Creating your first Fund

This walks you through publishing a Fund from your dashboard. Funds are created by church accounts. If your account is a standard organization you won't see the create button - you can still be added to another church's Fund as a recipient.

Open Content > Funds and choose New Fund. The wizard has four steps: Details, Recipients, Weights, Publish.

Step 1 - Details

• Fund title (required, at least 3 characters) - name the purpose clearly, e.g. Hurricane Relief Fund or Missions 2026.
• Description (optional) - why your family is rallying around this.
• Cover image (optional) - upload a PNG, JPG, or WebP, or paste an image URL.
• Close date (required) - when the Fund stops accepting gifts. Must be within 90 days of publishing.
• Goal (optional) - a dollar target. The progress bar tracks gifts against it.

Step 2 - Recipients

Add one or more recipients. A Fund may have a single recipient or several.

• Search verified orgs and churches. You can add your own church as a recipient (this is how a single-recipient Fund like Building works - your church at 100%).
• Partners can be added directly.
• For an organization you don't yet partner with, choose Request & add - this sends a partnership request and adds them as a recipient at the same time. A partnership isn't required to be a recipient, but it streamlines future Funds.
• Not on Xerish yet? Use Invite an organization to send an invitation; once they join and are approved they become searchable here.

Every recipient must be a verified, F.I.G.S.-vetted, on-platform organization. F.I.G.S. is a binary pass/fail standard.

Step 3 - Weights

Set each recipient's allocation weight. Weights are the published estimate and suggested split for how held money is divided.

• Weights must sum to exactly 100. Use Even out to split evenly.
• Add an optional reason per recipient (up to 280 characters) - shown to givers so they understand why each group is included.
• For a single-recipient Fund the one recipient is simply 100%.

Step 4 - Publish

Review the preview: title, close date, goal, recipients, and the allocation. A confirmation gate shows exactly what goes live.

• Confirm to publish. The Fund moves to Live and starts accepting gifts.
• It will auto-close on the close date and pay out to recipients via Stripe Connect.

After you publish

• Manage it from Content > Funds > (your Fund). You'll see the giver-facing presentation plus an admin zone to move held money, edit details, and read analytics.
• Release held money as the Fund runs - in installments, by closing out a finished recipient, by completing the whole Fund, or with one-click Release on the estimate.
• Completing a Fund locks it permanently - amounts, recipients, and the outcome become immutable.

Good to know

• Recipients must be set up to receive before money can be transferred - make sure they've connected payouts. See the recipient guide.
• Tips a giver adds on the web stay with Xerish and are never transferred to recipients.
• If you only want steady, undirected giving to your own church, you may not need a Fund at all - use Tithes & Offerings instead.