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What does the change mean?
For you, the biggest change is just how you give and manage your donations. Instead of PushPay, we'll be using Planning Center Giving. The core things like making a donation, setting up recurring gifts, and accessing your giving history are still there.
What’s different is the interface and login. If you're a church member, we've already created your account for you, and you don't have to worry about another password. To keep your information safe, you log in with your phone number and we text you a code to confirm it's you. If not, it's quick and easy to get started.
We'll provide step-by-step instructions, so the transition should be straightforward, and if you have any questions, you are always welcome to contact us.
Planning Center Giving
Planning Center meets our needs by providing a more competitive price, integrating our multiple church tools in one place, and providing a simple and unified experience for making donations.
Fees
Planning Center charges 2.15% + $0.30 for credit card transactions and only $.30 for each ACH transaction. Monthly, Planning Center only charges between $69 and $115 per month for the Giving service.
Tax Logistics
Your giving statement will always to the most accurate contact information we have for you.
Simplicity
To sign in to Planning Center Giving, you use your phone number. We'll text you a one-time pin to confirm it is really you. Your data is safe, and no password is required!
PushPay
PushPay is a great service for receiving donations, but there are a few reasons we are making the switch to Planning Center Giving: fees, logistics, and simplicity.
Fees
PushPay charges more than 3% of every online credit card transaction and between 7 and 4 times more than Planning Center per month.
Tax Logistics
Every donation you make to CHUMC is tax-deductible, so we send you a giving statement every January. Because PushPay maintains its own database of church member information, your contact information may be missing or out of date in PushPay, resulting in difficulty in getting your giving statement to you.
Simplicity
We want to reduce barriers to you being more involved with CHUMC, so this move will mean you will need to keep up with one fewer login and password.
Setup Instructions
If you have an existing recurring donation, make sure to cancel it in PushPay to avoid being charged twice. Instructions for this are in the FAQs below, or you may contact us.
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Click here to go to the giving page.
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If this is your first time, you will be asked to sign-in. Enter your phone number that can receive texts or click "Use email instead" follow instructions until you are fully signed in
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Enter the amount you wish to give.
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If your gift will be recurring, choose how frequently you wish to give.
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If you are on your phone, click "Continue to give." If you are on a computer, this is not necessary.
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Select a payment method. We recommend the "US Bank Account" method because it reduces the fees taken out of your donation, but there are a few extra steps for this method.
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If you chose "Card", enter your card details and go to step 8.
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Search for your bank. If you can't find it by name, sometimes searching your bank's website helps.
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If you were unable to find your bank or login, you can select "Enter bank details manually instead". This process may take a day or two, so keep a close eye on your email. When your receive an email from "no-reply@churchcenter.com", follow the instructions in the email.
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If you are using a bank account, you will be asked to log in to your bank. When you're done, you can click "Continue to Colonial Hills United Methodist Church".
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Click "Give" to complete your donation.
FAQ
This is how to cancel a PushPay recurring donation:
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Open your PushPay account, and go to the "Schedules" tab on the left.
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If you have an active scheduled donation, it will appear in the "Active" section.
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Select your recurring donation, click the "Actions" dropdown, and click "Cancel Schedule". You will see a red banner confirming that your scheduled gift has been canceled.
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Now, follow the instructions above to add a payment method and start a new recurring gift.
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If you do not move your recurring gift to Planning Center, it will be discontinued in September when we shut down our PushPay account. It is important to get it moved if you wish to continue your gift. Please see the instructions under the FAQ titled "How do I move a recurring donation?" for these instructions. You can always contact us if you have any questions.
Yes! Many people prefer to cover the cost of processing their payment so the church doesn't have to. It's up to you, and can be enabled when you are making your gift by checking the checkbox labeled "Add $xx.xx to cover the processing fee."
Your gifts are confidential. Only the Bookkeeper and Church Office Manager have access to these records. Anonymized reports are sometimes shared with the church's Finance Committee, but these are always aggregate and anonymous data that helps them make wise decisions for the church.
Gifts of these types are not affected by the change except that your giving statement will now come from Planning Center rather than PushPay if your gifts total $250 or more.
Not much. You will still receive a giving statement if your total giving is over $250 as required by the IRS. In the past this has come from PushPay, but now it will come from Planning Center. You will not receive one from each service.
If you pledged a gift for this year, that information and your progress towards that pledge will be moved over to Planning Center Giving in September. Previously, in PushPay, you had to give to a specific fund for your pledged giving to be tracked, but now you can simply give to the "CHUMC Budget" fund, and it will be tracked for you. If you have questions about your pledge or your pledge progress, you can contact us.