Synagogues face a giving pattern that most donation platforms are not built for: large volumes of congregants giving on a small number of calendar dates, followed by months of routine but meaningful giving between them. High Holy Days services generate the majority of annual giving for many shuls, while post-Shabbat moments, adult education events, and special appeals fill the calendar in between.
Givebear gives synagogues a connected giving system that handles both peaks and the quiet weeks between them. A lobby kiosk captures post-service gifts. The online portal accepts recurring Tzedakah commitments from members who prefer to give from home. Campaign pages support building campaigns, Sisterhood fundraisers, and Israel relief appeals. Every transaction lands in the same donor record, so the administrative team is not reconciling spreadsheets before High Holy Days.
Fund routing matters especially for synagogues. Congregants expect to designate gifts: to the General Fund, the rabbi's discretionary fund, the school endowment, or a specific memorial. Givebear presents these designations clearly on the kiosk screen before checkout, keeping restricted funds separate and avoiding the manual sorting that follows a general donation drive.
Who this is for
- Synagogue executive directors and administrators who need giving infrastructure that holds up during High Holy Days when hundreds of congregants give in a few hours.
- Finance committees and treasurers who need clean separation between General Fund, Sisterhood, Youth Programs, Israel appeals, and other restricted designations.
- Development directors running capital campaigns, building fund pledges, and legacy gift programs alongside routine weekly and holiday giving.
- Synagogue boards evaluating modern alternatives to paper pledge cards and physical envelopes that require weeks of manual entry after each appeal.
Why synagogues need different giving infrastructure than retail payment tools
A Square reader can accept a credit card. It cannot ask a donor whether their gift is designated for the General Fund, the rabbi's discretionary account, or the youth scholarship endowment. It cannot send a tax-compliant charitable contribution receipt. And it cannot connect that tap to the same donor record as their online pledge from last Rosh Hashanah.
Dedicated synagogue giving kiosks solve this by putting fund designation at the center of the checkout flow, before the payment step. The donor sees three or four giving options, selects one, enters an amount or chooses a preset, taps their card or phone, and receives an instant receipt. The treasurer sees a clean fund-level report with no manual sorting required.
Managing High Holy Days giving without creating a month of cleanup
High Holy Days are the single largest giving event for most synagogues. Several hundred congregants may give over two or three services, each with a different fund preference, many giving amounts they haven't given before. The risk of manual processing is weeks of work: matching names to records, sending paper receipts, correcting misattributed funds, and reconciling totals.
Givebear eliminates most of that work by capturing fund designation and donor contact at the moment of giving. The kiosk collects an email address, sends an instant receipt, and writes the transaction to the donor record in real time. After Yom Kippur, the administrator exports a clean fund-level report instead of rebuilding one from paper pledge cards.
Setting up Tzedakah commitments and recurring pledges
Many congregants want to give regularly but do not carry cash to services. Givebear supports recurring giving by week, month, quarter, or year, set up from the kiosk, from the online portal, or from a link in the Shabbat bulletin. Recurring commitments process automatically, send a receipt each cycle, and update the donor record without any staff involvement.
For capital campaigns and pledges, the campaign page tracks cumulative giving against a pledge total. A congregant who pledges $5,000 to the building fund and gives $1,000 per quarter sees their remaining balance reflected in each receipt. The finance committee sees the same number without running a manual reconciliation.
Producing annual giving statements without manual assembly
The weeks before tax filing season generate calls and emails from congregants requesting a summary of their annual giving. If that information lives across three systems: a kiosk export, an online platform CSV, and a manual pledge tracker, assembling it takes hours per donor.
Givebear produces annual giving statements automatically. Every transaction from the year, kiosk taps, online gifts, event registrations with donation components, and manually entered checks, can be consolidated under one donor record. A one-click export generates individual statements with IRS acknowledgement language. The office stops taking calls and focuses on relationships.
Practical use cases
Place tap-to-pay kiosks in the lobby for post-Shabbat giving, available every week for congregants who prefer not to carry cash.
Set up High Holy Days campaign pages that pre-fill suggested amounts based on prior year giving to simplify the pledging process.
Run a Sisterhood fundraiser or building campaign with a dedicated landing page, kiosk fund button, and real-time progress tracker visible during events.
Generate one-click annual giving statements for every congregant, pulling together kiosk gifts, online donations, and event contributions.
Common questions
Can a synagogue kiosk accept donations during post-Shabbat events?
Yes. The kiosk accepts tap-to-pay, chip, and contactless card payments at any time the device is active. Post-Shabbat events are one of the highest-value placement opportunities for synagogue kiosks because congregants are engaged and physically present. The kiosk requires no volunteer supervision for basic operation.
How do we separate Tzedakah for specific funds from general operations?
Givebear's fund routing system presents designated fund options on the kiosk screen before the payment step. You configure which funds appear, their names, and their descriptions. Each transaction records which fund the donor selected, keeping restricted Tzedakah separate from general operations at the transaction level, not through manual sorting afterward.
Do donors receive automatic tax receipts after giving at the kiosk?
Yes. The kiosk collects the donor's email address during checkout and sends an instant receipt with the organization name, gift amount, date, fund designation, and IRS-required goods-and-services language. Donors who prefer SMS can receive a receipt by phone. No staff action is required.
Can we use the same kiosk at multiple synagogue locations or events?
Yes. Givebear kiosks can be moved between locations. The fund configuration updates remotely from the administration panel, so you can change which funds appear for a specific event without visiting the device. Multi-location synagogues manage all kiosks from one account.