Church year-end giving: what to fix on your website before December 31

Every December, a lot of faithful people sit down at the kitchen table, look back over the year, and decide to give one more gift to their church before the year closes. Church year-end giving is real, it's generous, and for a lot of churches it makes up a big piece of the budget. So here's the question I'd ask any pastor in the middle of November: when that person picks up their phone on December 30 and goes to your website to give, how easy is it?

I've looked at a lot of church websites, and I'll be honest. The Give button is often the most neglected thing on the site. It points to an old form, or it's buried three menus deep, or it opens a page that just says "Coming soon." None of that matters much in July. It matters a lot in the last two weeks of December.

This post covers what to check now, what to tell your people, and one change in the tax rules this year that is genuinely good news for churches.

Why year-end giving lands on your website

Most year-end gifts aren't made in the offering plate. They're made at home, at night, between Christmas and New Year's, by someone who already loves your church and just needs to get it done. They aren't browsing. They're on a mission, usually on a phone, and they'll give up if it's confusing.

That's why I think of the Give page as a ministry page, not a money page. You're helping a generous person finish something they've already decided to do. Every extra tap is a chance for them to set the phone down and forget.

A church year-end giving check for your website

Take fifteen minutes this week, grab your phone, and do this yourself. Not on the office computer. On your phone, the way your people will.

1. Find Give in one tap. From your home page, can you get to giving without opening a menu? A Give button in the header or a giving band near the bottom of the home page both work.
2. Make sure the link goes to the right place. Click it. Does it open the giving tool you actually use today, or one you switched away from two years ago? You'd be surprised how often it's the second.
3. Give a real gift. Five dollars is fine. Walk through it like a member would. How many screens? Did it ask you to create an account? Did you get a receipt by email?
4. Check the funds. If people can give to a building fund, missions or benevolence, are those options there and named the way your church talks about them?
5. Look for a recurring option. December is when some people decide to start giving every month in the new year. Make it easy to say yes.

If any of those steps tripped you up, fix that first. If your giving tool itself is the problem (high fees, a clunky checkout, no recurring gifts), I compared the big ones in Tithe.ly vs Pushpay vs Subsplash: church giving fees compared. Just don't switch platforms in the middle of December. Fix the link and the page now, and make the bigger change in January.

What actually counts as a 2026 gift

This is the part your people will ask about, so it helps if your church office knows the answer. These come straight from IRS Publication 526.

A gift counts in the year it's delivered. A check you mail counts on the date it's mailed, so a check postmarked December 31 is a 2026 gift even if it reaches the church in January. A gift charged to a credit card counts in the year it's charged. A gift by text message counts in the year the text is sent, when it's billed to the phone account. A gift through a pay by phone account counts on the date the bank actually pays it.

What that means in plain words: online giving on December 31 is the cleanest way for someone to make a last minute gift. A check dropped in the plate on Sunday, January 3 is a 2027 gift, no matter what the memo line says.

This year, December 31 falls on a Thursday. That means your last Sunday of the year is December 27. Put the online giving link in front of people that Sunday, in your email that week, and on your website. That's the moment people are thinking about it.

The 2026 change most people haven't heard about

Here's the good news. For years, most people couldn't deduct their giving at all, because they take the standard deduction instead of itemizing. That changes this year.

Beginning with the 2026 tax year, people who don't itemize can deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts to qualifying charities, or up to $2,000 for a married couple filing jointly. The IRS says this one applies to cash gifts only (noncash gifts like stock don't count), and gifts to donor advised funds and supporting organizations don't qualify. A church is the kind of charity this was built for.

I'm not a tax advisor, and I'd never tell a church member how to file. But it's fair and helpful to let people know the rule exists. A short, honest line in your December email or bulletin is enough: "New this year, you may be able to deduct up to $1,000 ($2,000 for married couples) of your giving even if you don't itemize. Check with your tax preparer." Then point them to the IRS or their own advisor for the details.

Receipts and the January rush

The second wave of year-end giving questions comes in January, when people start on their taxes. Getting this right is part of caring for your people.

The IRS requires a written acknowledgment for any single gift of $250 or more. It needs to show the amount and say whether the church gave anything in return, which for a normal tithe or offering is nothing. For smaller gifts, a bank record or a receipt from the church showing the church's name, the date and the amount is enough.

Most giving tools email a receipt for every online gift and can send a giving statement for the year. Before December, check that yours does, that the receipts carry your church's correct name, and that someone knows how to send the annual statements in January. If your church sends those by hand, put a date on the calendar now.

Your Christmas Eve guests are watching too

One more thing. The same week people give at year's end, your Christmas Eve services bring in the most guests you'll see all year. Many of them will look at your website before they come and after they leave. A clear, current site serves both groups at once: the member finishing their year-end gift, and the neighbor deciding whether to come back in January.

If you haven't set up your Christmas page yet, I walked through it in Church Christmas marketing starts with one page: your Christmas Eve page. Do that one and your Give page in the same afternoon.

If your website is the real problem

Sometimes the Give button is just a symptom. The site is hard to update, the volunteer who built it moved away, and nobody knows how to change a link. If that's where you are, it's worth knowing there's a simpler path.

That's a big part of why I built Church Studio. Type in your current website address and it brings over your words, photos, staff and events, including the giving link you already use, so your Give button points to the right place from day one. You can edit any of it from your phone. It's $39 a month, and you can try it free for 14 days with no card at whiteoakmedia.io/church-studio.

Either way, take those fifteen minutes this week. Generous people want to give to your church in December. Let's make it easy for them.