Giving
How does text-to-give work for churches?
Text-to-give works like this: your church signs up with a provider, gets a dedicated phone number and a short keyword, and a giver texts a dollar amount to that number. A first-time giver gets a one-time link back to set up their card or bank, and after that the gift posts straight to your giving records. Repeat givers just text the amount and they are done.
I get asked about text-to-give more than almost any other giving question, usually right after a church sees a megachurch flash "Text GIVE to 55555" on a screen. It looks easy, and the convenience in the moment is real. Before you sign up, it helps to understand what is happening behind that text and what it actually costs you, because the simple version on the screen hides a couple of moving parts.
How does text-to-give actually work, step by step?
A giver texts an amount to your church number, the provider matches it to your account, and the gift moves from their card or bank to yours. The only real friction is the first time, when a new giver has to tap a link and enter their payment details once. After that, the flow is just a text.
Here is the full sequence from the church side:
- You sign up with a text-to-give provider and connect a payment processor and your church bank account.
- The provider assigns you a number and a keyword, like texting "GIVE" or a dollar amount to a shared shortcode or a dedicated number.
- A giver texts an amount (for example "25") to that number.
- A first-time giver gets a reply with a one-time setup link to enter their card or bank details. This step only happens once per person.
- The gift processes through the payment processor, and the funds land in your church account on the processor's normal payout schedule.
- The gift posts to your giving records so it shows up on the giver's year-end statement.
The piece people miss is step four. That one-time setup link is where a lot of would-be givers stall, especially older members or anyone giving during a service when they are distracted. Once they push through it, the experience is smooth, but that first hurdle is higher than the screen makes it look.
What does text-to-give cost a church?
Text-to-give costs you two stacked layers: the standard payment processor fee on every gift, plus the text-to-give provider's monthly fee or per-message SMS cost. The processor fee is unavoidable with any digital giving. The SMS layer is the part unique to text-to-give, and it is what makes this the more expensive way to take a gift.
The processing fee is the same one you would pay on any online gift. For most churches that is around 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per card transaction, or closer to 2.2 percent plus 30 cents if you qualify for a nonprofit rate. I wrote a full breakdown of those numbers in online giving fees for churches if you want the detail. On top of that, text-to-give providers add their own cost, usually a monthly subscription tier or a per-message charge for the SMS traffic, because sending and receiving those texts is not free for them either.
There is also a quieter cost: deliverability. Carriers filter SMS aggressively to fight spam, and church giving texts occasionally get delayed or blocked, which means a gift someone intended to send never lands. You do not control that, and it is hard to even notice when it happens.
Should your church use text-to-give? Pros and cons
For most small and midsize churches, text-to-give is not worth the added cost and setup friction when a simple giving link or QR code does nearly the same job. It earns its keep in large rooms where people give spontaneously off a screen prompt and never visit a giving page. Weigh it against your actual giving patterns before you commit.
| Factor | Text-to-give | Giving link or QR code |
|---|---|---|
| In-the-moment convenience | High, once set up | High, one tap to a page |
| Cost beyond processing | Monthly or per-message SMS fee | Usually none |
| First-time setup friction | One-time link, often a stall point | Open page, enter details once |
| Deliverability risk | SMS can be filtered or delayed | None, it is a normal web link |
| Best fit | Large rooms, screen-prompted giving | Most churches, especially plants |
| Recurring gifts | Possible but clunky to manage by text | Natural, set once and forget |
The honest read for a church plant or a smaller congregation is that the SMS layer adds expense and a setup step without buying you much your members will not get from a link. If a real chunk of your giving is recurring, text-to-give is the wrong tool, because managing a standing gift over text messages is awkward for everyone.
What are the better alternatives to text-to-give?
The two strongest alternatives are a shareable giving link or QR code that sends people straight to a giving page, and recurring gifts that members set up once. Both deliver the low-friction moment text-to-give promises without the extra SMS cost or the first-text stall, and they handle repeat giving far more cleanly.
A giving link is just a web address you can drop into a text, an email, your bulletin, or a QR code on a screen or printed card. Someone taps it, lands on your giving page, and gives. There is no keyword to remember and no messaging fee in the middle. For sustaining your budget, recurring gifts matter even more, because they smooth out the seasonal dips every church feels. I broke down how those work in how recurring giving works for churches, and it is the piece I would set up before anything else.
I made a deliberate choice here: Scout does not offer SMS or text-to-give. I built it around link-based giving, a giving page inside the member app, and recurring gifts instead, because those carry the same convenience without the extra cost and the deliverability headaches. To be clear on the money, Scout takes no cut of your giving, but you still pay the payment processor's standard fees, the same as you would anywhere. If your heart is set on a literal "text a number" experience, you will need a dedicated text-to-give provider, and that is a fine choice for the rooms it fits.
Frequently asked questions
How does text-to-give work for churches? Your church gets a dedicated phone number and a keyword from a text-to-give provider. A giver texts a dollar amount to that number, first-timers tap a one-time link to enter card or bank details, and the gift posts to your giving records. Repeat givers just text the amount.
How much does text-to-give cost a church? You pay two layers. The standard payment processor fee on every gift, plus the text-to-give provider's monthly subscription or per-message SMS cost. The processor fee runs about 2.2 to 2.9 percent for cards, and the SMS layer is what makes text-to-give pricier than a plain giving link.
Is text-to-give worth it for a small church? Often not. The in-the-moment convenience is real, but small churches usually find a shareable giving link or QR code does the same job with no extra monthly SMS cost. If most of your giving is recurring, text-to-give adds friction and expense without much return.
What is the difference between text-to-give and a giving link? Text-to-give routes a gift through SMS using a number and keyword, which adds a messaging cost and a setup step for first-timers. A giving link or QR code sends people straight to a giving page in one tap, with no SMS layer and the same low friction once they arrive.
Nic Moore is a pastor and the founder of Scout. He spends most of his time helping church teams take the friction out of giving so generosity is the easy part.