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Giving & Donations

Mission tracks all contributions to your organization — cash, check, card, online, and recurring gifts. Every donation links to a donor record and a fund, giving you a complete financial picture. Terminology varies by engine: "Offerings" for churches, "Donations" for nonprofits and foundations, "Support" for ministries.

Funds​

Funds are the designated categories your organization receives giving for. Before recording donations, set up your funds.

Creating a Fund​

  1. Go to Donations → Funds

  2. Click + Add Fund

  3. Fill in:

    • Name — e.g., General Fund, Building Fund, Missions, Benevolence
    • Description — optional details
    • Goal Amount — optional fundraising goal; shows progress toward goal
    • Is Active — toggle to include/exclude from donation recording

  4. Click Save

Common fund setups:

Organization TypeTypical Funds
ChurchGeneral, Building, Missions, Youth, Benevolence, Capital Campaign
NonprofitOperating, Program A, Program B, Reserve, Capital Projects
FoundationGeneral Endowment, Scholarship Fund, Grant-Making, Administrative
MinistryGeneral Support, Missions Endowment, Field Operations, Training

Fund Goal Tracking​

When a goal is set on a fund, Mission tracks current_amount (sum of all donations to this fund) against the goal. This powers progress indicators in reports.

Recording a Donation​

  1. In the sidebar, click Donations
  2. Click + Record Donation (or use the quick-action button on the Dashboard)
  3. Fill in the donation form:

Required fields:

  • Member — search by name or email; this links the donation to a donor record
  • Amount — dollar amount
  • Fund — the fund receiving this donation
  • Date — when the donation was given (defaults to today)

Optional fields:

  • Payment Method — Cash, Check, Card, Online, Other
  • Reference Number — check number or transaction ID for reconciliation
  • Notes — internal notes (e.g., "received in Sunday envelope #1234")
  1. Click Save

A donation receipt email is queued automatically and sent within 15 minutes.

Payment Methods​

MethodWhen to Use
CashPhysical cash received in offering or at the office
CheckPhysical check. Record the check number in Reference Number
CardCredit/debit card transaction processed in person
OnlineTransaction processed through your giving platform (Stripe, Pushpay, etc.)
OtherStock gifts, in-kind donations, wire transfers
ℹ️

Mission records donations but does not process payments directly (except via recurring donation Stripe integration when configured). For online giving, use your preferred giving platform and record the donations in Mission.

Recurring Donations​

Mission tracks recurring donation pledges. A recurring donation record stores:

  • Member, amount, and fund
  • Frequency (Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually)
  • Next charge date
  • Status (Active, Paused, Cancelled)

A background process runs daily to process recurring donations that are due, creating donation records and advancing the next_charge_at date. Stripe integration is planned for direct charge processing; currently the system creates the donation record and you reconcile with your payment processor.

Creating a Recurring Donation​

  1. Go to Donations
  2. Click + Recurring Donation
  3. Select the member, amount, fund, and frequency
  4. Set the start date (first charge date)
  5. Save

Editing and Deleting Donations​

Click the edit icon on any donation record to correct the amount, fund, date, or method. Click delete to remove a donation. All changes are audit-logged.

⚠️

Deleting a donation is permanent after the 30-day soft-delete window. For audit purposes, prefer correcting errors by editing rather than deleting.

Giving Reports​

Year-to-Date Report​

Navigate to Reports → Giving to see:

  • Total giving year-to-date across all funds
  • Breakdown by fund showing total received and percentage of goal (if set)
  • Filterable by date range

Member Giving History​

Open any person record to see their complete donation history, including:

  • Each donation with date, amount, fund, and method
  • Year-to-date total

Annual Giving Statements​

Mission automatically generates annual giving statements each January 1–7 and sends them to donors by email. Statements summarize all donations recorded in the prior calendar year.

To manually generate and send a statement for a specific donor at any time:

  1. Open their person record
  2. Go to the Giving section
  3. Click Generate Statement

Giving Receipts​

A donation receipt is sent automatically within 15 minutes of recording a donation. Receipts are sent to the donor's email address on file. They include:

  • Organization name and contact info
  • Donation date, amount, fund, and payment method
  • IRS disclaimer text (for US organizations)

If a donor does not have an email address on file, no receipt is sent. Add their email to their person record to enable receipts.

Reconciliation​

For batch reconciliation (e.g., weekly counting of Sunday offering):

  1. Record all donations from the batch with the actual donation date
  2. Use the Reference Number field to note envelope numbers or check numbers
  3. Run the Giving Report filtered to that date range to verify totals match your physical count

For organizations importing historical giving data, see Migration.