One-time donations
Single gifts made through the member portal or donation page, applied to a general fund or a named designation. These are the most common giving type and the baseline any donation system must handle well.
Online Donations for Synagogues
Charitable giving is central to synagogue operations. But collecting donations efficiently — across one-time gifts, recurring pledges, designated funds, event sponsorships, and High Holiday appeals — requires a system that can handle the full lifecycle of a gift: collection, designation, acknowledgment, and annual tax documentation. This guide explains how synagogues manage online donations effectively.
Types of giving synagogues manage
Recurring donations
Members who want to support the synagogue on a regular basis can set up recurring giving schedules — monthly or annual — that collect automatically without requiring action from the donor or the office each cycle.
Designated funds
Synagogues maintain multiple named funds — a building fund, a scholarship fund, a youth programming fund — and donors direct their gifts to specific designations. The system tracks each gift by designation for reporting and accounting purposes.
Kiddush and event sponsorships
Sponsorship of Shabbat kiddushim and other shul events is both a fundraising mechanism and a community engagement tool. Managing sponsorship intake, acknowledgment, and payment in one place connects event logistics to the giving record.
Aliyah pledges
When a congregant is called for an aliyah and makes a pledge at the bimah, that pledge needs to flow into a billing record and be tracked to completion. The gap between the pledge moment and actual collection is where most aliyah revenue is lost in shuls without a structured pipeline.
Campaign-based fundraising
Annual campaigns — High Holiday appeals, capital campaigns, matching gift drives — require their own collection page, goal tracking, and reporting distinct from routine giving. Campaign modules handle this without mixing campaign results with general operating donation data.
How payment and settlement work
Direct settlement to the synagogue
All donations collected through GabbaiPro are processed by Stripe and settle directly to the synagogue's connected bank account. GabbaiPro does not hold, commingle, or take custody of charitable funds. Your treasurer can verify every transaction independently in Stripe's dashboard.
Card and ACH support
Donors can give by credit or debit card, or by ACH bank transfer. ACH is particularly useful for larger gifts, where donors prefer to avoid card processing fees — though Stripe's fee structure applies regardless of method.
Tax receipts and annual giving statements
Every donation generates a receipt stored in the donor's giving history. At year-end, annual giving statements covering all charitable contributions can be issued to households for IRS substantiation purposes.
Donations in GabbaiPro
One-time donations, recurring donations, and designated funds are included on all GabbaiPro plans. Kiddush and event sponsorships are included on Growth and Pro. The fundraising module and campaign workflows are Pro-only. All plans include donor receipt history and annual giving statement generation.