Frequently Asked Questions about Giving at PCC

Online giving

  • When I try to sign up for online giving using my bank account, I am asked to provide my online banking username & password. I am not comfortable doing that. Is that the only way that I can sign up for online giving through my bank?
    • When you connect to Planning Center Giving for the first time, you have two options to link your bank account – instant (which uses your online banking credentials to log into your bank and verify your account) and manual (which uses account and routing numbers). The manual method takes longer so you have to plan for a couple of extra days for the account to be verified the first time. You don’t have to use the instant method (using your login info) if that makes you uncomfortable. For more information about how this works, click here.

  • If I use the instant method for verifying my bank account for online giving, who gets my login information? How is that protected?
    • Planning Center doesn’t have access to the bank login info that you use to connect online giving to your bank account – an organization called Stripe is the one that handles that sensitive info. You might want to check out their website for how this works: https://stripe.com/financial-connections

  • How do I access my giving record in Planning Center?
    • Log into PCC’s Church Center portal here: pencomchap.churchcenter.com/home - click login at the upper right side of the page (if you are not already logged in – if you are, skip this next part). It will ask you for your mobile phone number so that it can send you an access code. When you get the code enter that into the box and click ‘next’. It’ll say ‘Hi <your name>’ and just click on the ‘Log in as <your name>’ button. Once you are logged into Church Center, click the drop down menu by your name in the upper right corner of the page and choose ‘Profile’. Then on the next page, click on ‘My Giving’ and it will show you everything about your giving there – payment methods, recurring donations, donation history, etc.

  • I'm trying to use the manual method to set up my bank account for online giving but I don't see the option for manual - it just asks me for my bank login info which I don't want to give. Where is the manual method option?
    • For some transactions, the manual option is at the very start of the process in the 'fine print'. Once you enter the amount you want to donate, under your name there is the ‘Select Payment Method’ section. Click on ‘Add bank account’. You’ll then see the big blue/green button that says ‘Verify your account’. Don’t click on that but instead look below it where it says ‘Having trouble?...’ There is a link in that sentence that says ‘manually verify your account’. Click that and go from there.

  • I'm trying to do an online donation but even though I've filled everything out, it doesn't give me anything to click to complete my transaction. What am I missing?
    • The main reason this happens is because you have selected a fund to give to but you haven't entered a dollar amount next to that fund. Let's say you started your transaction thinking that you were going to give to both the local ministry fund and the building fund. But then you changed your mind and only want to give to local ministry so you set the building fund dollar amount back to 0. Because the building fund line item is still selected (even with a 0 dollar amount) the system thinks that you just forgot to enter an amount and it won't let you go any further until you fix that. In this situation scroll up to the fund that has 0 in the amount and click the big red X to the right of the fund name. This will make that fund disappear from your list and you should be able to complete your transaction now (assuming there aren't other funds with 0s in the amount box). 

text to Give

Text-to-Give is a quick, simple way for you to donate to PCC online via a text message. Just text a dollar amount to 84321 to donate. Standard message and data rates may apply.

  • How exactly does this work? 
    • Simply text a dollar amount to 84321. The first time you do this, you will get a text message back with a setup link. Tap this link and it will bring up a webpage where you'll select PCC from the list of churches closest to your physical location. If you are not at PCC or nearby when you do this, you'll need to search for PCC by PCC's address (4209 Big Bethel Road), city (Yorktown) or ZIP code (23693). Then you add in your email address for the receipt and then your payment information. Once this is setup, the next time you use Text-to-Give, just text a dollar amount to 84321 and you're done.

  • What if I make a mistake or change my mind? 
    • Simply type in the word Refund (for card transactions) or Mistake (for bank transfers) within 30 minutes of making your donation and the donation you just made will be refunded.

  • What happens to the money that I donate through Text-to-Give? 
    • For now, anything donated through the Text-to-Give option will go to the Local Ministry Fund. In the future we are planning to make it possible to designate to other funds through text-to-give. Stay tuned for instructions on how to do that when we get that setup.

  • I'm a visual learner. Do you have a video of how Text-to-Give works? 

  • How do I edit my Text-to-Give payment method or disable Text-to-Give? 
    • Just follow these steps to access your donor profile where you perform these functions:
      • Visit PCC's Donation Form and click Log In in the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the page
      • Enter your email address/phone number to receive a verification code to your email/text inbox, and enter that code on the login page
      • After logging in, click that same dropdown and select Profile.
      • On your profile, click My Giving
      • Scroll down to the Text-to-Give section of the page and click the pencil icon to edit

Other Questions?

If you have questions that aren't addressed here, please contact the Director of Administration, David Taylor, with your question(s).