Taking Mass Intention Offerings Online

What Has to Hold Whichever You Choose §

We make Mass intention software, so weigh what follows accordingly. We’ve tried to describe every option the way we’d want ours described.

Four things don’t change with the tool. Every appearance of trade is to be kept away from Mass offerings (canon 947), so the page shouldn’t read like a shop. Priests are earnestly urged to celebrate for people’s intentions even when nothing has been given (canon 945 §2), so no one should have to pay to ask. Each offering accepted is owed a Mass of its own (canon 948). And every offering goes into the Mass book beside its Mass, as what was actually given (canon 958; what a request form must never do).

Can We Use Our Online Giving Platform? §

If your parish already takes the Sunday collection online, the quickest step is a fund for Mass offerings on the same platform. One parish in Wyoming does this through OSV’s giving site: “Under Gift Information, choose Mass Intention as the fund,” then say who the Mass is for, whether they’re living or have died, and who is asking. The office then gets in touch with the date and time.¹

The giving platforms sold to parishes make room for a fund like that. OSV says of its Online Giving that “Funds are limitless,”² ParishSOFT Giving offers “Unlimited Fund Designations,”³ and Pushpay sells Pushpay Giving to parishes on its own.⁴ None of the three gives its rates on the pages we read; Pushpay’s says to ask for a demo “for answers and pricing options.” Givelify does publish its rate: 2.9% plus 30 cents a gift, with no monthly charge, as of October 2026.⁵

What this does well is familiarity. Parishioners already know the site, many have accounts, and the money arrives where the office already reconciles the collection.

What it can’t do is know which Mass a gift is for. The gift lands in a giving report, not the Mass book, so someone matches it to its request, gives it a Mass, and writes it in the book. Turn off recurring gifts on that fund, since each repeat would be another offering owed a Mass of its own. And if your platform sends year-end giving statements, ask your diocese’s finance office whether Mass offerings belong on them (Mass offerings and taxes).

Is a Payment Link Enough? §

A payment link is the quickest thing to set up. Stripe’s Payment Links need “no code,” can be shared by email or as a QR code, and can take “pay-what-you-want payments,” at 2.9% plus 30 cents a card as of October 2026.⁶ PayPal’s standard checkout rate is 3.49% plus 49 cents; its charity rate, 1.99% plus 49 cents, is “subject to eligibility, application, and pre-approval by PayPal.”⁷ Square’s online rate depends on which of its plans you’re on.⁸

The money goes straight to the parish’s account, and the amount can be left to the giver. But these tools are made for selling, so set the link up as a gift with no fixed amount, and where the tool lets you choose the button’s words, choose “Give” rather than “Buy” or “Checkout”. Like a giving fund, a link knows nothing about the Mass, so the office still matches each gift by hand.

What Does Mass Intention Software Add? §

Software made for Mass intentions takes the request and the offering together, so the offering arrives tied to its Mass and goes into the register with it. A good one shows only Masses that are still free, so two people can’t be promised the same one.

It’s also a new system for the office to learn, and usually a subscription. Before you choose one, ask:

• Does the offering go into the parish’s own account, or through the company’s?
• Does the company keep any part of it, beyond what the card processor takes?
• Can someone ask for a Mass with no offering, and is that request written in the book like any other?
• Is there a cart, a running total or a “checkout” anywhere on the page?

Can We Just Not Take Offerings Online? §

Yes. Requests can still come through a form, by phone or at the desk, with the offering handed in at the office, dropped in the collection in an envelope, or mailed. One parish in Georgia takes requests at the office or by phone and says plainly, “A Mass intention will never be declined for lack of an offering.”⁹

There’s nothing to set up and no processor’s share. The main drawback is the parishioner who lives three states away, who has to mail a check.

The Four Options Side by Side §

What Do Card Rates Do to the Offering? §

Every card processor keeps a share. At Stripe’s standard 2.9% plus 30 cents,¹⁰ a $10 offering reaches the parish as $9.41, and the priest is owed the offering. Omaha’s finance office gives two ways to settle the difference: record what the priest is owed as what actually reached the bank, or “refund the bank account for the administrative fee,” so that “the priest will obtain the true value of the stipend given.”¹¹

OSV and ParishSOFT both let the giver add the processor’s share.^{2 3} Whether to ask is a question for your diocese’s finance office. If you do ask, our suggestion is to show it as its own line beside the offering, never folded into it.

How Memento Keeps This §

In Memento, online offerings go through Stripe only, because Memento connects directly to the parish’s own Stripe account. That connection is one step of Memento’s setup: the office gives a few basic details about the parish, the person setting it up and the bank account in Stripe’s own form, which takes a few minutes, and card offerings appear on the parish’s request page once Stripe has checked them. Each offering is given with its request and paid into the parish’s own account and bank, tied to its Mass. We never ask for your Stripe login or keys, and we take no part of any offering; Stripe keeps its own processing share. A parish can keep its giving platform for the Sunday collection while Mass offerings go to its own account (canon 947, and what we do about it).