Help center

How Giving Steward works.

Giving Steward notices when a family's giving changes, then lets your team decide how to care for them. Here's the natural flow, what each part of the app is for, and answers to common questions.

The natural flow

  1. 01

    Bring in your giving

    Go to Data sources. Connect Planning Center or B1 Church, or upload a CSV from any giving platform. Turn on the nightly sync if you want new needs to show up on their own.

  2. 02

    Let the agent look

    The agent checks every giver for eight signals, like an expiring card or a gift that quietly stopped. It runs after each sync, or any time you press Run agent at the top of the app.

  3. 03

    Decide what care looks like

    Open Queue or Findings. For each family, choose: create a care task for a personal call or visit, send an email, or leave them alone with a short note explaining why.

  4. 04

    Follow up and watch recovery

    Work through Care tasks, approve drafted emails, and check the Dashboard. When giving comes back within 30 days of your follow-up, it's counted as recovered.

Finding your way around

On a computer, pages are in the menu on the left. On a phone, the main pages are along the bottom and the rest are under the menu button.

Dashboard

Your weekly overview: what's at risk, what's been recovered, what's waiting in the Queue and which care tasks are overdue. Every box is clickable.

Findings

The full list of everything the agent has flagged. Filter by signal, status or giver type, open a finding to see details and next steps, or download the list.

Givers

Everyone in your giving data, labelled Recurring or Occasional. Open a giver to see their gifts, pastoral notes and history, including notes from Planning Center.

Queue

Your to-do inbox. New findings waiting for a decision, drafts waiting for review and approved emails ready to send.

Sequences

A short series of emails for one signal. Edit each message and wait time, activate it, and choose manual (you add people) or automatic (sends when someone matches).

Voices

Who an email sounds like it's from. Set up a voice for each pastor or staff member, even people without an account. Replies go to that person.

Care tasks

Personal follow-ups like a call or coffee. Assign them to a teammate, log notes and interactions, and nudge anyone whose task is 7+ days old.

Suppressed

Families who won't get emails, because of a pastoral note, a team decision, a bounce or an unsubscribe. You can allow outreach again at any time.

Data sources

Connect Planning Center or B1 Church, upload a CSV, or load demo data to explore. Manage nightly syncs here.

Settings

Your profile and time zone, your team and invitations, church details, and sending email from your own domain.

Activity

A log of everything that's happened: syncs, agent runs, emails, decisions and notes.

Good to know

How email sending works

Every email your team approves goes out under your church's name. You can use it as is, or send from your church's own web address.

By default

Nothing to set up

  • Your church gets its own sending address on Giving Steward, such as grace-church-1a2b@mail.givingsteward.app.
  • Inboxes show your church's name, or the pastor's name from the voice you chose.
  • Replies go straight to the real email saved on that voice, so people reach a person, not a robot.
  • You can see exactly how it will look under Settings → Your church.

With your own domain

Send from your church's address

  • Emails come from an address like care@gracechurch.org, which people recognize and trust.
  • Names and replies work the same way as before.
  • Until your domain is confirmed, emails keep going out from the default address, so nothing stops.
  • Each night we re-check your domain. If it stops working, we switch back to the default address and let your admins know.

Setting up your own domain

Owners and admins can do this. It usually takes about 15 minutes, plus waiting time.

  1. 01

    Enter your domain

    In the app, go to Settings → Email domain (Send from your own domain) and type your church's web address, like gracechurch.org.

  2. 02

    Copy the records

    We'll show a few short settings, called DNS records. Add them wherever your domain is managed, such as GoDaddy, Squarespace or Cloudflare. If someone else runs your website, send them this list.

  3. 03

    Check again

    Click Check again. Each record shows Waiting or Found. Changes can take a few minutes, and sometimes up to a day or two, to show up.

  4. 04

    Pick your address

    Once it's verified, choose the address to send from, like care@gracechurch.org. From then on, emails go out from there.

Want to stop? Choose Remove domain in the same card and emails go back to the default address.

Using Claude or ChatGPT

You can connect an AI assistant to Giving Steward and ask plain questions like "Which families have new findings this week?" or "What care tasks are overdue?". It can list findings, list care tasks and search givers. It signs in as you, sees only your church, and can't send emails or change anything.

  1. In the app, open Settings → AI assistants and copy the connection address (https://givingsteward.app/mcp).
  2. In Claude, go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. In ChatGPT, go to Settings → Apps & Connectors → Create.
  3. Paste the address, sign in with your Giving Steward account and click Allow.
  4. To stop an assistant's access, click Disconnect next to it in Settings → AI assistants.
Read the full AI assistants guide

Frequently asked questions

Where do I start?

Go to Data sources and connect Planning Center or B1 Church, or upload a CSV from your giving platform. Then press Run agent at the top of the app. If you just want to look around first, load the demo data.

Does Giving Steward email people on its own?

Not unless you choose that. By default, every email is drafted for your team to review and approve. Only sequences you switch to Automatic send without a review step.

What if we don't want to contact a family?

Choose “Leave them alone” on the finding and add a short note explaining why. They won't get any emails, and you can change your mind later from the Suppressed page.

How often does it check for new findings?

Every night if you turn on the nightly sync in Data sources. You can also press Run agent any time to check right away.

Can my whole team use it?

Yes. Invite teammates from Settings and choose their role. You can assign care tasks to anyone on your team, and they'll get a notice in the app and by email.

Will Giving Steward change anything in Planning Center or B1?

It never changes gifts, amounts or payment details. The only thing it adds is a pastoral note your team writes, which goes to Planning Center. Nothing is written to B1 Church.

How much does it cost?

$25 a month, or $250 a year. You can start for free, and no card is needed to get started.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. You can cancel whenever you like, and you won't be charged again after your current month or year ends.

Do you offer refunds?

We don't offer refunds for time already paid for. When you cancel, you keep access until the end of the month or year you've paid for.

Is our giving data safe?

Yes. Each church's data is kept separate, connection keys are encrypted, and only your team can see your people. Our Security page has the details.

Can I use Giving Steward from Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes. Open Settings → AI assistants, copy the connection address and add it as a connector in Claude or ChatGPT. You sign in and click Allow. The assistant can look up findings, care tasks and givers for your church, but it can't send emails or change anything.

How do I remove an AI assistant's access?

Go to Settings → AI assistants and click Disconnect next to it. Its access stops right away, and you can reconnect any time.

Need a hand?

We're here to help.

Stuck on setup, a sync, or a finding you're not sure about? Send us a note and a real person will get back to you by email.