Donor Management

In Wired Church, donors are members. Every contribution is linked to a member record, which means your donor management is built right into the membership system you already use. This guide covers how to view giving history, search contributions by donor, handle non-member gifts, manage pledges, and work with recurring giving through Stripe.

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Donors Are Members

Wired Church does not maintain a separate donor database. Contributions are linked directly to the members table, so every person in your membership system is a potential donor with a giving profile attached.

This means:

• When you add a contribution, you search for and select a member.
• When you view a member's profile, their giving history is right there.
• When you generate a giving statement, the member's name and address are pulled from their member record.
• When a member updates their address, their giving statements automatically reflect the change.

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Viewing a Donor's Giving History

To see a complete record of a member's contributions:

1. Navigate to Members in the admin sidebar.
2. Search for and open the member's profile.
3. Click the Giving tab on the member profile page.

The Giving tab displays:

Summary Stats

At the top of the tab, you will see at-a-glance metrics:

• Total Given (Current Year) — The sum of all contributions for the current calendar year.
• Total Given (All Time) — Lifetime giving total.
• Average Gift — The average individual contribution amount.
• Giving Frequency — How often the member typically gives (weekly, biweekly, monthly, sporadic).
• Last Gift Date — When the most recent contribution was recorded.

Contribution History Table

Below the summary, a table lists every contribution chronologically with:

The table supports sorting by any column and can be filtered by date range, fund, or payment method.

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Searching Contributions by Donor

You can also find a donor's contributions from the Contributions module directly:

1. Navigate to Contributions in the admin sidebar.
2. Click the Search tab or use the search bar at the top of the contributions list.
3. Type the donor's name in the Donor search field.
4. Results filter in real time as you type, showing all contributions matching that donor name.

You can combine the donor search with other filters:

• Date Range — Narrow results to a specific period.
• Fund — Show only contributions to a particular fund.
• Payment Method — Filter by cash, check, online, or other.
• Amount Range — Find contributions within a minimum and maximum amount.
• Batch — Filter to a specific batch.

This is useful when a donor calls and asks "Did my check from two weeks ago get recorded?" — you can search by their name and date range to verify in seconds.

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Anonymous and Non-Member Donations

Not every donation comes from a known member. Visitors, community members, and anonymous givers all contribute to the church. Wired Church handles these scenarios:

Visitor Donations (Known but Not a Member)

When a visitor gives and you know their name but they are not yet in the membership system:

1. During contribution entry, search for the visitor's name in the member search field.
2. If no match is found, click Add as Visitor in the search dropdown.
3. Enter the visitor's basic information: first name, last name, and optionally their address (needed for tax statements).
4. The system creates a member record with a visitor status, and the contribution is linked to it.
5. If the visitor later becomes a member, their giving history carries over automatically because it is already linked to their record.

Truly Anonymous Donations

For cash donations placed in the offering with no envelope or name attached:

1. During contribution entry, select the Anonymous option in the member search (or type "Anonymous" to find the system-generated anonymous donor record).
2. Enter the amount, fund, and payment method as usual.
3. Anonymous contributions are tracked for batch totals and fund reporting but are not attributed to any individual donor.

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Donor Giving Patterns and Trends

Understanding how your congregation gives helps with budgeting, stewardship communication, and identifying members who may need pastoral follow-up.

Giving Pattern Indicators

On each donor's Giving tab, Wired Church automatically calculates and displays:

• Giving Frequency — Classified as weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, or irregular based on the pattern of giving dates.
• Trend Direction — Whether the donor's giving has been increasing, stable, or decreasing over the past 12 months, shown as an arrow indicator.
• Consistency Score — A percentage indicating how regularly the donor gives relative to their established pattern. A weekly giver who misses one Sunday in a month scores differently than a monthly giver who skips a quarter.

Giving Trend Chart

A line chart on the Giving tab visualizes the donor's monthly giving totals over the past 12 months. This makes it easy to spot:

• Seasonal giving patterns (many members give more in December).
• A sudden drop that might indicate a life change or financial hardship.
• A ramp-up that could signal growing engagement.

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Pledges

A pledge is a commitment a member makes to give a specific amount over a defined time period, often tied to a capital campaign or annual stewardship drive.

Creating a Pledge

1. Navigate to Contributions > Pledges in the admin sidebar.
2. Click New Pledge.
3. Fill in the pledge details:

4. Click Save Pledge.

Tracking Pledge Progress

Once a pledge is created, Wired Church automatically tracks progress against it:

• Contributions to the same fund by the same member within the pledge date range are counted toward the pledge.
• The pledge record shows: Total Pledged, Total Given, Remaining Balance, and a Progress Bar indicating the percentage fulfilled.
• The pledge status updates automatically:
  • Active — Pledge period is ongoing and balance remains.
  • Fulfilled — Total given meets or exceeds the pledged amount.
  • Behind — Giving pace is below the expected rate based on frequency and elapsed time.
  • Expired — Pledge end date has passed with an outstanding balance.

Pledge Reports

Navigate to Contributions > Pledges to see a summary dashboard:

• Total pledged across all members and funds.
• Total received against pledges.
• Fulfillment percentage.
• List of pledges with status filters (Active, Fulfilled, Behind, Expired).

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Recurring Gifts via Stripe

Members can set up recurring gifts through the member portal's online giving page. Recurring gifts are powered by Stripe subscriptions and run automatically on the schedule the member selects.

How Members Set Up Recurring Gifts

1. The member logs into the member portal.
2. Navigates to Giving in the portal navigation.
3. Clicks Set Up Recurring Gift.
4. Selects the fund, enters the amount, and chooses a frequency (weekly, biweekly, monthly).
5. Enters or selects a saved payment method (credit card or bank account via Stripe).
6. Confirms the recurring gift.

Stripe creates a subscription and charges the member's payment method on the selected schedule. Each charge automatically creates a contribution record in Wired Church linked to the member, fund, and an auto-generated online batch.

Managing Recurring Gifts as an Admin

Admins can view and manage all recurring gifts:

1. Navigate to Contributions > Recurring Gifts in the admin sidebar.
2. The list shows all active recurring gifts with: member name, amount, fund, frequency, next charge date, and status.
3. Click any recurring gift to view its details, including the full charge history.

From this view, admins can:

• Pause a recurring gift (the Stripe subscription is paused, not canceled).
• Cancel a recurring gift (the Stripe subscription is canceled).
• View charge history — See every successful and failed charge attempt.

Failed Payment Handling

When a recurring gift charge fails (expired card, insufficient funds, etc.):

1. Stripe automatically retries the charge according to its retry schedule (typically 3 attempts over 7 days).
2. The member receives an email notification from Stripe about the failed payment.
3. In Wired Church, the recurring gift shows a Payment Failed status badge.
4. If all retry attempts fail, the subscription is marked as past due.
5. The member can update their payment method in the portal to resolve the issue.

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Related Articles

• Recording Donations Manually
• Understanding Contribution Funds
• Generating Giving Statements and Tax Receipts
• Annual Giving Statements