Online Giving FAQ

New Life Presbyterian Church in La Mesa recently added digital giving as an option for giving tithes and offerings to the church. Since this is new for us, here are answers to questions you might have about how to give in this new way.

What is Digital Giving?

Digital giving is a means to give your tithes and/or offerings using your mobile device rather than giving cash or a  paper check. 

How do I Give Digitally?

You can access the Online Giving Portal (powered by Subsplash) by

After entering an amount you will then be prompted to create a login account. When accessing the Online Giving Portal, you should see a screen that looks something like this:


Online Giving Portal


You may set up your first give here. If you would just like to sign up and not set up giving yet, click on the white “profile” icon at the top right of the screen and follow directions to create an account.

  1. Before you give, you must first create an account with Subsplash for giving (email address required). To set up the your account:
  2. Follow instructions above that re-directs you to a web browser at subsplash.com. Create an account with your email address
  3. Identify how you would like to pay: via credit card, debit card, or direct bank transfer (bank account and routing number needed)
  4. Once the account is created, you can then set up the amount and frequency of giving.


Can I Set Up Recurring giving?

Yes. You can set up giving to give weekly, 2x/month, bi-monthly, monthly, or just one-time. 

Do I Still Get Receipts for Giving?

Yes. All giving is tied to your name and the Treasurer will include both your digital giving and physical giving into a single summary statement. 

How Do I See How Much I Have Given?

Once you sign up for giving, you have access to the Subsplash dashboard for your account that includes your giving preferences and settings as well as a history of your giving. 

For Credit Card Giving, who pays the credit card fees?

As a default, New Life pays the credit card fees, which is 2.3% of the transaction amount plus $0.30 per transaction. You get a tax deduction for the full amount given; New Life will pay the credit card fees. In other words, New Life will receive your tithe/offering minus the credit card fees. For example, for a $100 gift, New Life will pay $2.30 + $0.30 = $2.60 in fees and will receive $97.40. You will be credited with a $100 gift.

Subsplash has an option for the donor to offset this fee by selecting a checkbox when you set up your giving. If you would prefer that New Life gets the full gift, check this box and you will pay the transaction fees. 

What is a Direct Bank Transfer?

Another option for digital giving is an Automatic Clearing House (ACH) transfer, a bank-to-bank transfer from your bank account to New Life’s bank account. To set up the transfer you will need to provide your bank account number and your bank’s routing number. See your bank web site to find out the correct routing number. 

ACH transfers incur a 1% fee, significantly less than credit card transfers. Just as with credit card transfers, New Life will pay the 1% fee but the giver will receive credit for their full gift amount. In this case, if you give $100, New Life will pay $1.00 in fees and receive $99.00. You will be credited with a $100 gift.

Is Digital Giving Secure?

Yes. Subsplash obtains an annual Payment Card Industry (PCI) Level 1 Data Security Standard, the level required to process more than 6 million payments annually. This is the same standard required by any organization that processes credit card payments, (such as retailers and hotel chains). You can read more about these standards at the Subsplash website. (https://help.subsplash.com/hc/en-us/articles/115007631027-How-secure-is-Subsplash-Giving)

Only a very few individuals at New Life have access to the dashboard that shows who gave digitally: currently a 2 Trustees and the Treasurer, controls consistent with what we do for giving with paper checks and cash. No one at New Life has access to or can see your credit card information or bank account information; only the name, date of giving and amount are able to be seen. 

Can I Still Designate to the Deacon Fund, Missions Fund, or Building Fund?

Yes, you can designate to the general fund, deacon fund, missions fund or building fund. When you set up giving, you will see these giving categories as options. There are no additional options at this time as is currently available, such as “Other”. If you would like to designate in a way other that to the General Fund, Deacons, Missions, or Building, please give with a paper check and envelope as we have done in the past.

Should I still put offering envelopes into the offering bag if I’m giving digitally?

If you would like to add a tangible, public act of worship to your giving, we recommend still using your offering envelope to put into the offering bag. Indicate on the envelope that you give digitally to alert the counters that they should not expect any gift in the envelope.