A gift of money to the Church is always viewed as a good work and thus something in your favor, but forgiveness of sin is NOT dependent in how much money you give.
Now, just prior to the Reformation (And one of the reasons for the Reformation) was the concept that one can buy forgiveness of one's sins. Thus if you killed someone, you could get monks in a monastery to pray for your forgiveness. A wrongful killing required so many prays (50,000 or more). Many a king paid monks for such prays, for you did not become a King by mere right of inheritance in the time period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Age or Reason, a little bit of treachery helped (and treachery, by itself was a sin, thus such leaders had to ask forgiveness not only for the acts they did but also for those acts also being acts of treachery).
Thus paying for forgiveness has a long history and can be traced back to the Priests of Ancient Rome who also demanded payments for prays for the sins of the rulers (and the peasants understood such acts were done and had to be forgiven AND demanded that their leaders ask for such forgiveness, thus it has been a long tradition on Western Europe even before Christianity and seems only to have died out in the Age of Reason, when the divine rights of Kings made such acts the acts of God not treachery).
St Francis starts the movement against such prays by monks to forgive the sins of rulers, but it was furthered by Martin Luther and other leaders of the Reformation (Such Leaders used it to abolish the Monasteries and give the lands of those Monasteries to the lower gentry so that such gentry would support the reformation. without that support the reformation would have been crushed early).
Thus one of the affect of the Reformation was the ending of payments to the Church for Forgiveness of sins (something that could be traced back to pagan Rome).
St Francis had opposed such forgiveness in exchange for money, through he supported the Monasteries. John Calvin stated he followed the teachings of St Francis when he worked to close those Monasteries and take their lands. Henry VIII of England opposed the Reformation, till he saw the advantage of taking the lands of the Monasteries and giving them to his supporters (and Henry VIII took those lands while saying he was still a Good Catholic, his son, Edward supported the Protestants during his rule, but reverted to Catholicism under Mary, who REFUSED to take back the lands given to the Gentry. Elisabeth confirmed the lands in the Gentry while saying she was Protestant, but also saying the Church of England was Catholic). Notice the real issue ended up land ownership not religion. Oliver Cromwell of English Civil War Fame, owned land his ancestors had been given by Henry VIII and thus feared losing such land to the Catholic Church for the Church was NEVER paid for that land, it was simply confiscated by the King and given to his supporters).
I go into all of the above to show St Francis ended up starting a lot land transfers when he separated forgiveness of sins from money. On the other hand such separation has been the heart of Christianity since at least the time of St Francis (and St Francis said it had always been a rule of the Church, just a rule ignored by people who were blinded by money).
Since the Reformation, the Catholic Church (and most Protestant Churches) have adopted the policy one should give to the Church, but such gifts do NOT buy you forgiveness, but if you are truly sorry for your sin, God and the Church will forgive you. The Catholic Church permits confessions that permit one to reveal to a Priest one's sins and that priest to forgive your sins).
Please note ONLY Grave Sins need to be Confess in Confession, venial sins do NOT have to be named (and Grave Sins one has forgotten for forgiven if they are truly forgotten after one reviews one's actions):
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4I.HTM
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