Giving
How to switch church giving platforms without losing donors or recurring gifts
You usually can't move saved card numbers from one giving platform to another, so the recurring gifts your regular givers set up don't automatically follow. The way to switch without losing donors is to run both platforms side by side for a few weeks, ask your recurring givers to re-enroll once on the new one, and personally follow up with anyone who hasn't moved before you turn the old one off.
I learned this the slightly hard way. The first time a church I was close to changed processors, someone flipped off the old account the same week the new one went live, and a handful of monthly gifts just stopped. Nobody had left the church; their cards simply lived in a system that no longer charged them, and nobody had told them to set it up again. Every gift that fell off came back, but it took phone calls and a few awkward "did our giving break?" conversations to fix something that good sequencing would have prevented.
Do recurring gifts transfer when you switch giving platforms?
Almost never automatically. Saved card and bank details are stored by your current payment processor, and for security and compliance reasons that vault of card numbers does not hand off to a new provider. So when you switch, your one-time giving moves the moment you change the link, but every recurring gift has to be set up again by the donor on the new platform.
This is the part that surprises pastors, because everything else about a switch feels like exporting data. Your people, your gift history, your funds, and your year-end totals can all be exported and imported. The recurring schedules can't, because what makes them recurring is a stored card that the old processor will not release. The migration looks like a data project, and the donor side looks like a data project, but the recurring gifts are a re-enrollment project that depends on people taking one small action.
How do I avoid losing donors when I change giving software?
Keep the old platform's recurring gifts running while the new platform goes live, then move your regular givers over deliberately before you shut anything off. The goal is that no gift ever stops without the giver choosing to stop it. You do that with an overlap window, plain-language instructions, and a list of who has moved.
Here's the sequence I'd run, roughly three to six weeks end to end.
- Set up and test the new platform first. Create your funds, connect your bank, and run a real gift to yourself and refund it. Confirm the receipt looks right and the deposit lands. Don't announce anything until you've given on it once yourself.
- Pull your recurring-giver list off the old platform. You can't move their cards, but you can see who gives recurring and roughly how much. On Planning Center, that export lives under the Actions button on the Giving page, not a gear icon. This list is your follow-up roster, so keep the names and amounts.
- Turn on the new platform without turning off the old one. Run both at once. New gifts and new recurring setups go to the new platform, while existing recurring gifts keep charging on the old one until their giver moves.
- Tell givers exactly what to do, in one clear message. Skip "we've upgraded our giving." Try this instead: "Our giving has a new home. If you give monthly, take two minutes to set it up again here, then your old gift will stop. New link below." Give a date.
- Watch who has re-enrolled and who hasn't. Cross your old recurring-giver roster against the new platform's recurring list each week. The people on the first list but not the second are the ones to reach out to personally.
- Follow up with the stragglers before the deadline. A text or a quick call to a regular giver ("hey, want to make sure your monthly gift didn't get lost in the switch") catches almost everyone. This step is the difference between losing people and keeping all of them.
- Turn off the old recurring gifts last. Once your roster is moved, cancel the recurring gifts on the old platform and close the account. Confirm everyone has moved before you close it, never the other way around.
The whole plan rests on steps five and six. A platform switch that just sends one email and flips the account loses the givers who never saw the email. A switch that tracks the list loses almost no one.
How long should a church giving platform migration take?
Plan on three to six weeks, not a weekend. Give yourself one to two weeks to set up and test the new platform, two to three weeks of overlap where both run and donors re-enroll, and a final week to chase stragglers and shut off the old recurring gifts. The overlap window is where you keep people, so don't compress it to look fast.
The temptation is to rush, because running two platforms at once feels messy and you're paying attention to two dashboards. Stay with the mess for a bit. Every week of overlap is a week where a regular giver who missed the announcement still has a working gift and a chance to move. The cost of a slightly longer migration is a little bookkeeping. The cost of a short one is the phone calls I had to make.
What should I look for in the new giving platform?
Look at where the money lands, what the processing actually costs, and whether the giving record connects to the rest of what you know about a person. A switch is a good moment to stop treating giving as a separate silo, because the platform you pick will either keep giving in its own app or put it on the same record as serving, groups, and check-ins.
On cost, be precise, because "free" giving is never free. Whatever platform you choose, you still pay a payment processor's standard fees. For reference: Stripe's standard card rate is 2.9% plus 30 cents, the nonprofit card rate is 2.2% plus 30 cents, and Stripe ACH (bank transfer) is 0.8% capped at $5. Planning Center's ACH runs 0% plus 30 cents, and Tithely's ACH is 1% plus 30 cents. ACH is almost always cheaper than card, so a platform that nudges givers toward bank giving keeps more of every gift in the church's hands. I wrote out the full math in what online giving actually costs if you want the breakdown.
| What to check | Why it matters at switch time |
|---|---|
| Recurring re-enrollment flow | Donors must redo their gift; a two-minute mobile flow keeps more of them |
| ACH option and its fee | Bank giving is cheaper than card; more of each gift reaches the church |
| Can you export later | If this platform doesn't fit either, you'll want your data back without a fight |
| Giving on the person record | Whether a paused gift shows up next to a member's serving and groups, or sits in a silo |
| Year-end statements | Whether the new platform builds statements from the same data, or you stitch two systems |
When does Scout fit this, and when doesn't it?
Scout is one honest option for the new platform, and it's most useful if you also want giving to stop being a separate silo. Scout uses Stripe Connect Standard for giving, so online, recurring, and offline gifts all sit on the same Person record as that member's serving, groups, and check-ins. Scout takes no cut of donations, but you still pay the payment processor's standard fees, because the point is to get as much of every gift into the church's hands.
The reason that connection matters at switch time is the follow-up list. When giving lives on the person record, a regular giver who hasn't re-enrolled shows up as a person you already know instead of a row in a separate report, and Scout can surface that someone who gave every month for two years has a gift that lapsed during the migration. That's the same signal that helps you spot the givers who stopped long after a switch is over. For moving your existing data, one-click self-serve import handles Planning Center; if you're on Tithely, Breeze (which moved to Tithely Church Management in 2025), or Realm, we run the import with you. Scout is $69, $99, or $199 a month by church size, with about two months free on annual prepay and a 30-day no-card trial. Planning Center, Tithely, and Breeze all do focused giving well, so if all you need is a standalone giving link and your records already live somewhere you love, a dedicated giving tool may serve you better, and that's a fine answer too. If you're weighing the broader move, the best Planning Center alternatives for 2026 covers the field.
Frequently asked questions
Do recurring gifts transfer when I switch giving platforms?
Usually not automatically. Saved card numbers rarely move between providers for security reasons, so most donors have to set up their recurring gift again on the new platform. Plan a clear, short re-enrollment window and personal outreach to your regular givers so almost none of them fall off.
Will switching giving platforms make my donors re-enter their cards?
In most cases, yes. Card and bank details are stored by the old processor and don't hand off to a new one. The way to avoid losing people is to ask your recurring givers to set up their gift once on the new platform during a defined window, and to follow up with anyone who hasn't moved by the deadline.
How long should a church giving platform migration take?
Plan on three to six weeks. Spend one to two weeks setting up and testing the new platform, two to three weeks running both side by side while donors re-enroll, and one week to follow up with stragglers and shut off the old recurring gifts. Rushing the overlap window is where churches lose people.
How do I avoid losing donors when I change giving software?
Keep both platforms live during a short overlap, tell givers exactly what to do in plain language, and track who has moved so no one slips. Watch for recurring givers who haven't re-enrolled by your deadline and reach out personally before turning off their old gift.
Should I turn off the old giving platform right away?
No. Leave the old platform's recurring gifts running until your regular givers have re-enrolled on the new one. Turning it off too early cancels active gifts before donors have moved, which is the fastest way to lose recurring giving. Confirm everyone has moved, then close the old account.
Nic Moore is a pastor and the founder of Scout. He once spent a week making "did our giving break?" phone calls after a church flipped off its old processor too soon, and he's been preaching the overlap window ever since.