Charging for an Event
Some events cost money to attend, like a retreat, a banquet, or a fundraiser dinner. Churchday lets you set a price per person and collect it as part of registration.
One thing to understand first: Churchday does not process cards or move any money. Payment is self-attested, which means registrants pay you directly through Venmo or Zelle and confirm they have paid while they sign up. You set the price and tell them where to send it, and the money goes straight to your church.
Before you begin
- You need access to create and edit events for your church.
- Create the event first. All of the paid settings live in the event editor, inside the Registration section.
Step-by-step
- Open the event. Go to the Events page, open the event you want to charge for, and scroll down to the Registration section.
- Turn on Paid event. Find the Paid event card and switch it on. This automatically turns registration on, since attendees need to sign up in order to pay.
- Set the amount per person. In the Amount per person field, type the dollar amount, for example "20". Each attendee included in a single registration pays this amount, so a sign-up for a family of four is charged four times the price.
- Choose how they can pay. Under How can they pay?, tick Venmo, Zelle, or both. For each method you tick, enter where to send payment: your Venmo username, or your Zelle email or phone number.
- Add a Venmo profile link (optional). When you tick Venmo, an optional Profile link field appears. If you paste your Venmo profile link, registrants get a one-tap Open Venmo button that jumps straight to your profile, and opens the Venmo app on their phone.
- Allow financial assistance (optional). Switch on Allow financial assistance requests to let registrants ask for help instead of paying. When someone requests assistance, only the event admin is notified.
- Publish the event. Click Publish (or Save if the event is already published). Churchday checks the paid details at this point, so the event goes live ready to collect payment.
Good to know
- Each event has its own payment details. The Venmo and Zelle handles you enter apply to this event only, and nothing is filled in for you on the next one. That's deliberate: the account collecting the money is named on the event that's collecting it, so a retreat and a golf outing can send money to different places, and no event can quietly inherit a destination nobody picked for it.
- The checks only run when you publish. You can save a paid event as a draft with the amount or payment method still blank. Churchday only requires the details when you publish: the amount must be greater than $0, at least one payment method must be picked, and the matching handle (Venmo username or Zelle email or phone) must be filled in. If something is missing, the field is highlighted and the event stays a draft.
- Turning registration off turns paid off. Paid events rely on registration. If you switch the event back to no sign-up, the paid settings turn off too.
- You collect the money, not Churchday. Because payment is self-attested, it is worth confirming payments landed in your own Venmo or Zelle before the event. Churchday records who registered but cannot verify that money changed hands.