Regular giving for churches: standing order, Direct Debit or card?

Standing order, Direct Debit and card compared

Standing orders

A standing order is an instruction from the giver to their own bank to send a fixed amount to your church’s account on a regular date. Many churches have givers who have given this way for decades, and it works well.

The drawbacks are on the church’s side. You can’t see a standing order until the money arrives, you can’t change it, and you have to match each payment to a giver by its reference. Ask every standing-order giver to use a reference that identifies them, such as their name or envelope number, and make sure they have a Gift Aid declaration if they pay tax.

Direct Debit

With Direct Debit, the giver gives your church (through its payment provider) permission to collect payments from their bank account. In the UK this runs on the Bacs system, and every Direct Debit is protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee: if a payment is taken in error, the giver is entitled to a full and immediate refund from their bank.

Givers must be told the amount and date before each payment, or before the first of a series that doesn’t change. Your payment provider sends these notices for you. A new Direct Debit takes a few working days to set up before the first payment is collected.

Direct Debit suits larger regular gifts, because the fee is capped. With Stripe, a £100 monthly gift costs £1 by Direct Debit against £1.70 by card, and a £500 gift costs £4 against £7.70. See card fees on donations.

Recurring card gifts

A recurring card gift is the easiest for a giver to start: choose an amount and how often, then pay with a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. It suits people who prefer to manage things on their phone and are giving smaller amounts.

Cards expire and get replaced, so some payments will fail. Many banks pass on new card details automatically. When they don’t, a good platform tells the giver and makes it easy for them to update their card, without anyone from church having to chase.

Should you move standing-order givers to Direct Debit?

There’s no need to push anyone. If a standing order works for a giver, leave it. You might offer Direct Debit or card giving when you next write to givers, as an option for people who’d like to change their gift more easily, and use the moment to check every standing order has a clear reference and a Gift Aid declaration where it should.

Why regular giving matters to a church

Regular gifts make your church’s income predictable, so you can plan, commit to ministry and pay staff with confidence. They also tend to be more generous over a year than occasional gifts, because people decide once, thoughtfully, rather than reaching for whatever is in their pocket on a Sunday.

How to invite people to give regularly

• Explain what it costs to be your church. “It costs £1,200 a week to keep our doors open and our ministry going” is easier to respond to than a general appeal.
• Invite people to decide, not to match a number. Encourage everyone to think and pray about what’s right for them, as a share of their income rather than a fixed sum.
• Have a giving season. Many churches invite people to review their giving once a year, often in the autumn or before the new financial year.
• Make it easy to respond on the spot, with a QR code on the screen and in the notice sheet, so people can set up their gift there and then.
• Say thank you, and tell people what their giving has done. See our giving announcement scripts for the words.