St. George has just completed setting up an Online Giving option with Tithe.ly.
 
What is Online giving?  Online giving allows payments to be made either through a credit card, debit card, or directly from a bank account.
 
Why are you doing this?  Online giving options for charities have been available for over 20 years. Online giving has become more and more popular over the years, and is widely used today by numerous churches and the vast majority of charities.
 
St. George is adding this as an additional payment option for persons to donate to St. George.  Obviously, our traditional options of donating to St. George by cash or check will continue for those who prefer to use those methods.
 
Why are you using Tithe.ly?  Tithe.ly is the #1 giving platform for churches. Over 37,000 churches and ministries in 50 countries around the world use Tithe.ly. Additionally, our website host, Orthodox Web Solutions, recommends Tithe.ly, and has developed a fully integrated option to work with our website. Finally, there were no set-up fees or monthly fees for using Tithe.ly.  We have set up an account with Tithe.ly and executed several test donations over the past few weeks to verify that the donations are processed and documented properly to our checking account.
 
What are the fees to make a donation with Tithe.ly?  As with all electronic payment methods, there are fees charged to use/process donation payments with online giving.  The traditional credit card or debit card fee to make a donation is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Note: American Express charges a higher processing fee, using their card will cost 3.65% + $0.30 per transaction. If you choose to use your bank account, the fee is 1.0% + $0.30 per transaction. We ask those who wish to use the online donation service to pay for the donation fees, as this is a common practice when donating to a charity.
 
How do I make an online donation? Currently, there are two methods to make an online donation to St. George:

Option 1 – Using the donation platform on our website: (https://www.stgeorgetrumbull.org). On the navigation bar at the top of the website, click onto the “Support / Donate link”. This will open up to our donation platform page. Click onto the red “Donate” button and a Tithe.ly payment window will open up where you can make your donation. This payment window is similar to what you will find if you use any other online payment function for any retail or charity provider.  If you intend to use the online donations payment method frequently, to speed up the process of making a donation, you may set up an account with Tithe.ly (the link to set up an account is on the top right of the Tithe.ly payment window).

Option 2 – Using the Tithe.ly App on your mobile phone.
You may download the Tithe.ly Mobile app for Apple phones (iOS) on the App Store, or for  Google phones (Android) on the Google Play Store. The correct Tithe.ly app icon has a light green background. After downloading the Tithe.ly app, it will ask you to set up an account (name, email address, PIN).  Next it will ask you to “Find a church …“  Search for and select:  “St. George Orthodox Church, 5490 Main St. Trumbull”.  Follow the payment instructions to finish setting up your account and to make a donation (Credit, Debit, or Bank Account).
 
Future capability: After running for a few weeks, we will be working on setting up a Kiosk (to operate off of a tablet) to make online donations at St. George. This would facilitate parishioners or visitors requesting to make an online donation at the church, assuming they have a credit card, debit card, or their bank account information with them.  This Kiosk/tablet would also be available for use during the Fall Bazaar and other fund raising events for credit card transactions.