Abstract: The invention provides a method of capturing monetary donations or monetary gifts made by donors or gift givers at points in time and space in which said donors or gift givers are optimally motivated to make said donations or gifts, said donations or gifts being the donation or gift perferences of respective donors or gift givers. The method comprises the steps of inputting a multiplicity of sequences of data comprised of monetary donations or monetary gifts. The monetary donations or monetary gifts are made by a plurality of said respective donors or gift givers consecutively free of input of information unrelated to said respective monetary donations or monetary gifts at a multiplicity of distinct sites where said donations and gifts are being received in one variant. The sequences or strings of data are temporarily captured at the multiplicity of distinct sites on a plurality of respective electronic devices physically located at said sites to obtain temporarily captured sequences.

Abstract: An offering plate that permits an attender at a religious service to make a donation that consists of a cash donation acceptor, an envelope donation acceptor, a credit card donation processor, and/or a debit card donation processor. The offering plate associates a donation with an account of a member, tallies information regarding a number of donations, and stores information regarding a donation, and a plurality of donations. The offering plate is part of an offering plate network which consists of an offering plate, a clergy member's terminal, and a communication link between the offering plate and the clergy member's terminal. The offering plate network collects, analyzes, and displays statistical information.