Online Giving; Perfect for the Holidays!

This is an excellent time to add special collections for Advent, Christmas, the New Year and Epiphany into your Online Giving application. You may have a special project or cause that is important to your parish. Add a collection in Online Giving for contributions to needy families or other projects. You can add new collections at any time and even schedule the time they are visible and available for contributions.

If you don't have Online Giving, then this is the time to make the move! You can have it set up and ready for contributions from parishioners and guests who come for Christmas Mass.

The Quick Give option in Online Giving provides an easy way for people to contribute to the church without registering in the Online Giving application. When you send out your Christmas mailing and publish your Mass times, include directions for Online Giving and Quick Give.

Encourage parishioners to bring their envelope to Mass and select the "Gave Electronically" option on the envelope.

And with Online Giving in place, your parish will continue to receive contributions in the event of bad weather. The story from St. Paul Catholic Church is one example.

I'm grateful for this time to step back and consider the Hope of the season. May you and your families have a Merry Christmas and may your parish be vibrant and engaging in the upcoming year!

EFT is not the answer

Does your parish have EFT set up for direct debit with banks? Are many parishioners using it? Probably not. In one of my previous posts I wrote that I heard parishioners did not like EFT because they find it difficult to set up and even more difficult to make timely changes.

That was reinforced in a big way this week in discussion with a few dozen parishes. EFT originally seemed like a good way to go because it was a direct withdrawal from bank or checking accounts. However as banks have started charging for this service it all gets a double whammy because it is inflexible and now it has additional associated costs. Put this together with the requirement to provide bank account information to the parish office to set up the withdrawal and EFT becomes a “non-starter”.

Web based Online Giving offers parishioners the security of entering their own account information privately. The account information is immediately encrypted and secured. Parishioners can select and change their contribution amounts, frequencies, and the dates of contributions at any time. This kind of service provides the convenience and flexibility we have come to expect from electronic systems.

One business manager I spoke with this week had previously implemented EFT and changed to Online Giving, employing both direct withdrawal and credit card options for contributions. Today he regularly promotes Online Giving as an option for parishioners. In the materials he goes a step further to say that parish staff is NOT involved in the parishioner contributions. With this approach the parish has seen great acceptance of the new tool and over 20% of contributions are coming from this system.

Consider whether or not EFT is providing your parish a service that makes giving easy. You might be able to use a service that makes it more convenient plus provides a boost to parish income!