A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Online Giving for Your Church

Getting online giving set up is one of the highest-impact things you can do as a church admin. Members can give from the app, set up recurring donations, and you get automatic records for Gift Aid claims. Here's how to do it from scratch in Aurnet.

Step 1: Connect Stripe

Aurnet uses Stripe Connect to process all payments. From your admin dashboard, go to Finance > Giving Setup and click 'Connect with Stripe'. You'll be taken through Stripe's onboarding — they need your charity registration number, bank details, and a contact person. This takes about 10 minutes.

Step 2: Create your funds

Funds are the categories members can give to — General Fund, Building Fund, Missions, Benevolence, etc. Go to Finance > Funds and create as many as you need. Each fund gets its own giving report and can be tracked separately in your accounting export.

Step 3: Enable Gift Aid

If your church is a UK registered charity, enable Gift Aid in the giving settings. When members make their first donation, they'll be prompted to confirm their Gift Aid declaration — name, address, and taxpayer status. This is stored against their member record and linked to every future donation automatically.

Step 4: Launch a giving campaign (optional)

Campaigns are time-bound giving goals — a building project, a mission trip, a Christmas offering. Members see a progress bar in the app and can give directly to the campaign. You can run multiple campaigns alongside regular giving.

Step 5: Announce to your congregation

Use Aurnet's push notifications to let members know online giving is live. Include a note about Gift Aid for UK taxpayers. Most churches see 40–60% of regular givers switch to online within the first month.

What about Apple Pay and Google Pay?

Both are supported through Stripe. Once your Stripe account is verified and your Apple Pay merchant ID is registered, members can tap to give with their phone's wallet. No card entry needed.