Visitors giving money to the church

From an LDS perspective the gathering of offerings should not be a public event where we flaunt our generosity to those who are in attendance. Our Christ like desires should be the reason we donate to his Church, not because we feel awkward if we don't or we do it to receive the praise of men. We are asked to tithe 10% of our increase. Our tithes are received in private by way of secret envelop handed directly to the Bishop or one of his councillors. We never pass collection plates around for donations. Visitors to our church are never asked to pay tithing. Excommunicated members are not permitted to pay tithing as well. We hold our tithes to the lord as sacred.

Matt 6:1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

It seems to me that the aspect of embarrassment or coercion deplored in this question has decreased in recent years and is likely to decrease further in the near future, not for a religious reason but for a technological one. Many (probably most) banks in the U.S. (and probably in other countries too) make it easy to set up regular payments, and those can include payments to churches. Knowing this, if I see people put nothing in the collection basket, I cannot reasonably assume that they are not giving to the church; it's entirely possible that they've set up automatic payments rather than writing checks or remembering to bring cash.

It's a tradition in many churches to pass an offering plate. Prior to the advent of direct deposit and such, it's how people give to their church. And by passing something around, definitely, it encourages giving more than just putting a sack in the back or something.

I'm not sure how this places different expectations on visitors than any other aspect of that church. Obviously since you're in a group setting, depending on your personal strength of character you're going to feel 'peer pressure' to sing a hymn, take part in communion, kneel to pray, respond to a call, move to Ghana to become a missionary per the sermon today, etc. No one looks down on a visitor for not giving money at the offering, so perceived 'coercion' is frankly more of a personal hangup than a real thing.

I have a hard time envisioning fixes to this. Don't pass the plate to designated "visitor rows?" That has three negative impacts I can think of in 10 seconds.

You are never required to give at offering, and as a visitor you are totally not expected to. You are, of course, welcome to, and many folks who are "twice a year churchgoers" like to take that as their opportunity to give to the church's mission without getting bound up in any further paperwork/pastor visits.

There is no New Testament directive as to the means of collecting gifts , monetary or otherwise. The question is whether a means of collecting gifts fosters the Biblically directed attitude of giving.

2 Corinthians 9:7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."

(Note that this is directed toward the motive of giving. If you are giving for human praise, that's all you get. However if you give because it is the right thing to do, you have further reward, even if somebody does see you do it. After all Jesus praised the widow who gave at the Temple in the sight of many).

Personally, I think the current form of collecting offering is for practical fund raising purposes only.