Anedot

What Anedot is

Anedot is a web-based donation and fundraising platform that is also its own payment processor - "a donation and fundraising platform that helps U.S. based not-for-profit organizations grow their impact." Churches build Action Pages for donations, events and memberships, with multiple funds available on a single page, and take gifts by card, bank draft, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal or Bitcoin. Recurring giving runs "weekly, monthly, quarterly, custom schedules," and donors can opt to cover the processing fees.

Around that sit free text-to-give, a QR code generator, a Virtual Terminal for offline gifts, a donor portal for self-service management, automated email receipts, event ticketing, and conversion tooling including exit-intent popups and abandoned-action follow-ups. Free integrations include Planning Center, HubSpot, Constant Contact, Mailchimp, QuickBooks Online and Zapier, with WordPress, Squarespace and Wix supported for embedding. Anedot reports 30,000-plus organisations served, and PCI DSS, SOC 2 and SOC 3 certification.

Why churches choose a platform that owns its own processing

Most giving platforms are software wrapped around Stripe. That works well until it does not: the church's money moves through a payments company that has its own risk appetite, its own acceptable-use policy and its own ability to freeze a merchant account or close it, and the giving platform in the middle can only relay the bad news. Anedot removes that link - "We are both an online giving platform and payment processor. No need to sign-up for third-party processors or merchant accounts" - so there is one company, one relationship and one set of rules rather than two stacked on top of each other.

For a church the practical stakes are stability and data. Owning the processing means the entity that underwrites your account is the entity you signed up with, and it means the donor records sit inside one platform rather than being split across a processor's vault and a vendor's database. Anedot publishes PCI DSS, SOC 2 and SOC 3 certification, notes that transactions are processed using TLS encryption, and pledges never to sell or share donor data. For a church deciding where its donor list will live - names, addresses, giving histories, the most sensitive list a congregation holds - that combination is the material point, and it is worth more than a decimal place on a fee.

Being the processor: what it buys, and what it does not

Anedot states plainly that it is "both an online giving platform and payment processor," with no third-party processor or merchant account to sign up for. Card, debit, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Bitcoin all run through it, priced by the organisation's tax status rather than by plan. On the compliance side it publishes PCI DSS, SOC 2 and SOC 3 certification, describes transactions as processed using TLS encryption, and commits never to sell or share donor data. Support is described as "U.S.-based customer support" reachable at help@anedot.com.

Two things follow. The good one: there is no separate payments company able to review, freeze or terminate a ministry's account independently of the platform, which for churches whose teaching draws complaints is a genuine consideration rather than a talking point - and the donor list stays in one place, under one published data policy. The limit: owning the rails is not the same as publishing the terms of using them. Anedot's Terms of Use landing page splits into separate documents for fundraising organisations and for supporters, and the substantive documents were not retrievable, which means reserve and holdback provisions, chargeback fees, refund policy and termination terms are all unverified. Ask for them in writing.

Action Pages, free text-to-give, and the rest of the giving surface

Giving is built on Action Pages, which handle donations, events and memberships and can carry multiple funds on a single page - so a general offering, a building fund and a missions appeal live in one place rather than three. Recurring gifts run "weekly, monthly, quarterly, custom schedules." Text-to-give is "completely free" with every account, and there is a QR code generator, a Virtual Terminal for taking gifts given offline, a donor portal for self-service management, automated email receipts, event ticketing and management, and conversion tooling in the form of exit-intent popups and abandoned-action follow-ups.

None of that is exotic, and that is rather the point: the unlimited-everything single plan means a 90-member church gets the same toolkit as a 9,000-member one. Where it thins out is the church-systems layer. Free integrations cover Planning Center, HubSpot, Constant Contact, Mailchimp, QuickBooks Online and Zapier, plus WordPress, Squarespace and Wix embedding - but Planning Center is the only named ChMS. There is no published Rock RMS, Ministry Platform, Church Community Builder, TouchPoint or Fellowship One integration, which is narrower coverage than either Overflow or SecureGive. If your church runs one of those systems, expect Zapier or manual export.

Deposits: 2, 7 or 30 business days, net by default

Payouts run on one of three automatic schedules chosen during account setup - "You can automatically send deposits to one or more bank accounts every 2, 7, or 30 business days" - and once a transfer is initiated funds typically take "2-3 business days" to settle, with bank holidays adding delay. Fee handling is a setting: Net Deposits, the default, has Anedot's platform fees "deducted before" the transfer, while optional Gross Deposits produce two records - a credit for total donations and a separate debit showing "Anedot Fees" withdrawn afterwards. Deposits can be split across more than one bank account.

That is a cleaner arrangement than most, and worth naming as such: one consistent deposit shape across payment methods, with the gross-versus-net choice left to whoever does your books rather than varying by how the donor happened to give. Two caveats. The schedule is picked at setup, and a church that lands on the 30-day option waits over a month for some funds once settlement is added - choose 2-day unless you have a reason not to. And the feature is marketed as "Scheduled and Manual Deposits" while the help documentation describes only automatic scheduled transfers, so if manual payouts matter to you, confirm they exist.

Pricing

Where Anedot falls behind

Non-cash giving barely exists here. Bitcoin at 1.0% is the only non-cash asset with a published rate; stock and donor-advised fund gifts are not mentioned in the pricing documentation at all, and no broader coin support is documented. For a church with members holding appreciated shares, that is a hard gap rather than a rough edge - a direct share transfer avoids capital-gains tax the donor would otherwise pay, and a platform with no route to accept one leaves that money unasked for.

The tax-status cliff is punishing and easy to walk into. Without a formal 501(c)(3) determination the rate is 4.0% + 30c on everything, including bank draft, which loses its 0.3% pricing entirely. A church running most of its recurring giving through ACH would see that line item multiply. Nothing on the pricing page walks a church through establishing which tier applies to it.

The documentation is thin exactly where a church needs it thickest. The FAQ confirms only that "Organizations only pay a small processing fee on transactions" and redirects to pricing; it does not address payout timing, American Express, stock or DAF gifts, refunds, eligibility or donation-type limits. The substantive Terms of Use were not retrievable, leaving reserve and holdback provisions, chargeback fees, refund policy and termination unverified. Support hours are not published either - only "U.S.-based customer support" and an email address.

The integration list is narrow for a church platform. Planning Center is the only named ChMS, with QuickBooks Online as the named accounting integration. No Rock RMS, Ministry Platform, Church Community Builder, TouchPoint or Fellowship One. Anedot is also explicitly US-only - it "helps U.S. based not-for-profit organizations" - with no non-US support published, and the slowest payout option is a 30-business-day schedule chosen at setup.

And the company keeps its own structure quiet. Anedot, Inc. was founded in 2010, is run by founder-CEO Paul Dietzel with a "fully remote, U.S.-based team," and publishes no ownership breakdown - founder-led in appearance, undisclosed in fact. It also serves political campaigns alongside churches, which is precisely why its pricing distinguishes 501(c)(3) organisations from "Standard" ones; some churches will treat that mixed customer base as a brand question, and the site is oriented to a broader fundraising market than churches alone, so expect to translate some material. Its accolades - G2 Fundraising Leader and Best Support recognition - and the "30,000+ organizations" figure are the company's own, and as a web platform with no consumer mobile app there is no user rating to weigh against them. Our 4.0 is an editorial judgement.

Anedot vs. Overflow vs. SecureGive

Three different ways of charging for the same job. Anedot takes nothing monthly and 3.3% + 30c on cards, 0.3% + 30c on ACH for 501(c)(3)s. Overflow charges "$1200 per year and scales according to the size of your organization," then 2.5% + $0.30 on cards and 0.5% + $0.20 on ACH. SecureGive sits at $299 a month plus 2.5% + 30c. Anedot is the clear answer for a church whose card volume is modest and whose budget cannot carry a subscription; the subscription platforms win once card volume is large enough for the percentage to dominate.

On assets they are not comparable. Overflow is built around appreciated stock, US-compliant crypto and DAF grants at "3% or lower," with a seven-status tracking pipeline behind stock gifts; SecureGive also supports appreciated assets. Anedot prices Bitcoin at 1.0% and nothing else - no stock, no DAF, published nowhere. If a capital campaign or a donor with a decade-old share portfolio is in view, that decides it, and no amount of saved subscription makes up the difference.

On structure, Anedot is the outlier and it is the reason to look. It processes its own payments, where Overflow's cash giving runs through Fiserv - visible right down to the "FISERV PMNT SVCS PAYOUT" line on a bank statement - and Zeffy runs on Stripe. Anedot publishes "no contracts"; Overflow publishes no contract, notice or cancellation terms at all, and Anedot's substantive terms were not retrievable either. Anedot has been founder-led since 2010 with ownership undisclosed, while Overflow is venture-backed with over $30m raised. All are web platforms with admin dashboards and no consumer mobile app, which is the right design for all three and the reason none of them carries a user rating.

Alternatives to Anedot

Overflow★ 4.2The non-cash specialist: appreciated stock, US-compliant crypto and DAF grants at "3% or lower," on a $1,200/yr subscription plus 2.5% + $0.30 cards. The answer where Anedot has no answer.→SecureGive★ 4.2The subscription model in its purest form - $299/mo plus 2.5% + 30c, with appreciated assets supported. Needs real card volume before that monthly fee makes sense against Anedot's $0.→Continue To Give★ 3.6A cheaper card rate on its Gold plan at roughly 2.5% + $0.25, aimed at smaller ministries. Worth pricing against Anedot if card giving dominates your offering.→Zeffy★ 4.0Built on Stripe rather than owning its processing - the structural opposite of Anedot, and the lowest-rated option here. Read the fee-recovery model closely before moving anything to it.→

More Church Giving & Donation Platforms

SecureGive★ 4.2Founded in 2004 by a pastor who put the first giving kiosk in an American church, and still selling to churches on a published rate card rather than a sales call - with a transaction cap on both priced tiers that decides whether it fits you.→Overflow★ 4.2The one giving platform built around the gifts most churches quietly turn away - appreciated stock, crypto and donor-advised funds - sold on an annual subscription whose real price is published nowhere.→Zeffy★ 4.0The only platform in this category that charges a church nothing whatsoever - no monthly fee, no transaction fee, no card fee - and pays for itself by asking your donors for a tip instead, which makes this a pastoral decision rather than a financial one.→Continue To Give★ 3.6A modular all-in-one for small churches and missionaries - seven giving methods, a member database, real fund accounting - built by a missionary who could not afford the alternatives, and undermined by three contradictory published fee schedules.→Subsplash★ 5.0The all-in-one church platform megachurches keep choosing - fully custom-branded apps across phone, web, and TV that make a 5,000-member ministry feel like an Apple keynote.→Spoken Gospel★ 5.0A reading plan that gives you a 3-minute spoken-word video on every chapter of the Bible - the rare Bible companion that actually changes how the page reads.→