page closes until you connect again. Recurring gifts keep running in Stripe, but their payments won't appear in Phyle while it's disconnected.
Funds and your giving page
Every gift goes into one fund. Your church starts with four funds: General Fund, Missions, Building Fund and Benevolence. Go to Giving › Funds to rename them or select Add a fund.
Three switches on each fund matter most:
- Active: turn off to retire a fund without losing its history. A fund with gifts can't be deleted, so do this instead.
- Tax-deductible: gifts to this fund appear on year-end statements.
- Offered online: people can choose this fund on the giving page. Its Description is shown there too.
Your giving page
Your giving page lives at your church's address followed by /give, for example gracechurch.phyle.org/give. Givers don't need to sign in.
Givers choose an amount, how often (One time, Weekly, Every two weeks or Monthly) and, if more than one fund is offered online, where it should go. They then select Continue to payment and finish on Stripe's secure page. Online gifts run from $1 to $100,000.
When the payment goes through, Phyle records the gift and emails the giver a receipt. If the giver's email matches someone in People, the gift goes on their record. Otherwise Phyle adds them as a new visitor.
If the page says "Online giving isn't available yet," Stripe isn't connected or no active fund has Offered online turned on. Signed-in staff see a note on that page saying which.
Record cash and checks
For a single gift, go to Giving › Gifts and select Record a gift.
- Choose the Giver, or leave it empty for an anonymous gift.
- Enter the Date received, Method (Cash, Check, Card, ACH / Bank transfer, Online or Other) and Check number if there is one.
- Choose the fund and amount. To split one check across funds, select Split across another fund.
- Add a Note if you like, then select Record gift.
You can also record a gift from someone's profile: open their record and choose Record gift from the menu.
Batches for Sunday's offering
A batch is one deposit's worth of gifts, keyed in together and balanced against your count.
- Go to Giving › Batches and select Start a batch.
- Give it a Batch name and Deposit date. If you have a count sheet, fill in the Expected total and Expected number of gifts.
- Select Start entering gifts.
- For each gift, type the giver's name or envelope number, then the fund, amount, method and check number, and select Add gift.
- Phyle shows how far you are from the expected totals and tells you when the batch balances.
- Select Deposit summary for a printable sheet to take to the bank.
- Select Close batch. Closing locks the gifts so they keep matching the deposit.
If a closed batch needs fixing, an administrator can select Reopen, make the change and close it again.
Recurring gifts
Givers set up recurring gifts themselves on your giving page by choosing Weekly, Every two weeks or Monthly. The first gift is taken that day, then it repeats until it's stopped. Staff can't start a recurring gift on someone's behalf.
Go to Giving › Recurring to see every recurring gift, its status and how much has come in. Statuses are Active, Payment failed, Paused and Cancelled. When a card is declined, Stripe tries again over the next few days. It helps to let the giver know.
To stop a recurring gift, select Cancel beside it. Phyle cancels it in Stripe too, so no further payments are taken.
How givers manage their own gifts
Givers who have a sign-in to the member portal see their recurring gifts under Giving and can select Stop on any of them. To change an amount or card, they stop the gift and set up a new one. Givers without a sign-in can reply to their receipt or contact your office, and you cancel it for them.
Pledges and campaigns
A campaign collects pledges toward one fund, such as a building project.
- Go to Giving › Pledges and select Start a campaign.
- Enter the Campaign name, the Fund, an optional Goal, and Starts and Ends dates. Leave Ends empty for an open-ended campaign.
- Select Start campaign.
- On the campaign, select Add a pledge. Choose Who is pledging?, the Total pledged (the whole amount, not each payment) and How they plan to give.
Gifts to that fund during the campaign count toward it automatically. The campaign shows what's been given, pledged and still to come, and Export downloads a spreadsheet. Members with a portal sign-in see their progress under My pledges.
Year-end giving statements
Before your first statements, go to Settings › Church and fill in Tax ID (EIN) and the Statement footer under Giving statements. Your mailing address must also be filled in before statements can be emailed.
Then go to Giving › Statements. It opens on last year. Adjust the options if you need to:
- The date range.
- Minimum total: leave out givers below an amount.
- Tax-deductible funds only: on by default.
- One per household: on by default, so a couple gets one statement.
To send them:
- Email statements sends every statement that has an email address and hasn't already been emailed for this period. Phyle shows progress, and Retry failed tries again for any that didn't go.
- Print all opens every statement, one per page, ready to print. Use this for givers marked No email · print.
- View opens one statement, where you can Email it or Send again.
- To send just a few, tick them and select Email selected.
Anonymous gifts don't appear on any statement. Members with a portal sign-in can also open their own statement for any year under Giving.
Refunds
Refunds happen in Stripe. Open your Stripe dashboard, find the payment and refund it. Phyle hears about it automatically and updates the gift, so refunded amounts stop counting toward totals and statements. Disputes are handled the same way.
Changing an online gift's amount in Phyle only changes Phyle's records, not what the giver was charged. Phyle itself can't refund gifts, because the money is in your church's Stripe account.
Common questions
Can we get Stripe's nonprofit rate?
Possibly. Stripe offers discounted processing to eligible registered nonprofits, such as US 501(c)(3) churches, when most of their Stripe payments are tax-deductible donations. Stripe decides who qualifies. To apply, sign in to your church's own Stripe account and contact Stripe support to request the nonprofit discount, with proof of your status such as your EIN or IRS letter. Because Phyle adds no fee to gifts, any discount Stripe gives you is yours in full.
Do we need Stripe to use giving?
Only for online gifts. You can record cash, checks and other gifts, run batches, track pledges and send statements without connecting Stripe.
Can we download our gifts?
Yes. On Giving › Gifts, select Export for a spreadsheet of the gifts matching your filters. See exporting your data.