Trinity Times
Here you can find selected material from issues of Trinity Memorial Church's monthly newsletter, the Trinity Times
Help with Online Payments
A Tutorial for Making Donations using Tithe.ly, the Trinity Online Donation Provider
Trinity online giving is now available. We use the tithe.ly provider for our transactions. This will let you easily and quickly make your pledge payments either from the Trinity website (trinitymemorial.org) or from an App on your mobile phone (or iPad). For mobile you need first to download the “tithe.ly" (free) App. Regardless of which method you use to initiate a transaction, you will use the very same, easy-to-use interface to tithe.ly. The directions below may seem lengthy, but it is all rather intuitive for any one who has done any sort of online payments. For others, the following tutorial will perhaps be more helpful. Even if you are experienced, a glance through these procedures may show you a couple of things that are not obvious at first.
When you click the DONATE button on Trinity Memorial's Web site, a new window is opened in your web browser showing the Payment screen:
Because you have not yet been identified to tithe.ly, this is a general giving screen that would allow anyone to make a donation to Trinity. However, in your case you would generally want to sign up and have your information saved for additional later transactions. in this case, rather than filling in a one-time, general public gift, you should click the “Log In / Sign Up” button (top right on the screen). This takes you to a “Log In” screen:
On this screen you click on the “Create Account” bar/button, which brings up the “Create an Account” screen:
Here you enter the information requested and click on the “Submit” bar/button. Next you get a pop-up asking for the newly created Pin. After entering your Pin, you get another pop-up,“Your Account has been Created Successfully". Click “OK”. This brings up the “Giving” screen:
NOTE: After establishing your account the first time you donate, you will not have to go through the process of setting up your account again. The next time your click the DONATE button on the Trinity Memorial website, you are taken directly to a screen that asks you to enter your pin (four digits that you established at registration) and then you are taken directly to the "Giving" screen. The "Giving" screen above is an example of a "Giving" screen with some selections already entered.
Notice also that, unlike the general pubic initial “Giving” screen that came up when you first clicked in the Trinity Website DONATE button, this “Giving” screen does not ask for your name, address, etc. because you are now known (permanently registered) by the tool provider, tithe.ly.
On the Giving screen, enter an amount ($50 in this example), and select a fund to which your donation applies. You can use the default fund currently displayed in the “To” field or use the dropdown arrow on the right to choose another fund. If you wish to give to multiple funds, you can click on the “+” button in the center of the screen. This will bring up an additional Amount/To pair so you can give different amounts to different funds. You can use the “+” button as many times as you want (to donate to additional funds). After you create additional Amount/To pairs for multiple fund donations, there is also a “-“ button that shows up between Amount/To pairs that lets you change your mind and delete the last Amount/To pair.
Note that you can also create recurring donations using the "Recurring Giving" button. Once this button is selected, you have additional options available to the right of the button. You cannot mix a recurring donation with multiple fund donations (described above) in the same "Giving" screen/transaction.
Select a payment method using the pay-method buttons. In this example the (Credit) Card button is selected and a particular card is identified below. You can use the drop down to select from additional cards if you have established. If you want to establish a new credit card, you can use the edit icon (small pen symbol) on the right to add them. If you want to use your bank account, select "Bank" and select your account similarly from the dropdown list. You can also use the edit symbol to initialize the use of your bank account or add new ones. In this example the user has also selected ApplePay as one of the payment methods. The selection of payment methods is covered in the next screen below.
If you prefer not to pay the transaction fee, you can have your donation reduced by the amount of the fee by overriding the "Cover Fees" default (clicking on the "cover fees" button). There is also a "Note/Memo" box that lets you enter text further explains your transaction. For example you can specify the name of a person that you wish to memorialize with donations to the Flower Fund.
Once you have made all required selections on the "Giving" screen, the Give bar at the bottom activates and shows the amount of your donation. Click it to complete your transaction.
Below is the screen that you get when you edit payment methods (click on the edit symbol (small pen icon):
The payment methods screen has a “+” button for adding new methods: credit/debit cards, bank account debits, as well as buttons for Apple, Google, and Microsoft autopay. The two buttons at the bottom of the Payment Methods screen lets you choose whether the payments methods displayed are for Credit/Debit or Banking. Banking refers to direct debits from you bank accounts. The payment methods established on this screen will then show up on the "Giving" screen buttons and associated drop-down list. You can delete a payment method by clicking on the trash-can symbol to the right.
Selecting the menu symbol (looks like a hamburger) at the top left of some screens like the payments screen above and the "Giving" screen, causes the current screen to slide to the right, revealing a menu of functions:
The “My Account” menu selection brings up a screen that lets you change your account information: email, password, or pin:
The “Recent Giving” selection lets you see your recent donations:
The “Recurring Gift” selection lets you see your current plan for recurring donations, if any:
The “Payment Methods” selection takes you to the same screen already discussed above (selected from the “Payments Method” link on the Gift screen).
You can also select the “Home” screen from the menu:
The “Home” screen shown above is a slightly modified version of the one that you used to login (there is no login button because you are already logged-in in the current example). So the “Log in” button/bar is replaced by two Give options bars: one that takes you to the previously explained “Give” screen. The other is a shortcut giving option - a “Quick Give” bar - which causes an instant gift, duplicating your previous transaction (same amount, fund, and payment method).
The selections at the bottom of the Home screen (Recent, Payment, Automated, Account) do for you the same functions as the four associated menu items already discussed. The one that is not obvious is “Automated” which, unfortunately, is another way of saying “Recurring” (Recurring Gifts).
Finally, the menu includes a “Logout” selection for ending the session, which is probably better than just closing the window.
This tutorial is based on using the Trinity Memorial website DONATE button. However, it applies as well to the use of the tithe.ly App on your mobile device. The two methods are the same except that the tithe.ly App always starts with the home page (log in screen) and you have to select your church the first time (the website knows your church but the App does not when first using it). You can choose the church by typing it in (top left) or searching for the nearest church (that uses tithe.ly). I did a search from home (south Binghamton) and got Trinity (no closer church so far) so it saves typing. Once you have used your App, they know from your logon that your church is Trinity. NOTE: If typing in our church, use "Trinity Memorial Church".