The Chapel Payments Platform

This policy covers payments.thechapel.com, the site The Chapel uses to accept payments and to collect payment details. Our main website has its own policy at thechapel.com/privacy-policy.

What this site is for

This is where you pay The Chapel for something specific. Depending on why you're here, that might be:

• Chapel Preschool registration fees and tuition
• Wedding ceremony fees
• Event and facility rental fees
• Renovation Institute course fees
• Contributions toward someone's ministry trip
• Monthly rent, if you lease space from us
• Miscellaneous payments we've invoiced you for

This is not where you give. Offerings and donations to The Chapel go through Church Center, which is a separate system with its own privacy policy.

Signing in

There are no passwords here. If you need to see your balance, your payment history, or your scheduled payments, you enter your email address and we email you a one-time sign-in code. The code works for twelve hours and then stops working.

Because that code is what protects your payment records, we keep a security log of it: the date and time, the IP address, and the browser and device that asked for the code, and the same details again when it's used. We look at that log when something appears wrong, such as a code requested from an unexpected location or requested repeatedly. We don't use it for anything else.

Some payments don't require signing in at all. A ministry trip contribution or a preschool registration is a single transaction: you fill out the form and pay.

What we collect

• About you: your name, email address, phone number, and mailing address.
• About the payment: what you're paying for, the amount, the due date, your remaining balance, the date you paid, and your payment history with us.
• If you schedule payments: the dates and amounts you scheduled, and which saved payment method you chose.
• Technical information: your IP address, browser, and the time of your visit.

If you're already in our church records, we may pre-fill your name, address, and phone number from what Planning Center already has on file for your email address. You can correct anything that's wrong before you submit it.

Card and bank information

Your card number never reaches our servers. The payment fields on this site are provided by Stripe and your card details go directly to Stripe from your browser. We never see them, and there is nothing for us to store.

What we do keep, if you choose to save a payment method for future or scheduled payments:

• A reference number that lets us ask Stripe to charge that method again
• The name on the account
• The last four digits
• The expiration date
• A short description, so you can tell one card from another

That's enough to identify which of your cards you have saved to run a scheduled payment. It is not enough for anyone to make a charge with, here or anywhere else.

You can remove a saved payment method at any time from your profile. At no time can you see entire account numbers on our site.

If you're a ministry partner

This is the one place on this site where we do collect bank account details, and it works the other way around: it's how we send money to you, not how we take money from you.

If you're a ministry partner setting up ACH deposits, we ask for the name on the account, the routing number, the account number, and the account type. That information is encrypted before it is stored, and it is visible only to the finance staff who process partner payments. We also record the IP address and browser used to submit it, so we can verify the submission came from you if there's ever a question.

How we use it

To process your payment, send you a receipt, credit the payment to the right account, event, or student, keep accurate financial records, run the payments you've scheduled, and answer questions if something goes wrong.

We will never sell your information, and we don't use it for marketing. This site sends you only transactional email: receipts, sign-in codes, and reminders about scheduled payments.

Sharing access to a payment profile

If two people need to pay on the same account, such as both parents paying preschool tuition, either of you can add the other by email. Doing that lets the other person see the balance, the payment history, and the scheduled payments on that account. It does not give them access to your saved payment methods. You can remove someone's access at any time.

Who we share it with

• Stripe — payment processing
• Managed Missions — for ministry trip contributions, so the gift is credited to the right trip and participant. If you choose to give anonymously, your name isn't attached to the contribution; we still keep it in our own records for accounting.
• Microsoft — email delivery for receipts and sign-in codes
• The Chapel's own internal systems — where the payment has to be recorded against a student, an event, a rental, or a contract
• Our accountants and auditors, as part of normal financial review
• Anyone the law requires

Cookies and tracking

There are no analytics on this site, and no advertising or marketing trackers of any kind. The only cookie we set is the session cookie that keeps you signed in, and it goes away when you close your browser.

Some files on our pages are loaded from other companies to make the site work: Stripe's payment library, plus fonts and scripts served from Google Fonts and public code libraries. Those providers can see that your browser requested a file.

How we protect it

Traffic to and from this site is encrypted. Access to payment records is limited to staff whose work requires it. Bank account details are encrypted before storage. We maintain safeguards consistent with the New York SHIELD Act, and because card data is handled entirely by Stripe, our systems are outside the scope of most card-handling requirements.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affecting your private information occurs, we'll notify all affected parties and the appropriate New York State authorities as the law requires.

How long we keep information

Payment and transaction records are retained as long as needed for accounting, audit, and tax purposes. Sign-in codes expire after twelve hours.

Questions or requests

For a question about a specific transaction: finance@thechapel.com
For anything about this policy or your information: privacy@thechapel.com