Online Giving FAQs for Donors

Table of Contents

Introduction — Why am I seeing this?

If you’re seeing this, your church has started using Servant Keeper’s giving tool. This tool now processes all contributions to your church, and many other churches. Previously, your church used Faithlife Giving, a very similar tool.

Every church will be making the switch on a slightly different schedule, but most likely this will happen very soon. Please contact your church administrator for specifics on the exact date.

Hardly anything! All the work is being done behind the scenes to move your records from one secure database to another. All you need to do is update your profile when you sign in for the first time in your church’s new giving tool.

  1. Check whether we have your email address. 
    If you have given to your church before and your church used the Faithlife Giving tool to process your gifts, then we have your email securely stored in our system. Please use the same email address to check whether we have your records.

  2. Once we have identified your email address, you just need to provide:
  • Your name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • New password

This will confirm your identity into our system and unlock the ability to give to your church ministry.

Serving ministries since 1994, Servant Keeper provides software that connects members to their churches in meaningful ways. We reduce the administrative burden for each ministry we serve so they can focus on what really matters. We do this by offering software tools that help manage and track the ministry, financial contributions, and even provide specialized services like checking in children for youth activities. Since day one, Servant Keeper has been designed by church leaders for church leaders. 

Our team’s heart and mission is to serve the Church.

Global Payments offers payment solutions for organizations like churches who want to securely receive contributions. GPI powers the Servant Keeper giving tool by securely capturing and storing encrypted codes (tokens) that enable your card to be securely used with minimal risk of being intercepted or used fraudulently. GPI is a major player in the industry and processes payments for almost 600,000 organizations from various industries, including churches.

Security

At Servant Keeper and GPI, your privacy and the security of your information are of the utmost importance. Not only do we care about protecting the churches and individuals we serve, we’re required by law to do so. There are a number of ways we protect your information:

  1. Name, phone number, address – this data is entered only once by you and is stored securely on Servant Keeper’s server , with access limited to the departments that process your giving transactions.
  2. Card data including debit/credit card number, expiration date, and 3-digit verification code– this data is not stored on our servers, nor is it ever transferred during a giving transaction. Instead, each cardholder’s data is encoded with a specially encrypted code that gets transmitted to GPI every time a contribution is made. GPI has the key to decode this encrypted data to process the payment once they receive instructions. 
  3. Bank (ACH) data including your bank, bank account number – like cardholder data, this data is not stored on our servers, nor is it ever transferred during a giving transaction. It is encrypted with a code that only GPI can decrypt

Any organization that receives funds from third parties online – whether they are selling products, services, or receiving donations – must also comply with the same regulations we follow. To qualify to receive payments, your church completed a merchant application form from  GPI that included the church registration and tax exempt data, personal data of a responsible person, and basic data like website and contact info. All this information is then checked for accuracy before they can take any payments. This is the federal Bank Secrecy Act, and helps protect parishioners from criminals pretending to be legitimate organizations. 

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all organizations that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. All organizations receiving funds (like your church), must complete a questionnaire on how to keep donors’ information safe.   

Personal Information

We securely take and store your personal information like name, address, and mobile number in order to securely connect you to your card data so you can seamlessly make a payment.

Yes! This is a legal requirement, so any payment processor must require personal contact information to process payments.

Your church has changed its online giving platform  and the requirements to log in may have shifted. We securely collect information in order to verify that it’s really you whenever you return.

Subject to your consent if required by law, we may use your personal information for the following business purposes:

  1. To authenticate (ensure it’s you) you when you return to make contributions
  2. To detect security incidents and protect givers like you against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity
  3. To verify you as if you ever call to ask about or dispute a transaction
  4. To comply with applicable laws and regulations

Logging in

Making a gift to your church for the first time is a snap! Just:

  1. Check whether we have your email address in ours system by signing in on your church’s giving app with the email you normally use for making donations 
  2. Create a profile with name, address, and mobile number
  3. Create a login with a new password for your email address
  4. Select an amount you want to give, and fund (eg ‘General Fund’) 
  5. Close the app or sign out

When you log in for the second time, you’ll log in with just your email and password to prove it’s you, then you can give!

Common Terms

ACH Bank transfer: an electronic payment made between banks for payment purposes. The network that these payments occur across is known as an “Automated Clearing House (ACH).” ACH bank transfers are used for many purposes, such as direct deposits of paychecks, regular payments, and money transfers (such as donations).

Bank transfer: Bank transfers let customers make payments (such as church donations) directly from their bank accounts. Once an account holder initiates a bank transfer, a financial institution will then transfer funds to a business (such as your church) or another bank account through automated clearing house networks.

Card-present (CP) transaction: transaction where you present a physical card or device to a business – in the case of online giving, your church. For example, members may insert their cards into payment terminals or ‘tap’ a card or mobile device to complete a CP transaction.

Card-not-present (CNP) transaction: Transaction where you don’t physically present your card or device for payment. Instead, you may enter a card number in a payment field online, relay a card number over the phone or save a card on file with a merchant (in this case, your church). You may also pay with a digital payment method like PayPal.

Credit Card: Credit cards allow individuals to draw on a line of credit to pay for goods and services. Church members who wish to give can use credit cards for online giving transactions. For example, they can type credit card payment information into an online form, add a credit card to a digital wallet or ‘tap’ a contactless credit card to make a payment.

Digital Wallet: Digital wallets are virtual wallets that store an individual’s various payment types (along with other digital information like plane tickets and loyalty cards). Individuals can access their digital wallets from an internet browser or mobile app. Popular digital wallets include PayPal, Google Pay, Alipay, WeChat Pay and Apple Pay.

Multifactor authentication (MFA): a method of verifying an individual based on at least two discrete elements of the following three categories: 1) possession, such as a mobile device; 2) biometrics, such as a fingerprint; and 3) knowledge, such as a passphrase. It’s a security measure to reduce the risk of identity fraud. 

Payment link: a custom payment link your church can send you via email, SMS, WhatsApp and other digital platforms. These secure payment links allow members to pay online even if a church doesn’t have a website.

PCI-DSS: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that ALL companies and organizations that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information (such as your church) maintain a secure environment.

Quick-response (QR) codes: contactless, scannable matrix bar codes that direct members to websites, online checkouts, mobile apps, menus and other digital channels. May be used to guide members who wish to give to their churches’ online giving platform. 

Social Commerce: Social commerce enables businesses and organizations to receive payments and donations directly through social networking platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and other channels.

Tokenization: Tokenization replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens that shield a member’s payment and personal information. This data security process makes it harder for cybercriminals to decode or steal sensitive personal information.

Underwriter/underwriting: a security measure that ensures online payments (such as donations to your church) are safe for givers like you. This process is done by the underwriting team at Global Payments Integrated (our payments partner), who is responsible for making sure every account they process is safe and is managed by a real person who can be held accountable. 

For other common terms, please refer to GPI’s glossary here: https://www.globalpayments.com/insights/commerce-and-payment-terms 

Signing up and Giving

No! It costs you nothing to give to your church using Servant Keeper. You may have the option to cover the fees associated with your donation should you so choose.

Your personal data will never be sold, traded, or given out to third parties. The church you are giving to will have access to your contact information.

Anytime you’re charged, you will receive an email donation receipt to the email address you use to login to your account.

Your church will receive your gift within 24 hours.

If you make an accidental donation, please reach out to the church you’ve given to directly to request a refund.

Please Note: Refunds may take up to 7 business days to appear back in your account.

There is a section in the Servant Keeper giving tool  for recurring gifts that lets you set, cancel, or change your recurring gift. Please note that changes to recurring gifts may not take effect for a few weeks. If you need to change your gift before that time, please contact your church for instructions.