There are several ways to give to Foothill Church.

By cash or check. Place cash or check in a Foothill Church giving envelope. Note that you can also give via credit/debit card by writing your info on the envelope, as well as set-up recurring gifts. These transactions are processed on the next business day after Sunday service. Envelopes are also postage-paid and you are welcome to take them home and mail them to the office at any time.

By Text. Using a smart phone, text any dollar amount to 84321. There will be a quick, self-guided process to connect your phone to Foothill Church Center, your donor account, and your chosen payment source. After the initial setup, simply text a dollar amount to 84321 for future donations

Online. Please go to our giving page and click the “Give Online” button to set-up a one-time or recurring gift using your bank account or credit/debit card.

Foothill Church Center App. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play to give using your bank account or with your credit/debit card. You may give a one-time gift or set up a recurring gift.

Giving directly through your bank account is our preferred way for contributors to give. Foothill Church pays the least amount of processing fees with this method.

Yes. Foothill Church takes the safety and security of your information very seriously. No credit card or banking information is kept beyond initializing your authorized gift. All hard copies of giving records are stored securely with limited access.

Foothill Church is also PCI compliant and is tested quarterly to ensure the utmost security.

We’ve outsourced the text-to-give, Church Center App, and online giving process to the professionals at Planning Center. The following statement is from Planning Center’s explanation of security:

Like any merchant that handles credit card payments, Planning Center must comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS, or PCI for short). Planning Center is a Level One compliant merchant. Our Attestation of Compliance documentation is available upon request at support@planningcenter.com.

In practice, we go well beyond what basic security frameworks require. For example:

• Instead of scheduled and narrowly scoped penetration testing required by these security frameworks, we conduct ongoing penetration testing through HackerOne‘s open bounty program.

• We use local 2-factor-auth (hardware keys, fingerprint scanners, etc) for any employee accessing customer data in the course of providing customer support.

• Although the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies only to customers within the EU, we hold to this standard for all customers even though 95% of them are in the US.

For more about PCI compliance levels, check out this guide from Stripe. Learn about all the ways Planning Center protects your privacy and secures your data on our Security page.

You can make any change to your account by logging into your Foothill Church Center account and navigating to the My Giving portion of the site.

All giving records are stored securely in Foothill Church Center. You can view your giving history or download a giving statement for tax purposes at any time.

Gifts are typically recorded and listed in your Foothill Church Center profile on the following schedule:

Foothill Church Giving Envelope – 1 business day after Sunday services.

Credit/Debit card – received 2 business days after the transaction is processed and recorded within 1 business day of the Sunday thereafter.

ACH/Bank Account – received 6-7 business days after the transaction is processed and recorded within 1 business day of the Sunday thereafter.

In order to receive giving credit for IRS/Tax purposes, all cash or check gifts must be received or postmarked by December 31st of that tax year. All gifts using your bank account or credit/debit card must be processed by 11:59 pm of December 31.

Yes. Foothill Church pays the following fees based on the amount of individual gifts:

0.30¢ per transaction through your Bank Account (recommended)

2.15% + 0.30¢ per transaction with a debit/credit card

Yes, however Foothill Church generally only has the following two funds available on our giving page:

Foothill Fund

This fund is for all general tithes and offerings. These funds support the ministries and operations of Foothill Church. This includes our Foothill Kids and High School/Junior High Student Ministries!

Sending Fund

All gifts designated to this fund will be temporarily restricted for support of ministries outside of Foothill Church. These include, but are not limited, to missions and outreach organizations along with church plants and church planting efforts.

Benevolence

The purpose of the benevolence fund is to provide care, assistance and/or financial support during a time of crisis, need, illness or suffering, primarily for Covenant Partners. All funds donated will be used for such cases.

What are “Designated Gifts?”

Designated contributions are those made to Foothill Church with the stipulation that they be used for a specified purpose. If the purpose is an approved project or program of Foothill Church, the designation will not affect the deductibility of the contribution.

Can I designate a gift for an individual or missionary?

If a donor stipulates a contribution towards a specific individual, a tax deduction is not ordinarily allowed unless Foothill Church exercises full administrative control over the donated funds, ensuring they are being spent to further the church’s exempt purposes. If the contribution is towards a particular missionary, tax-exemption is possible if Foothill Church exercises full administrative and accounting control over the donated funds, ensuring they are being spent to further the church’s exempt purposes.

Foothill Church will make every effort to honor designated contributions. Contributions become the property of Foothill Church and Foothill Church has the discretion to determine how best to use all contributions to carry out its functions and purposes.

ECFA stands for Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. ECFA-certified churches are committed to upholding the Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship™, drawn from Scripture, and are fundamental to operating with integrity. Accountability to God is vital, but people form their impressions of both people and organizations by looking at the outward appearances (1 Samuel 16:7). The seven standards can be found on the ECFA website: ecfa.church/standards