Is Cash App a Good Option for Churches? Get the Detailed Verdict!

Should Churches Use Cash App?

While churches can certainly use Cash App for church donations and tithes, the better question is, “Should they?” There are many advantages and disadvantages to consider if you’re choosing a payment app for your church. Based on your needs, think about how Cash App pros and cons might affect your ability to use the app successfully. You want to make your payment collection process as simple, safe and efficient as possible for your valued donors.

The Pros

There are several good reasons to use Cash App to collect online donations and tithes:

• Familiarity: Many people are familiar with Cash App and use it with family, friends and businesses. And Cash App is popular — it is the third most popular mobile payment app in the United States, behind PayPal and Apple Pay. As of 2022, Cash App had 51 million users.
• Simple Setup for Donors: Like many of its competitors, Cash App makes it fast and easy for church members to set up accounts and make donations to church accounts with minimal setup and information required.
• Recurring Giving: Cash App allows recurring giving to churches through automatic payments. This is a key feature for churches because:
  • Churchgoers are nearly three times more likely to give via recurring electronic contributions than they were in 2015. See the Vanco Church Giving Study for details on this and other statistics on church giving and recurring donations.
  • Monthly givers donate 440% more over their lifetimes than one-time donors (Philanthropy News Digest).
• Built-in Fraud Protection: Like many payment processors, Cash App provides built-in measures to protect users from fraud.

The Cons

Like many of its competitors, Cash App for churches also has some potential downsides, including tax reporting, security issues, features and customer support. Be sure you understand whether Cash App can meet your church’s needs based on your circumstances.

• Peer-to-Peer Accounts for Pastors: If pastors set up P2P accounts, the proceeds can appear to the IRS to be personal income, which is not tax-deductible.
• Data Breaches: Financial institutions and payment processors are often targets for hackers and Cash App is no exception. In 2022, a data breach exposed the full names and brokerage account numbers of over 8 million Cash App Investing users in the U.S. While not directly related to Cash App online payments, the potential exists for additional personal and account information to be accessed and misused in the future.
• Slow Deposits for Donations: Users have reported delays in funds reaching their Cash App accounts.
• Not Built Specifically for Churches: Although Cash App can be used by churches, the platform is not designed with churches’ unique needs in mind. Although it facilitates giving, it is not designed to help churches grow giving and connect to their members. For example:
  • It is missing essential features like a free church giving and engagement app that can organize private or group chats, manage a directory and much more.
  • Churches should make recurring donations as easy and efficient as possible for members. Adding and changing this feature isn’t always easy in Cash App.
  • It doesn’t offer live stream options, like video streaming of church services, online giving during live streams and live chat to engage churchgoers during services.
  • It can’t support online church event ticketing functions for fundraisers and other important church community events.
  • It doesn’t integrate with church management software, which ministries use to simplify and streamline their church operations. It is tedious and time-consuming for church staff to enter Cash App donations manually in their management systems.
• Limited Customer Support for Churches: While Cash App offers 24/7 support, there are no dedicated resources or onboarding support for churches, which a church-specific giving tool would provide.
• No Contribution Statements or Other Key Reports: To support tax reporting for nonprofit churches, statements for donors and tax reporting are crucial, but they are not available when you use Cash App for churches. Building these reports manually is time-consuming and paying for another service to do it is expensive.
• Can’t Designate Gifts to Specific Ministries: Many donors want to give to specific causes or ministries within the church, but with Cash App, donors can only give to the church in general. This doesn’t give donors the autonomy they want, which can lead to decreases in giving. Take a look at some recent church giving statistics to understand why it is critical to offer customized and streamlined church donations.

10 Reasons Churches Should Embrace the True Power of Church-Specific Giving Platforms

You wouldn't use a wrench to drive a nail, would you? Then why use peer-to-peer platforms like Cash App for your church's unique needs? That's where dedicated church giving platforms come into the picture.

Discover a world where your church is understood. A world that breeds connection, streamlines giving, and illuminates the true impact of your donations while boosting engagement.

Here are the 10 most important reasons you should use a dedicated church giving and engagement tool instead of a peer-to-peer giving platform.

1. Caused-Based Giving to Make Every Donation Opportunity Tell a Story

Isn't it time your giving opportunities told a story? With a dedicated church giving platform, like Vanco’s donation software, they can. Using a dedicated platform, it’s easy to turn transactions into gripping tales, complete with engaging visuals, to spark a surge of generosity and involvement in your church community.

2. Get Support Tailored to Churches: Say Yes to 24/7 Assistance!

Say goodbye to generic support! With dedicated providers like Vanco, you'll get an ally who understands your church's unique needs.

With Vanco, there are no tech support fees, no delayed responses, just 24/7 emergency phone assistance and quick issue resolution. Plus, we offer a smooth, church-specific onboarding process and hundreds of free templates and tools to help you start growing your church without a hitch.

3. Power Up Your Ministry: Choose Giving Solutions that Integrate Flawlessly

It's time your giving solution worked in sync with your church management systems. True, dedicated church giving providers are more than simple tools — they can be a seamless part of your church’s tech stack. Eliminate time-consuming admin tasks and focus on your ministry. Because managing a church should be about more than just managing tasks.

And with tools like Vanco, which integrates with more than 60 church management systems, it’s easy to link all your software and make sure everything works in perfect harmony.

4. Don't Limit Generosity: Unleash Multiple Ways of Giving for Your Church!

Don't limit your donation methods. Choose a dedicated church provider and offer your congregation the convenience of multiple giving options. The giving options should include mobile readers for in-person donations, text donations, online giving pages and a free church app — all at your fingertips.

5. Build Your Community: Engage with Your Congregation Early and Often

Church-specific giving platforms aren’t just for processing donations. A comprehensive solution can help you streamline the donation process and offer ways to organize and publicize church events and programs, connect members through an online church directory and host private and group chats with pastors and members. Take a look at these features and see the possibilities!

6. Step Into the Future: Bridge Physical and Virtual Worship with Seamless Giving!

Keep up with the changing times. As hybrid worship becomes the norm, your church needs a solution that allows for effortless online giving during live streams. Certain dedicated church tools, such as Vanco’s live stream tool, ensure that even your virtual congregation can partake in offering time without leaving the service.

7. Make It Easy: Receiving Donations and Tithes Should Be Quick and Efficient

Donations are a vital lifeline for many churches. Because most church budgets are in the red until December, they need to receive donations quickly so they can pay current expenses. Using an efficient online cash app for churches, churches can receive ACH payments the same day and debit and credit card donations in one to three business days. Donations through American Express can take four days. It all adds up to fast, efficient processing for donations to keep your ministry moving forward.

8. Secure Your Peace of Mind: Unwavering Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance for Your Church

Trust is the foundation of a thriving church. Any provider you choose should understand that. That’s why it’s important that your provider meets Level 1 PCI, 3.2 certification. These standards were developed and refined by the top credit card brands through the PCI Security Standards Council, which includes American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard and Visa as its members. With every transaction secured by a PCI-compliant provider, you and your congregation can focus on what truly matters — your mission.

9. Effective, Economical Giving: Lower Costs and Increased Donations

The cost of using Cash App compared to dedicated church giving providers varies based on the church’s account type. So it’s important to know how your church members make donations. In general, credit cards are used more often for church donations, which can mean higher fees.

Although using credit cards can increase the number of donations, the costs rise with each charge and eat into your donation totals. A church-specific payment platform allows donors to elect to offset credit card processing fees by paying the fees themselves, so the church receives the original donation amounts. The option to offset fees (which is not available in Cash App) is important. Your church gets the entire amount the donor intended to give, and the donor gets credit for making a larger donation — their original donation plus the additional amount of the fee.

10. Supercharge Church Management: Comprehensive Reports and Donation Tracking Tailored for You

Even the largest churches face the challenge of limited and overburdened staff. That's why it is important to use dedicated giving tools that are designed to streamline and automate key reports. This saves your staff valuable time and provides your congregation with timely receipts. Being good stewards means fostering happy, generous members. Using a dedicated church giving provider makes this task much easier.