I'll be honest: I didn't see this one coming. At Thrive, a lot of our people give through Venmo. Not because we pushed it, but because it's already on their phone and they already use it to split dinner with friends. Giving to the church just became one more thing they do in the app they already open every day.
If that's happening at your church too, or you're wondering if it should, here's how it actually works. Everything below comes straight from Venmo's and PayPal's own help pages and fee schedule.
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Don't use a personal Venmo for church money
First things first. Please don't have people Venmo the pastor or the treasurer. Beyond the obvious problems with mixing personal and church money, there are no proper donation receipts, and if a giver marks it as goods and services, Venmo charges the receiver a 2.99% fee (Venmo fees).
What you want is a Venmo charity profile. It's built for this.
What a charity profile gets you
According to Venmo's Charity Profile FAQ, a charity profile comes with:
- A blue checkmark badge showing you're verified
- A fee of 1.9% + $0.10 per donation
- Donation history and account statements with donor contact information
- A QR code for in-person giving (put it on a slide or the lobby sign)
- A wallet that's separate from your personal Venmo payments
- Same-day access to funds (fees apply)
Who's eligible
Venmo charity profiles are available to charitable organizations and 501(c)(3)s (setup guide). The key is that your charity status has to be confirmed on PayPal first, because Venmo is owned by PayPal and the charity profile hangs off a PayPal charity account.
Your church also has to stay in good standing. Venmo says it's required by California regulation AB 488 to verify that charities are in good standing with the IRS, the California Franchise Tax Board and the California Attorney General, and it will suspend donations for a charity that loses that status (good standing requirements). Keep your filings current.
How to set it up
Here's the process from Venmo's setup guide and PayPal's help article:
- Start with a PayPal business account for the church, and get your charity status confirmed on PayPal.
- Pick the owner carefully. The person who owns the PayPal charity account must be the same person who owns the Venmo account, and the first and last names must match. Ownership of a Venmo account can't be transferred right now, so don't pick the volunteer who's moving next spring.
- Use a church phone number. PayPal recommends a company cell number instead of a personal one.
- Go from PayPal to Venmo. PayPal sends you over to Venmo to create the charity profile. You can use an existing Venmo login, which connects the charity profile to that personal account, or create a new one. If that Venmo account already has a business profile, it can't be used. You'll need a brand-new account.
- Fill out the profile. Verify the phone number, add an email and password, agree to Venmo's terms, then choose a username, category and description, and add photos.
- Preview and publish.
Two more details: each charity can only have one Venmo charity profile, and the profile is managed in the Venmo app, though you can see transaction history and statements from a web browser.
What it costs, next to the giving apps
Venmo charges the charity 1.9% + $0.10 on every donation of $1 or more. The donor pays nothing, and donors who give with a credit card are exempt from Venmo's usual 3% credit card fee (charity profile fees). On a $100 gift, the church keeps $98. Venmo says it can't refund those fees.
Here's how that compares with the rates from our church giving app fees comparison:
| Platform | Card rate | $100 card gift costs | $100 ACH gift costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Venmo charity profile | 1.9% + $0.10 (any funding source) | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Planning Center Giving | 2.15% + $0.30 | $2.45 | $0.30 |
| Every.org | 2.2% + $0.30 | $2.50 | $0 |
| Tithe.ly | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 | $1.30 |
| Givelify | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 | $3.20 |
| Vanco ($0 plan) | 2.90% + $0.45 | $3.35 | $1.45 |
So for a gift someone would have made by card, Venmo is the cheapest option on this list. For bank (ACH) gifts, it isn't: Planning Center Giving charges $0.30 on a $100 bank gift, compared with Venmo's $2.00. If your givers are mostly bank-transfer people, keep pointing them to ACH.
Receipts and giving statements
This part is better than I expected. For every donation to a charity profile, Venmo automatically sends an official donation receipt to the email on the donor's Venmo account. It's part of the payment confirmation and can't be turned off. You can also download an account statement from the Venmo website with your donation history and donor details (Receiving Donations FAQ). Venmo's User Agreement calls the donor's receipt "a donation receipt that may be used for tax purposes."
The catch is that your year-end giving statements still come from your church. Venmo gives you the data, but it doesn't drop into your ChMS on its own. Somebody downloads the statement and enters those gifts so each person's year-end statement includes their Venmo giving. Put that on the calendar monthly, not just in January.
The honest downsides
- Your donor records live in two places. Venmo gifts aren't in your ChMS until someone puts them there. Miss a month and your year-end statements are wrong.
- You can't market to those emails. Venmo asks charities to use donor emails only to acknowledge gifts and send receipts, not for general marketing (Receiving Donations FAQ). Venmo givers don't automatically join your newsletter.
- No recurring giving that I could find. Venmo's donation help pages describe one-time donations only. Your faithful monthly givers are better off on a giving app with recurring gifts, so Venmo works best alongside one, not instead of one.
- One owner, no transfers. The profile is tied to one person and can't be transferred. Make sure that person is staff and plans to stick around.
- Giving can show in the feed. When a donor shares their Venmo activity publicly or with friends, the donation and note show up in the Venmo feed (Sending Donations FAQ). Some people love that. Some want their giving private, so remind them they can control it.
- Venmo can promote you. By opening a charity profile, you allow Venmo to use your church's name and logo to promote your charity and ask for donations on Venmo (User Agreement).
How I'd use it
Use Venmo as an extra door, not the main entrance. Keep your main giving app for recurring and ACH gifts. Add the Venmo QR code to the giving slide and the lobby, especially for younger folks and first-time guests who'll never download a church app. Then put a monthly reminder on someone's calendar to bring Venmo gifts into your ChMS.
That's what's worked for us. People give where they already are, and our job is to make it easy and keep good records.
Browse every online giving tool we track, with sourced pros and cons.