Three ways to give, three sets of reports
The building now has a contactless giving point by the entrance, a QR code on the notice sheet that opens an online giving page, and a donate button on the website. People are glad to use them, especially younger members and visitors who never carry cash. At a festival or a special appeal, card giving can outstrip cash.
The treasurer sees something different. The bank statement shows payouts from the card reader provider every few days, net of fees, each covering dozens of taps. The online giving platform pays out on its own schedule. The website button goes through another processor. Each has its own dashboard, and the fund the giver chose, such as general fund, building appeal, food bank or festival meal, is only visible if you log in and export a report.
Why card gifts lose their purpose
Every provider is designed around its own dashboard, not around a treasurer who has to put income into designated funds.
- Payouts combine many gifts, sometimes across several days and several funds.
- Fees are deducted before payout, so the bank figure never equals the gifts.
- Some card readers are set to fixed amounts per fund; others take one amount and the fund choice is not recorded at all.
- Refunds and failed payments appear as adjustments in a later payout.
- Recurring online gifts sit alongside one-off gifts in the same export.
When the fund is not captured at the point of giving, the treasurer has to decide later where the money goes. When it is captured but sits in a report nobody opens, the result is much the same.
What mixed-up card giving costs
Designated gifts matter. When someone gives to the building appeal or a named cause, your trustees need that money to reach that fund. If card gifts land in general income because the split was too hard to work out, the appeal looks weaker than it is and the fund records do not reflect the givers' wishes.
The treasurer's time is the other cost: logging into several dashboards each month, downloading reports, working out fees and reconciling payouts, often without much support. And if the organisation wants to thank or follow up card givers who left their details, those details are in yet another place.
How we tie every gift to a fund
What we build sits between your giving channels and your treasurer's records.
- We review each giving channel and, where the provider allows, set it up so the giver chooses a fund, such as separate amounts or buttons per fund on the reader, and separate options on the online page.
- Each provider's gift-level data comes in through its API or scheduled export: amount, fund, date, fee, and giver details where the giver chose to provide them.
- Payouts are matched to the bank statement, and each payout is broken down into the gifts it contains, with fees shown separately.
- Fund totals for the month are produced for the treasurer, or posted to your accounting software, such as Xero or QuickBooks, with fees coded as costs.
- Givers who left details, and who consented to contact, are added to your giving records, so regular card givers can be linked with any declaration they have made.
- Refunds and chargebacks are shown against the original gift, so the fund they came from is corrected.
| Channel | Where the fund choice is captured | How it reaches the books |
|---|---|---|
| Contactless point | Button or amount per fund on the device | Gift export matched to payout |
| QR code on notice sheet | Option on the giving page | Platform API or export |
| Website donate button | Form field | Payment processor, for example Stripe |
| Recurring online gift | Chosen at sign-up | Same route, marked as regular |
We work with the providers you already have. We only suggest a change if a provider cannot give gift-level data at all, and then we explain the trade-offs.
Month end, with card giving included
At month end the treasurer opens one summary: card and online giving by fund, fees by provider, and every payout matched to its bank line. The building appeal line includes the taps at the door during the appeal weekend and the online gifts that followed the newsletter.
One payout did not match because of a refund; the system shows which gift was refunded and which fund it came from. The treasurer approves the entries and moves on.
Is card giving a puzzle at month end?
- Card reader payouts arrive with no breakdown on the bank statement.
- You cannot say how much card giving went to each fund last month.
- Fees are worked out by hand.
- Designated card gifts sometimes end up in general income.
- Card giver details sit in a dashboard nobody uses.