What is the offertory, and how does the collection work?
What is the offertory? A plain explainer of the collection at Mass: the weekly offering, second collections, restricted funds, and the move to tap-to-pay giving.
Last updated July 2026 by Fatih
Quick answer
The offertory is the part of the Catholic Mass when the gifts of bread and wine are brought to the altar and the collection is taken. The regular collection supports the parish's operating costs. A second collection, taken at the same Mass, is designated for a specific cause, so its money has to be kept apart from the regular offering. Many parishes now also accept the offering by card or phone at a kiosk or online.
Key takeaways
- Treat a second collection as a restricted fund and report it separately from the weekly collection.
- Card and phone giving can sit beside the basket without changing anything about the Mass.
- Offertory gifts go to the parish, so donors still need receipts and year-end statements.
Who this is for: Catholic parish staff and finance councils who reconcile the weekly collection and multiple second collections; Pastors and parish administrators modernizing how the offertory is collected without dropping the cash basket; Diocesan and ministry leaders coordinating restricted appeals across many parishes; Volunteers and counters who handle envelopes, loose cash, and designated gifts each week
The offertory is the part of Christian worship, most familiar in the Catholic Mass, when the congregation presents its gifts. In the liturgy it refers both to the procession of the bread and wine to the altar and to the collection of money gathered from the assembly; the current Roman Missal calls this part of the Mass the Preparation of the Gifts, but offertory remains the everyday name. For most parishioners, the offertory is the moment the baskets pass through the pews and the weekly offering is given to support the parish and its mission.
Practically, parishes run two kinds of offertory. The weekly collection is the general, unrestricted offering that keeps the lights on: clergy support, utilities, building upkeep, and day-to-day ministry. Layered on top are second collections, taken on designated Sundays for a specific purpose such as a diocesan appeal, a building fund, disaster relief, or a national mission. Those second collections are restricted: the money has to reach the cause it was named for, which makes clean tracking essential.
The offertory has not disappeared, but how it is funded has shifted. Fewer people carry cash or a checkbook, and parishes increasingly pair the passed basket with a kiosk in the narthex and an online giving page. With Givebear, a parish can add those channels while the basket keeps passing: every gift, general or for a second collection, is recorded against the right fund and receipted.
The weekly collection vs the second collection
The weekly, or general, offertory is unrestricted: the parish can apply it to whatever its operating budget requires. It is the backbone of parish finance and the gift most people picture when the basket comes around.
A second collection is taken for a stated purpose on a particular day, often a diocesan or national appeal. Because donors gave it for that cause, it is restricted and must be accounted for on its own. Mixing it into the general fund is exactly what good parish bookkeeping is built to prevent.
The shift to a digital and tap-to-pay offertory
Cash and checks still arrive in the basket, but a growing share of households give by card or phone. Parishes that only pass a basket miss the visitor who has no cash and no envelope.
A kiosk near the entrance and an online giving page extend the offertory to those donors. The gesture stays the same, a deliberate act of giving during worship, while the gift is captured digitally, receipted, and reconciled instead of counted by hand.
Restricted second collections as fund routing
Every designated collection is, in software terms, a routing decision: this gift belongs to this fund and nowhere else. When a donor selects a cause at the kiosk or on the website, Givebear tags it to that restricted fund automatically.
That means your finance council can report exactly how much the building fund, the diocesan appeal, and the general offertory each received, without untangling a single combined deposit at the end of the month.
Practical use cases
- Adding a narthex kiosk so visitors and parishioners can give to the offertory without cash
- Running a designated second collection that routes automatically to a restricted fund separate from general offering
- Offering recurring weekly or monthly giving so the offertory continues when a family travels
- Issuing automatic year-end tax receipts for envelope, online, and kiosk gifts in one record
Key features
- Tap-to-pay donation kiosk for the narthex or entrance, wall-mounted or freestanding on battery
- Fund routing that keeps second collections and restricted appeals tracked separately from the general offertory
- Recurring giving so weekly or monthly offerings continue automatically
- Embeddable giving widget for the parish website via a single script
- Automatic tax receipts and a donor record for envelope, online, and in-person gifts
- No donor-tip prompt at checkout
Common questions
What is the offertory in the Catholic Mass?
What is the difference between the offertory and a second collection?
Can parishes still pass the basket if they add digital giving?
How does Givebear keep restricted second collections separate?
Are gifts to the offertory tax deductible?
More in Glossary
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