Planning Center Giving SQL Queries

Transform Your Giving Data Into Ministry Impact

Your church’s generosity tells a powerful story. With Parable’s SQL access to Planning Center Giving data, you can uncover insights that help you understand your congregation’s generosity and make data-driven ministry decisions.

Quick Start

Ready to start querying your giving data? Here’s your first query to see recent donations:

-- See your most recent 10 donations
SELECT
    d.donation_id,
    d.amount_cents / 100.0 as amount,  -- Convert cents to dollars
    d.amount_currency,
    d.payment_method,
    d.received_at,
    d.created_at
FROM planning_center.giving_donations d
WHERE d.received_at IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY d.received_at DESC
LIMIT 10;

What You Can Do With Giving Queries

📊 Track Giving Trends

Monitor weekly, monthly, and annual giving patterns
Identify seasonal trends in your congregation’s generosity
Compare year-over-year growth

👥 Understand Your Donors

Segment donors by giving frequency and amount
Identify first-time givers for follow-up
Track donor retention and engagement

💰 Analyze Fund Performance

See which funds are meeting their goals
Track designated giving vs general fund
Monitor campaign progress with nightly updates

📈 Generate Ministry Reports

Create custom giving statements
Build dashboard metrics for leadership
Export data for board meetings and annual reports

Available Tables

Your Planning Center Giving data is organized into these main tables:

Table	What It Contains	Key Use Cases
`giving_donations`	Individual donation transactions	Transaction history, payment methods, amounts
`giving_people`	Donor information	Donor profiles, giving units, donor numbers
`giving_funds`	Fund definitions	Fund names, descriptions, default settings
`giving_designations`	How donations are allocated	Fund allocation within donations
`giving_batches`	Donation batches	Batch processing, deposit tracking
`giving_pledges`	Pledge commitments	Capital campaigns, pledge tracking
`giving_recurring_donations`	Recurring giving setups	Subscription giving analysis

Understanding Relationships

Parable stores Planning Center relationships in a special way to maintain data integrity. Instead of foreign keys directly in tables, relationships are stored in separate relationship tables:

giving_donation_relationships - Links donations to people, batches, campuses
giving_designation_relationships - Links designations to donations
giving_person_relationships - Links people to campuses and other entities

Don’t worry - we’ll show you exactly how to join these tables in our examples!

Next Steps

📚 New to SQL? Start with Basic Queries for simple, powerful queries you can use today. 🚀 Ready for More? Check out Advanced Queries for complex analysis and reporting. 📊 Need Reports? See Reporting Examples for complete, production-ready reports. 🔍 Want Details? Review the Data Model for complete table documentation.

Common Questions

Why are amounts stored in cents?

Planning Center stores all monetary values in cents to avoid floating-point precision issues. Simply divide by 100 to get dollar amounts:

amount_cents / 100.0 as amount_dollars

How do I filter by date?

Use the received_at field for when donations were received, or created_at for when they were entered:

WHERE received_at >= '2024-01-01'
  AND received_at < '2025-01-01'

What’s the difference between a donation and a designation?

A donation is the complete transaction from a donor
A designation shows how that donation is split between funds
One donation can have multiple designations

How do I join to get donor names?

Join through the relationship table:

SELECT
    d.amount_cents / 100.0 as amount,
    p.first_name,
    p.last_name
FROM planning_center.giving_donations d
JOIN planning_center.giving_donation_relationships dr
    ON d.donation_id = dr.donation_id
    AND dr.relationship_type = 'Person'
JOIN planning_center.giving_people p
    ON dr.relationship_id = p.person_id

Getting Help

🐛 Found an issue? Report it at github.com/getparable/parable-api/issues
📖 Need more examples? Check our other query guides in this folder
💬 Have questions? Reach out to your Parable support team

Remember: Your data tells a story. Let us help you discover it.

​Planning Center Giving SQL Queries

​Transform Your Giving Data Into Ministry Impact

​Quick Start

​What You Can Do With Giving Queries

​📊 Track Giving Trends

​👥 Understand Your Donors

​💰 Analyze Fund Performance

​📈 Generate Ministry Reports

​Available Tables

​Understanding Relationships

​Next Steps

​Common Questions

​Why are amounts stored in cents?

​How do I filter by date?

​What’s the difference between a donation and a designation?

​How do I join to get donor names?

​Getting Help