Churches which do not have online giving often have several questions which hinder them from proceeding. Here are some of the concerns I’ve run into over the past few years:

• Promotion
  • To be successful, there must be a promotion/awareness/visibility campaign to let members know they can now giving online. The best way to do this is as a teaching opportunity rather than crass marketing. Just as we let members know about different Bible study times and other events, we need to inform people about the different ways they can support their church. They want to give their money to their church – we’re simply providing information and ways for them to do that.
  • There are a variety of methods to get the word out using bulletins, pulpit announcements, website, giving cards in the pews, etc. All of these must be used to make this a success.
  • If we do not give easy ways to support their church, we’re putting hurdles in front of our donors. That is simply not wise or good.
• Accounting and Reporting
  • The finance office will need to be diligent in ensuring that all online financial transactions are posted to the General Ledger so that the monthly bank reconciliation is accurate and the end of month financial reports are correct. That office also needs to ensure that any reporting provided to the church during the month contains the online gifts. This will require the staff to adopt new patterns and checklists.

Lead On!

Steve

Churches which do not have online giving often have several questions which hinder them from proceeding. Here are some of the concerns I’ve run into over the past few years:

• We’ll Get That Money Anyway
  • Some people feel that money given by members via credit cards would have come to the church via cash or check if the church didn’t have online giving. Personally, I’ve put things back on the shelf when I realized the shop didn’t take a credit card and I didn’t have cash to pay for it.
  • I don’t believe all of that money would. Some would come in but not all. The convenience of credit cards eliminates hurdles to giving and allows for giving more.
• Back office administration
  • The finance staff in the church has to get the donations posted to members giving records and to the church’s financial records. The worst way to do that is manually and the best way is to do it electronically with few or no human touches.
  • Digital donation providers are continually working to ensure their systems can seamlessly “talk” with church financial records systems. Also, the online giving platforms have a way for members to access their giving history and even download a document suitable for their tax purposes (which means less contact with the church’s finance office).

 Lead On!

Steve

Churches which do not have online giving often have several questions which hinder them from proceeding. Here are some of the concerns I’ve run into over the past few years:

• Portal Fees
  • Digital donation providers themselves have a fee which usually depends on the size of the church (number of Sunday morning worshippers).
  • This is the fee paid to the provider their services
    • A portal that makes is easy and friendly to give
    • Back office assistance to post contributions
    • Help in creating categories for gifts
    • Continuing training to existing and new staff at the church
    • Ideas for successful marketing and implementation
  • This fee is to the digital donations provider just as we’d pay the plumber for their labor (that is, the portal fee) and we also pay for parts (that is, the credit card fees) – two different expenses paid to two different companies.
• Debt by members
  • Some churches are concerned that members will get deeper in debt by using their credit cards to pay their tithe. There are two ways to address this within the church:
    • Encourage people to use a debit card or an ACH transfer (bank to bank). These are cheaper for the church and don’t create credit card debt.
    • Have a class teaching members wise money management using materials from Financial Peace University and/or from Crown Ministries. These classes can really help people get their financial house in order AND tithe.
  • But some people want to use their credit card to earn rewards points and they will pay off their credit card balance each month.

 Lead On!

Steve