Church Giving Statistics 2026
Every number on this page links to its primary source: the original research report, not a blog that quoted a blog. Cite freely; attribution instructions are at the bottom.
How many churches offer digital giving?
Adoption has roughly doubled every eight years: 14% of Protestant churches offered online giving in 2010, 31% in 2015, and 67% by 2023.
67%
of U.S. churches used online giving in 2023, up from 31% in 2015. Nearly half (48%) use it “a lot.” (4,809 congregations surveyed across 58 denominational groups.)
Source: Hartford Institute EPIC research, via Lake Institute on Faith & Giving (2023)
14%
of American Protestant churches offered online giving in 2010, the earliest broad measurement, from a survey of 1,003 churches.
Source: Lifeway Research (2011)
+4.5%
year-over-year growth in digital donations from 2024 to 2025, measured across tens of thousands of churches.
2.3% → 5.1%
digital-wallet giving (Apple Pay, Google Pay) more than doubled its share of church digital giving from 2024 to 2025.
76 / 55 / 24
among churches with digital giving: 76% provide digital-wallet options, 55% offer recurring donations, and only 24% offer giving during livestreamed services.
How do churchgoers actually give?
Half of churchgoers now give digitally, and the weekly-offering habit is giving way to monthly and recurring gifts.
50%
of churchgoers now give digitally, per a decade-long tracking study (2015-2025).
81%
of faith-based donors used digital giving methods for at least part of their giving in 2025.
44%
of Americans say they prefer digital forms of giving (national survey, n=2,016).
49% → 39%
weekly giving declined from 49% of churchgoers in 2015 to 39% in 2025 as monthly and recurring giving rose.
88%
of electronic givers are willing to cover processing fees (2-4%), up from 81% in 2023, versus 51% of traditional givers.
Does digital giving actually increase generosity?
The research consistently associates digital giving options with higher giving, though honest reporting matters: these are correlations from surveys and platform data, not controlled experiments.
55%
of surveyed churches reported an increase in giving for 2025; 63% of those also saw more new donors (n=817 church leaders).
57%
among churches whose giving grew, 57% reported an increase in digital giving versus only 31% reporting growth in cash and check.
70%
of church leaders say technology has increased generosity within their congregation (n=1,700+).
$2,428 vs $1,809
annual per-capita giving at congregations that use electronic giving “a lot” versus those that do not, roughly 30% higher.
Source: Hartford Institute EPIC research, via Lake Institute on Faith & Giving (2023)
Which generations give, and how is that changing?
Boomers still give the most per household, but millennial giving is growing fastest, and younger donors respond measurably to digital options.
+22%
millennial average household charitable giving grew to $1,616 (2024 vs 2021), passing Gen X ($1,371). Gen Z: $867 (+16%); boomers: $3,256 (+27%).
Source: Giving USA / Dunham+Company, Giving by Generation (2025), via Candid
Ages 24-34
are the age group most likely to give above 10% of their income to their church.
~2x
churches offering digital-wallet giving were nearly twice as likely to report increased generosity among 18-29 year-olds.
$146.5B
went to religion in 2024, still the single largest slice of the $592.5B Americans gave to charity.
Source: Giving USA 2025
The cash context: what's in the pews on Sunday
The offering plate assumes pockets carry cash. Increasingly, they don't, and the phones that replaced wallets already know how to tap.
60%+
of in-person U.S. Visa transactions are now tap-to-pay, crossing that threshold for the first time in 2025 (76% globally).
11%
of the year's digital church donations arrive in December, the largest month by share.
12x
higher engagement for NFC taps versus QR codes in the best-documented head-to-head test, a 2012 Kraft in-store pilot. When both were offered side by side, 92% of interactions were taps. (Dated and retail, not church data, but the only rigorous comparison published.)
Citing these statistics
Every figure above links to its primary source; cite the original researcher (Lifeway, Barna, Lake Institute, Ministry Brands, Vanco, Givelify, Pushpay, Giving USA, the Federal Reserve, Visa) for the number itself. If this page helped you find it, a link here helps others find it too:
Church Giving Statistics 2026, Tap.Giving: https://tap.giving/church-giving-statistics.html
A note on rigor: we left out several numbers that circulate widely in church-tech marketing (a "300% giving increase," an "81% participation rate," "NFC is 42x better than QR") because we could not trace them to primary research. If you know a primary source for one of these, email hello@tap.giving and we'll review and add it.
Maintained by Tap.Giving
We make NFC tap-to-give plates for churches: one-time hardware cost, no monthly fees, works with the giving platform you already use. This page exists because we kept needing sourced numbers and couldn't find them in one place.