Offering to monastics for merits is popularity practiced by laymen. Most lay people may think the more values of the alms they offer, the more merits they get. This thought seems not quite accuracy to me, as the result of offering, according to Buddhism, much depends on the intention of the alms-givers and the qualification of the alms-receivers.
The alms-givers’ will is first and foremost, accounted for merits of offering. The givers should be in the state of pure mind which extends throughout the offering process. Before making offerings, they feel untainted with what they are going to prepare or buy things for alms-giving no matter how much they spend for gifts. When making the offerings, their state of pleased mind of thinking the meritorious deeds should be maintained in any case of the alms cost, and then after the offerings finished, their wholesome mind of the worthy deeds they have done still prolongs regardless of how great in quality and quantity of the offered things. With such a serene mind, without any piece of regret about the alms-giving expenses during pre-offering, in-between-offering and post-offering period of time, basing on the teaching of the Buddha, the alms-givers surely get the great
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In Buddhism, offering alms to animals, gets less merits than to human beings whether those do not accept or keep the Five Precepts, for example, troublemakers or heroin addicts, and gets lesser to those who observe the Five Precepts regardless of how much gift values are. In the light of the Buddha’s teachings, offering to the purer and more observant monk, the givers receive more merit no matter how little they present to the good monk. Therefore, the alms-givers will gain more merit when offering alms to those with a higher degree of precepts observed, like 8 or 10 precepts, or 250 precepts completely. And it visibly be the top most to offer to Buddha-The Perfected