How giving works
Apollos Giving lets members give to your church from the app, your website, a Tap tag, or an App Clip — and every gift flows automatically into your giving records. This page explains the big picture: how money moves, what Apollos handles for you, and how gifts end up in your church management system.
Two ways to use Apollos for giving
Apollos giving products are packages you can add to any plan:
- Apollos Giving — the full giving suite described throughout this section: Stripe-powered payments, funds, recurring gifts, every payment method, donor migration tools, reporting, and giving emails.
- Apollos Pay — express payment options (Apple Pay and Google Pay) in your app while you keep your existing giving provider (such as Pushpay) for traditional giving. A good fit if you're not ready to migrate but want one-tap giving today.
This section documents Apollos Giving. If you're using Apollos Pay alongside another provider, the express-checkout experience works the same way. Churches can also allow app-sourced web giving to use the full Apollos card and bank-account form while other web visitors continue to use the existing provider. See Payment methods.
How it works
When a member gives, the gift follows the same path every time:
- The member chooses an amount, a fund, and a payment method — in the app, on your website, or through a Tap tag or App Clip.
- Stripe processes the payment. Stripe is the payment processor behind all Apollos giving. The charge goes directly to your church's own Stripe account.
- The gift appears in Admin. Within a few minutes, the gift shows up in Giving → Transactions in Admin.
- Apollos matches the gift to a member profile. If the member was signed in when they gave, the match is automatic. If not, Apollos matches by email, phone, or name — and creates a new profile if no match is found.
- The gift syncs to your church management system. Apollos pushes the gift to Rock RMS (or your ChMS) automatically. This usually takes a few minutes — it is not instant.
Your church's own Stripe account
Every church on Apollos has its own Stripe account, connected through Stripe Connect. This matters for three reasons:
- Donations go directly to your church. Apollos never holds your money — it facilitates the connection between your giving experience and your Stripe account.
- Your finances stay separate. Your transactions, payouts, and reports belong to your church alone.
- You stay in control. You can sign in to your own Stripe dashboard to view transactions, manage payouts to your bank account, and handle disputes.
What members can do
- Give once — a single gift, processed immediately.
- Give on a schedule — weekly, every two weeks, monthly, or on the 1st and 15th of each month. See Recurring giving.
- Choose how to pay — credit or debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a US bank account (ACH). See Payment methods.
- Choose where the gift goes — any fund your church has set up.
- Receive a receipt — every gift triggers an email receipt with your church's branding. See Giving emails.
Funds
Funds let members choose where their gift goes — General Fund, Building Fund, Missions, Youth Ministry, and so on. Funds can:
- Be organized in a parent/child hierarchy (for example, "Missions" with "Local Missions" and "International Missions" underneath).
- Be campus-specific, so members at a campus only see the funds that apply to them.
- Be linked to the matching fund in Rock RMS (or your ChMS), so every gift lands in the right place in your records.
You manage funds in Admin under Giving → Funds. See Set up giving.
How gifts reach Rock RMS (and other systems)
Gifts sync automatically to your church management system in the background:
- Rock RMS has the most complete sync: one-time gifts, recurring gift schedules, refunds, and cancellations all sync.
- Planning Center, CCB, Ministry Platform, and Touchpoint sync one-time and recurring gift transactions.
- Refunds issued in Stripe sync back to Rock automatically, including chargebacks.
The sync runs every few minutes, so a brand-new gift may take a little while to appear in Rock. If a gift hasn't shown up after an hour, see Giving troubleshooting.