Suggestions for online donations

Hi, I would like to make 2 suggestions for the online donations website.

1. Have a Memo box for the donation. Example: Tithing for paycheck on Aug 14. Then when I look at payment history, I would want to see the memo in the history report.

2. Be able to change the date of the donation. Right now when I enter a donation, the only option is today. I want to be able to post date the donation to say next Monday etc.

Thank you!

bhoth wrote:Hi, I would like to make 2 suggestions for the online donations website.

To get suggestions to those who make the decisions concerning these matters, please send them through a Feedback link at the LDS.org site. Here at the Forum we can discuss and suggest and agree and disagree, but those who make the decisions very rarely see anything here.

And for the record, I like the suggestion about being able to use a date other than "today".

Since online donations do not support recurring items, I doubt they will ever support future items (post-dated checks) either.

lajackson wrote:

bhoth wrote:Hi, I would like to make 2 suggestions for the online donations website.

To get suggestions to those who make the decisions concerning these matters, please send them through a Feedback link at the LDS.org site. Here at the Forum we can discuss and suggest and agree and disagree, but those who make the decisions very rarely see anything here.

And for the record, I like the suggestion about being able to use a date other than "today".

Thank you, I have submitted feedback as you have recommended.

There is also the option to use bill pay. That's not through the web site. You can set a specific date in the future will bill pay. It's an option that has been around for a long time and people here asked us not to publicize it, but there was some recent discussion that it's no longer discouraged (although I don't know that it's encouraged).

Bank bill pay is still available for the asking. Online Donations is preferred, but it will be the end of the year before it is available in all of the U.S.

I paid my tithing online on 9-14-15. I noticed a -$5 on my bank receipt when I went to it later that day. When I called today about it, I was told that the church donation had attempted to come out of my savings account in which I don't have any money, instead of my checking account where I keep my money and do all my transactions. The bank person on the phone was able to refund the insufficient funds charge, for which I am grateful.
Then I called the church offices about it. The man told me that he would suggest that if the online tithe payer does not notice and check one of the boxes indicating that the donation should come out of the savings or checking accounts, that a red "!" would appear and not allow the donation process to complete until it was done. That is a good idea! Besides, I would think that if a person doesn't check either box that the default setting would go to checking instead of savings since most people used to write checks to pay their tithing! And since most banks give very little if any interest these days, most savings accounts have little money in them. The man at church offices also told me that if I'd take the time to also suggest this online, that you'd pay more attention to me as I'm a user of this online donation service.

SmileyGwendolyn wrote:The man at church offices also told me that if I'd take the time to also suggest this online, that you'd pay more attention to me as I'm a user of this online donation service.

Most likely he was referring to the LDS.org Feedback page:
https://www.lds.org/tools/feedback/?lang=eng
If you submit feedback through there, your comments are routed to the correct department. If several people submit similar feedback, it's more likely to get attention.

I love the idea of the online donations system, but I cannot use it. My personal calendar is such that I rely on the recurring payments feature of my bank's online bill-pay system. My payroll is the same amount each week, soI have my bank automatically send a check to my bishop the same day for my tithing. If I switched to this new system, I would have to remember to do this myself each week, since you do not offer a recurring payments feature. Please add this feature as soon as possible - I want to use it because this new system will solve several problems for me: 1. My bishop actually loses some of the tithing checks sent to him. For example, he moved last year (to a new house within the ward) and several checks were sent to his old address before I found out his new address. He never deposited those checks (they were lost in the move somehow) and I had to re-issue them when I found out about it. 2. This system is much more helpful than doing it through my bank's bill-pay system because my bank does not allow me to put memos on my payments which tell my bishop the breakdown of my payment. 3. I can print my own donation statements at any time without inconveniencing my ward officers to do it for me. Again, PLEASE add a recurring payments feature to this service so that I can use it!

To summarize:
1. You don't want to have to remember to login to lds.org each week to pay your tithes and offerings.
2. You want the bishop to remember to bring your check from his home to the meetinghouse.
3. You want the clerk to fill out a donation slip and return the yellow copy to you.
A possible work-around is for you to ask your bank to mail that check to your home address each week. Then you could fill out your own donation slip, put the white copy into a donation envelope with your check, and give it to a member of the bishopric.

martindad wrote:If I switched to this new system, I would have to remember to do this myself each week,

While there are advantages, there is no requirement to pay tithing weekly if you get a weekly paycheck. You could pay each time you sit down to do monthly bills or anything else that works as a "trigger".

SmileyGwendolyn wrote:I paid my tithing online on 9-14-15. I noticed a -$5 on my bank receipt when I went to it later that day. When I called today about it, I was told that the church donation had attempted to come out of my savings account in which I don't have any money, instead of my checking account where I keep my money and do all my transactions. The bank person on the phone was able to refund the insufficient funds charge, for which I am grateful.
Then I called the church offices about it. The man told me that he would suggest that if the online tithe payer does not notice and check one of the boxes indicating that the donation should come out of the savings or checking accounts, that a red "!" would appear and not allow the donation process to complete until it was done. That is a good idea! Besides, I would think that if a person doesn't check either box that the default setting would go to checking instead of savings since most people used to write checks to pay their tithing! And since most banks give very little if any interest these days, most savings accounts have little money in them. The man at church offices also told me that if I'd take the time to also suggest this online, that you'd pay more attention to me as I'm a user of this online donation service.

You must make a choice between Checking or Savings when setting up the bank account. It will never default to one or the other. If you try to move one without selecting a value, it will not let you save the bank account until you select something.

Dave Martin - Online Donations QA

martindad wrote:I love the idea of the online donations system, but I cannot use it. My personal calendar is such that I rely on the recurring payments feature of my bank's online bill-pay system. My payroll is the same amount each week, soI have my bank automatically send a check to my bishop the same day for my tithing. If I switched to this new system, I would have to remember to do this myself each week, since you do not offer a recurring payments feature. Please add this feature as soon as possible - I want to use it because this new system will solve several problems for me: 1. My bishop actually loses some of the tithing checks sent to him. For example, he moved last year (to a new house within the ward) and several checks were sent to his old address before I found out his new address. He never deposited those checks (they were lost in the move somehow) and I had to re-issue them when I found out about it. 2. This system is much more helpful than doing it through my bank's bill-pay system because my bank does not allow me to put memos on my payments which tell my bishop the breakdown of my payment. 3. I can print my own donation statements at any time without inconveniencing my ward officers to do it for me. Again, PLEASE add a recurring payments feature to this service so that I can use it!

This method of bill pay is quite a hassle for the Bishop and the Finance Clerk. I recommend using Online Donations, but if you insist on Bill Pay, there is a method of Bill Pay that does not require any further action by you, your Bishop, or your Finance Clerk.

There is another danger to using your bank's Bill Pay service. If you ever miss a paycheck, or lose your job, those recurring payments will still occur until you manually stop them. That could cause an overdraft if your balance is typically low. The clerk would then have to deal with an Insufficient Funds scenario. This is avoided by using Online Donations, which uses EFT.

martindad: You can use bill pay to pay directly to church headquarters in Salt Lake. This has been available for a long time, but has not been publicized.

In order to do this, you need to register. I believe you can email donations@ldschurch.org to receive the needed form. I'm not sure if they receive email at that address or if it's not monitored. I had a different email address that has been discontinued, but the bounce email I got a few years ago also gave me the following phone numbers: (801) 240-2554 or 1-800-453-3860 Ext 22554.

martindad wrote:I love the idea of the online donations system, but I cannot use it. My personal calendar is such that I rely on the recurring payments feature of my bank's online bill-pay system. My payroll is the same amount each week, so I have my bank automatically send a check to my bishop the same day for my tithing.

The email address mevans supplied (donations@ldschurch.org) is a good one. If you email them, they will set you up with a true Bank Bill Pay account that will not leave your bank writing a check. Everything will flow directly through the system electronically.

I used it for over a year before Online Donations became active. You cannot directly donate to a ward missionary fund through Bank Bill Pay, but you can to all of the other donation categories.

drepouille wrote:There is another danger to using your bank's Bill Pay service. If you ever miss a paycheck, or lose your job, those recurring payments will still occur until you manually stop them. That could cause an overdraft if your balance is typically low. The clerk would then have to deal with an Insufficient Funds scenario.

Or worse, the tithing does go though and it's another bill that experiences the overdraft. Donations are not refundable.

russellhltn wrote:

drepouille wrote:There is another danger to using your bank's Bill Pay service. If you ever miss a paycheck, or lose your job, those recurring payments will still occur until you manually stop them. That could cause an overdraft if your balance is typically low.

Or worse, the tithing does go though and it's another bill that experiences the overdraft. Donations are not refundable.

However, that's not a distinction between using Bill Pay for donations vs. the Online Donations system -- in either case if your donation is processed first, your balance might be low and other expenses could lead to an overdraft.

The situation drepouille was describing is where your bank balance is insufficient for the donation. In that case, the Online Donations system uses EFT and so an overdraft won't occur -- the EFT attempt will simply be rejected. By contrast, a Bill Pay transaction could possibly cause an overdraft that could lead to bank fees.

drepouille wrote:The clerk would then have to deal with an Insufficient Funds scenario.

However, I believe that most banks will not send out a Bill Pay check if there are insufficient funds. They will very probably charge you a fee for the overdraft, but since the check will never get to the clerk, the clerk won't have to deal with an Insufficient Funds scenario. The reason for this is that Bill Pay checks are not drawn against the individual's bank account, but rather against the bank's account, and so will almost certainly never bounce. The bank will transfer the funds from the individual's account before sending out the check, and if the transfer is unsuccessful, the check is not sent.

aebrown wrote:However, that's not a distinction between using Bill Pay for donations vs. the Online Donations system -- in either case if your donation is processed first, your balance might be low and other expenses could lead to an overdraft.

True, but it's missing the point. A reoccurring transaction will post regardless of your true income situation until you manually stop it. In the aftermath of whatever caused paycheck to missed, the member could forget to stop it. This could include delays until the hires gain control of the account after the member passes away.

Considering that donations are not refundable, I think automatic donations are a bad idea - there's no way to fix things when they go wrong.

Regarding automatic donations: I use Bill Pay via Quicken. I don't have Quicken automatically schedule the transaction; it's just a recurring reminder for me to do the transaction (and make sure I have money to cover it).

Would it be possible to add a "User's notes?" I like the idea of the online donations, but I also like to write on my slips what I've paid on, this helps me make sure that I am up to date. Sometimes the donations is on my check or my wife's check or sometimes it is on something miscellaneous.
Thanks

I understand the option for an automatic recurring on-line donation doesn't work for everyone, but there are many others who would really like the convenience. Any thoughts on if the church will make recurring payments an option?

I setup Bill Pay direct to Church headquarters (no need for Bishop to receive checks or clerk to fill out slip) in 2009. It works great. I do not have to think about it. I cannot forget. It is a blessing from on high. The convenience of recurring payments by far outweighs any benefit the Online system has. The IT department needs to figure out how to make recurring payment possible in the new Online system. It is not possible to pay for a missionary through Online Bill Pay to Church headquarters because those donations, among others, need to go directly to the ward. I use Bill Pay to send a check to the bishop for the monthly missionary payment and I scheduled it out for 18 months. Again, I cannot forget. Yes, the bishop gets it and the clerk does have to fill out a slip. Please add this functionality. I saw that someone noted that if you lose your job the recurring payments keep going. Yes they do. So would utilities, mortgage, rent, insurance, and any other automatic payments you have scheduled. If you lose your job I would hope you immediately review your financial situation and make appropriate adjustments. That is not a valid reason for the Online system not to have recurring payments.

hartvigsen32 wrote:The IT department needs to figure out how to make recurring payment possible in the new Online system.

They will do so when directed to do so by those in authority.

It is possible the church protects itself from having to defend against people who try and get a "refund" for a charitable donation, because they claim that they didn't intentionally make that payment. Or in other wards, the church must account for charitable donations, and by definition, you give that with no strings attached. By requiring people to manually do this, the intent is clear. I'm not sure this is the case, but there may be some tax implications that they are trying to address with this procedure.

The Online Donations system was designed specifically to be as similar as possible to the procedure of handing an envelope to the bishop. Since the only way to make a recurring payment using the manual system is to prepare another envelope and hand it to the bishopric, that is the way the Online Donations system works.

That said, I would like to be able to do it, also. But the best we have for now is the ability to copy and use a previous online donation slip without having to fill it out again. This is helpful for donations to many categories, but for one or two categories, usually it is faster just to fill out the slip again.

russellhltn wrote:

hartvigsen32 wrote:The IT department needs to figure out how to make recurring payment possible in the new Online system.

They will do so when directed to do so by those in authority.

The suggestion that, "now that on-line donations are a possibility, it would be labor-saving to have a frequently-made recurring donation entered once and then automatic until discontinued" is not unreasonable. I choose to interpret previous suggestions as merely noting this convenience, and not implying that Church webmasters are unable to accomplish this technically. As has been suggested elsewhere on this Board, there are bank-sponsored web payment services that will accomplish this same objective . . . you just have to put your faith in the bank. For some of us who trust no institution of this world, but believe the organization on earth administered with Christ at its head is worthy of more trust than most, a recurring payment to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presents, at least to me, the safest possible and most acceptable on-line donation risk. Please feel free to share this view with any decision-makers appropriate.

BStrawn wrote:Would it be possible to add a "User's notes?" I like the idea of the online donations, but I also like to write on my slips what I've paid on, this helps me make sure that I am up to date. Sometimes the donations is on my check or my wife's check or sometimes it is on something miscellaneous.
Thanks

Adding an optional note is now available as a feature.

tlclar wrote:

russellhltn wrote:

hartvigsen32 wrote:The IT department needs to figure out how to make recurring payment possible in the new Online system.

They will do so when directed to do so by those in authority.

The suggestion that, "now that on-line donations are a possibility, it would be labor-saving to have a frequently-made recurring donation entered once and then automatic until discontinued" is not unreasonable. I choose to interpret previous suggestions as merely noting this convenience, and not implying that Church webmasters are unable to accomplish this technically. As has been suggested elsewhere on this Board, there are bank-sponsored web payment services that will accomplish this same objective . . . you just have to put your faith in the bank. For some of us who trust no institution of this world, but believe the organization on earth administered with Christ at its head is worthy of more trust than most, a recurring payment to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presents, at least to me, the safest possible and most acceptable on-line donation risk. Please feel free to share this view with any decision-makers appropriate.

The team is keenly aware of the strong desire to have recurring payment functionality. If it is to be implemented, it will be done at the right time...once all necessary processes are in place and risks mitigated.

Recurring donations-
YES YES
PLEASE PLEASE

Indeed!

scottalanglasgow wrote: Sat Apr 19, 2025 5:58 pm Indeed!

Scott, for your awareness this Tech Forum primarily serves as a location for user-to-user discussion and self-help, and is not connected to Church Support. The way to get this into the Church system for processing, is to use the Feedback functionality which is accessible inside Church apps, as well as via a link at the bottom of most Church webpages. If desired, you can include a link in your Feedback to this Forum post discussion, that is often helpful to give context to what you're asking for.

Please advise - is there a way to make immediate payments from my account.
Balancing my account 3 days after making payment and I note my tithing STILL HAS NOT BEEN DEDUCTED IS VERY FRUSTRATING.
Is there a means for immediate deduction from my banking account in South Africa, like if I was doing a direct transfer. Can I still do those instead of utilizing the online system?