Active Sessions: See Who’s on Your Giving Website Right Now
Sunday morning. Your pastor just wrapped up the sermon and invited the congregation to give. You’re curious: Are people actually visiting the giving page? Is anyone responding in real time? For years, church leaders had to wait until Monday to see donation reports. Now you can peek behind the curtain and see exactly when and where your congregation engages with your online giving platform.
Real-Time Visibility When It Matters Most
Active Sessions gives you a live window into who’s on your church’s donation website. Whether you’re checking activity during a Sunday morning livestream, monitoring responses after sending a stewardship campaign email, or simply curious about traffic patterns throughout the week, this feature puts the data at your fingertips. You’ll see how many unique visitors have been on the site, how many logged-in members are browsing, and how many page views your giving pages have received—all within a date range you choose.
Imagine this: You send a giving reminder email on Tuesday afternoon. By Wednesday morning, you want to know if it landed. Did people click through? Did they visit the giving page? Active Sessions lets you filter by date range and instantly see whether your outreach drove traffic. Or picture a special offering Sunday: You can compare today’s activity to yesterday’s, or to last week, to gauge whether your congregation is responding in real time.
From Anonymous Traffic to Known Faces
Not all visitors are anonymous. When someone logs in to your giving website with their account, Active Sessions tracks them. You’ll see a list of top authenticated users—their names, emails, and how many page views they generated during the selected period. This helps you understand who your most engaged members are and whether they’re returning to the site frequently. For each logged-in user, you can click through to their profile and see their full giving history in one place.
For visitors who aren’t logged in, you’ll still see valuable data: unique networks (distinct IP addresses), location information (city, region, country when available), and page view counts. This gives you a picture of where your traffic is coming from geographically—whether it’s local, from another state, or even overseas. The Session Activity Heatmap visualizes this data on a map, so you can quickly spot where your congregation is most concentrated.
Why Churches Love Monitoring Active Sessions
Church administrators use Active Sessions for everything from validating that a new giving page link works, to understanding peak giving times, to confirming that a stewardship campaign email drove traffic. The feature is especially useful for multi-campus churches that want to see activity across different locations, or for churches running special campaigns and want to measure engagement in real time. No more guessing—you get the numbers and the geography right when you need them.
In this article, we’ll overview the OnlineGiving.org Active Sessions feature.
Active Sessions User Guide:
Active Sessions is a monitoring and analytics tool that shows who has been visiting your church’s giving website within a selected date range. It displays three metrics at a glance (authenticated users, unique networks, page views), a geographic heatmap of visitor locations, and two detailed tables: top authenticated users and top unique networks. The feature is available in the control panel under the Giving section and is designed for church leaders who want real-time visibility into giving activity.
Key Takeaways
- At-a-Glance Metrics: Three summary cards show authenticated users, unique networks (distinct IP addresses), and total page views for your selected date range.
- Date Range Filter: Choose Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, or Last 30 Days with quick-pick buttons, or use a custom date range picker (max 30 days).
- Session Activity Heatmap: A map shows the geographic distribution of visitors, with up to 20,000 IP locations visualized for the selected period.
- Top Authenticated Users: A ranked table of logged-in visitors with name, email, page views, and a link to their profile.
- Top Unique Networks: A ranked table of distinct IP addresses with hostname, location (city, region, country), and page views.
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Viewing Active Sessions
- Understanding the Metrics
- Activity Heatmap
- Use Cases
- Tips
- Frequently Asked Questions
Overview
Active Sessions is a monitoring dashboard that shows visitor activity on your church’s giving website. It aggregates data from page views and session activity within a date range you select. The feature is designed for church administrators who want to understand who is visiting the giving site, when they visit, and where they’re located geographically.
Where to Find Active Sessions
Active Sessions is located in the Giving section of the control panel. To open it:
- Log in to the control panel.
- Expand the “Giving” section in the left navigation menu.
- Click “Active Sessions”.
Access Requirements
Active Sessions is available to users with the appropriate role permissions. If you don’t see it in the menu, check with your church administrator to ensure your account has access to the Giving section.
Viewing Active Sessions
When you open Active Sessions, the page loads with a default date range (typically the last 24 hours). You can change the range at any time using the filter bar at the top of the page.
Date Range and Quick Picks
The filter bar includes a date range picker and four quick-pick buttons: Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, and Last 30 Days. Click any quick-pick to instantly filter the report to that period. The date range is limited to a maximum of 30 days for performance reasons. If you select a date range longer than 30 days, you’ll see a message asking you to choose a smaller range.
For custom date ranges, use the date picker. Click the date range display to open a calendar, choose a start and end date, then click “Run Report” to apply the changes.
Running the Report
After selecting a date range (via quick pick or custom picker), click “Run Report” to refresh the data. The page will reload with updated metrics, tables, and heatmap for the selected period.
Understanding the Metrics
At-a-Glance Metrics
Three summary cards appear at the top of the page:
- Authenticated Users: The number of logged-in visitors who visited your giving website during the selected period. This counts only users who signed in with their account.
- Unique Networks: The number of distinct IP addresses that generated activity. Each unique network typically represents one visitor or device (or a small group sharing a network, such as a home).
- Page Views: The total number of page requests served during the period. This includes all page loads across the giving site.
Top Authenticated Users Table
The Top Authenticated Users table lists logged-in visitors ranked by page views. Each row shows:
- Rank: Position (1, 2, 3, etc.) based on page view count.
- Name: The user’s first and last name.
- Email: The user’s email address.
- Page Views: How many pages this user viewed during the period. A bar shows the relative share compared to the top user.
- Profile Link: A button to open the user’s profile in a new tab.
The table displays up to 100 authenticated users. The footer shows the total authenticated user count and total page views for the period.
Top Unique Networks Table
The Top Unique Networks table lists distinct IP addresses ranked by page views. Each row shows:
- Rank: Position based on page view count.
- IP Address: The visitor’s IP address (clickable to view external lookup tools).
- Hostname: The network or hostname associated with the IP when available.
- Location: City, region, and country when geographic data is available. Shown as small pills or labels.
- Page Views: How many pages this network generated.
The table displays up to 250 unique networks. The footer shows the total unique network count and total page views for the period.
Activity Heatmap
Below the at-a-glance metrics, a large map section displays the Session Activity Heatmap. This heatmap shows the geographic distribution of visitors for the selected date range.
What the Heatmap Shows
The heatmap uses latitude and longitude data from visitor IP addresses to plot activity on a map. Warmer colors (or areas with higher intensity) indicate more activity or more visitors in that location. The heatmap displays up to 20,000 IP locations for the selected date range. If no geographic data is available for the period, the map will show a message indicating that.
How to Read the Heatmap
The heatmap uses a color gradient to show activity density. Areas with more visitors appear darker or more intense; areas with fewer visitors appear lighter. You can use the map controls to zoom in or out, switch between map types (roadmap, satellite, terrain), and adjust the heatmap display (gradient, radius, opacity) when viewing the heatmap in a standalone window. The embedded map on the Active Sessions page shows the default view for your selected date range.
Use Cases
Sunday Morning Monitoring
During a Sunday morning service or livestream, you can check Active Sessions to see if people are visiting the giving page in real time. Use the Today quick pick to see activity from the current day. Compare the number of unique networks and page views to previous Sundays to gauge whether your congregation is engaging as expected.
Campaign and Email Tracking
After sending a stewardship campaign email, a giving reminder, or a special offering announcement, use Active Sessions to see if people are clicking through. Select a date range that includes the day you sent the email. A spike in unique networks or page views on that day often indicates that your message drove traffic.
You can also use the Last 7 Days or Last 30 Days quick picks to see traffic patterns over a longer period.
Tips
Use the quick-pick buttons for faster filtering when you need a standard range (Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days). For custom date ranges, use the date picker and remember the 30-day maximum.
If you want to drill into a specific user’s activity, click the profile link in the Top Authenticated Users table: it opens their full profile in a new tab so you can see their giving history and other activity.
The heatmap is most useful when you have a mix of local and distant visitors. If most of your congregation is in one area, the heatmap will show a concentrated cluster. If you have members across the country or overseas, you’ll see a broader geographic spread.
Need help setting up or interpreting Active Sessions? Contact us at support@onlinegiving.org or (615) 206-4000. We’re happy to provide free setup assistance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Authenticated Users and Unique Networks?
Authenticated Users are visitors who logged in to your giving website with their account. Unique Networks are distinct IP addresses (devices or networks) that generated activity, regardless of whether the visitor was logged in. A single person can appear in both tables if they logged in and visited from multiple devices or networks.
Why does the date range have a 30-day maximum?
The 30-day limit helps keep the report fast and manageable. For longer-term analysis, you can use the Giving Reports or other analytics tools in the control panel. For most use cases, such as checking Sunday activity or tracking a recent campaign, 30 days is sufficient.
Why does the heatmap show “No geographic data available”?
The heatmap requires latitude and longitude data from visitor IP addresses. If no visitors in your selected date range have resolvable geographic data, or if the data is incomplete, the map will display this message. Try a different date range or a period with more traffic.
Can I see who is on the giving site right this second?
Active Sessions shows activity within a date range (e.g., today, yesterday, last 7 days). It is not a live, second-by-second stream. For real-time visibility, use the Today quick pick and run the report periodically to see the latest activity.
Why does the Top Unique Networks table show anonymous or unknown hostnames?
Some IP addresses do not resolve to a meaningful hostname, or the hostname may be generic (e.g., from a mobile carrier or ISP). The location pills (city, region, country) are derived from IP geolocation when available and may be more accurate than the hostname for understanding where visitors are from.
How do I get to a user’s profile from the Active Sessions table?
In the Top Authenticated Users table, each row has a profile link button (usually an external link icon). Click it to open that user’s profile in a new tab. From there you can see their full giving history, contact information, and other activity.