With the absence of in-person worship services, it’s more important than ever to have sufficient online giving options available for your donors. Are you feeling overwhelmed with all of the choices for online giving and just aren’t sure where to start? That is a valid and fairly common feeling to have when getting started with online giving or when making a change to your online giving options, especially with the many other stressors of our lives today. Here are a few best practices on getting started.
Getting Started or Changing Providers
Set up online giving with a company that makes sense for the needs of your church
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- Do you need text giving, kiosk giving, recurring giving, form payments or event registrations?
- Prioritize your needs: must have, nice to have, and probably won’t be used features
- +Questions to Consider When Searching for a New Online Giving Provider
Transition Current Givers
First things first, you need to identify your current cash/check donors so you can encourage them to move to giving online. In Church Community Builder you can easily pull this list through a People Search. Next, you’ll want to communicate with them to start the move.
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- Current Online Givers queue
- Check/Cash Givers queue
- Fully Transitioned Givers queue
- Needs More Hand Holding queue / Personal Touch queue
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- Use a mail merge from the process queue to explain the change, with these points:
- Does your letter communicate your sincere gratitude? Take a quick second to express your gratitude.
PRO TIP: Your gratitude is even more impactful when the letter is from the pastor and not from the church. - Does your letter celebrate generosity? Remind people how their gifts help achieve your vision. Their generosity got your church to where it is today – and wherever it goes tomorrow. This letter is an opportunity for the pastor to retell the story of the church over the past year, highlighting measurable moments of ministry impact.
- Does your letter cast vision of the future? Close the letter with your vision of what God is going to do in the future. People like to hear and be reminded of the big picture. Engaging the hearts of your donors will not only align them to the mission of your church, but it will foster their passion for giving while reaffirming their belief that giving to your church is an investment in ministry.
- Did you personalize the address? People want to read something with their name on it. Make sure you personalize each and every address you send. This is why we suggest using a mail merge. When people are excited about what their church is accomplishing, they’ll become involved in what’s happening – and want to become part of something greater than the sum of its parts. It’s an incredible opportunity to reignite the passion and faith that inspired your congregants’ generosity in the first place.
- Does your letter communicate your sincere gratitude? Take a quick second to express your gratitude.
- Use a mail merge from the process queue to explain the change, with these points:
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- Send a mail merge to let the donors know to look for the login activation email. Include specific instructions for setting up their new repeating gifts.
- Be sure to include the date when their current gifts must be stopped.
- Share how their giving is helping your ministry
- Thank them for their gift
Ongoing
Add an announcement slide highlighting how donors can give. This is a great opportunity to add “filler” before your live stream services begin.
Highlight giving options frequently on social media
Encourage donors to set up recurring gifts during your New Member class