3 Key Points to Increase Offertory - Online Giving Essential

We are seeing optimism among parishes and dioceses that we visit across the United States. Catholic parishes are providing meaningful services to the community and strong educational programs to their students.  Many of you are on the path to engaging parishioners in both the current activities of the parish and also the direction you want to head for the future.  The Pastors we have talked to have been doing some very creative and wonderful work ranging from working with the children in the parish to develop videos of guinea pigs riding in Lego automobiles to expansive programs to serve the needy in the community.

The results from the work we have done to Increase Offertory at parishes have been very positive.  A parish in the Diocese of San Diego experienced an increase in commitments of over 53% and $330,000.  One in the Diocese of Providence saw an increase of over $120,000 which amounted to 79% .  Another one in California had 140 new families start to participate in the parish.  One in upstate New York was able to define a new identity and bring people together for a new purpose in the midst of a 5 parish merger.

Needless to say, the Pastor and parish leadership are integral to the success of any program.  While every parish has different dynamics, there are some consistent points we are seeing the teams implement to increase their chances of a successful and sustained program.  Here are 3 of them:

1. Focus on the good works of the parish.  In addition to our formation and our personal Faith journeys, we care about organizations that are doing positive things. We want to donate our time and money to successful programs that deliver products or programs or services that we care about.  Our parishes do this all the time but sometimes we don't highlight this work.  Those parishes who experience a wealth of financial contributions are able to demonstrate how they are changing lives for the better and how they are improving lives for the people in the parish and the surrounding areas.

2. Use Online Giving to make it easy to give.  Remove any impediments to accepting a gift. Find ways to make it easy for anyone to give to the parish.  They don't have to be current members.  In fact as you are communicating about the wonderful things the parish does you should expect to attract new people to the parish. Online Giving is an integral part of regular contributions and of any increased offertory program. Allow people to give from the convenience of the web at a time that is convenient for them!

3. Keep Parishioners Informed.  The successful parishes use all their channels of communication to let parishioners know what is happening during and after the Increased Offertory program.  They incorporate points about the direction of the parish and the intent of the program across their website, offering envelopes, newsletters, announcements and bulletins.  It's very important to let all parishioners know about the results of the program and what the parish plans to do next.  Parishes can sustain their results by updating parishioners regarding how funds were used, what new positive programs were implemented, and the results of those new programs.

Do you have experience with increasing offertory?  Let us know!

Go Irish! Great Football and a Successful Foundation

I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Irish return to their (in my humble opinion) deserved position in college football rankings.  As a "double - Domer" I guess I'm twice as happy!  The good news for Notre Dame is that I consider the football entertainment as a sideline to the true value of the university and its programs. And successful operations.  Notre Dame has created a strong base of contributions and donations that have helped to build new and exciting programs that advance education and also outreach.
 
This reminds me of some of the points made in a book by J. Clif Christopher titled, "Not Your Parent's Offering Plate". In the book Christopher challenges church leaders to assess what they are doing in their church and the evidence of the results. He asks why people give to universities like Harvard. The answer:  because they believe in the leadership of the organization and they support the "product" the organization delivers. There are lives changed by the experience at Harvard (or of course I would say Notre Dame), and lives should be changed through our church experience.

Our pastors and staff do so many good works that go unheralded. Its important that we relate some of the information about how we serve parishioners and the impact our parishioners, pastors and staff have on the community. Because these acts of service and kindness are meaningful evidence of our stewardship and our Christianity.

So you ask what does this have to do with Online Giving? In the past months of blog history there are a number of examples confirming the increase in contributions that parishes have seen from Online Giving. But if your parish has responded to the need that we all have to give, and informs you about the use of funds and talents and associated results of the use of funds, then you likely see a far greater sustained increase.

Use Online Giving to provide a convenient tool for parishioners and visitors to contribute financially to the parish. Your focus on the direction of the parish, the good deeds of the parish, and the use of the finances help to inform and support the purpose of those financial contributions.

So, I'm watching the Irish play football. But I'm contributing to programs that form young men and women. And I'm contributing to my parish as we provide services to students and to those in need in our town in South Carolina.

What is your experience?  Have you tried Online Giving?

Get more parishioners signed up and using Online Giving

This account comes to us from Bruce Richman, the Customer Sales Retention Supervisor for OSV Offertory Solutions.

Recently I was visiting a parish when the question of how to get more people to use Online Giving came up. This particular parish had over 3,300 families with only 5% of the parishioners signed-up. In contrast, another parish in the area with about 1,000 families had 17% of parishioners using Online Giving.

When visiting with the smaller parish I was asked to find out what they were doing differently to be more successful. I knew as soon as I walked in the door -- the differences were apparent. The first thing I saw was an Online Giving poster mounted near the main entrance. Every person that came through those doors saw the poster the moment they entered the church. That action reinforced the parish’s support and need for Online Giving.

Also, when talking with some of the parish staff, I came to understand they had two additional efforts to help them entice more parishioners. First, they talked about Online Giving at the pulpit on several occasions. These weren't long lectures but short statements and testimonials about how easy Online Giving is to use and how it benefits the parish and the parishioner. Second, they used OSV’s Online Giving marketing package. This package helped the staff to announce and acquaint the parish to the convenience of the service. Included in the package were the posters, an announcement letter, an FAQ pamphlet, and the Online Giving mailing card for inserting into the offering envelope packet.

Promoting and communicating the Online Giving message at the pulpit, on boards, and through various mailings has helped to increase contributions for that parish and others, and can foster the growth of your parish’s Online Giving program, too. 

Share your story about how you get parishioners to use Online Giving!

New study results: Online plus direct contributions are best

I was very interested to read the 2011 donorCentrics Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report that was released recently from Target Analytics.   While this research is focused on fundraising of all types,  I think it applies to parish contributions.

Several points in the summary of findings are what we would expect:

• Online-acquired donors are significantly younger and tend to have higher household incomes that mail-acquired donors.
• Online-acquired donors tend to give much larger gifts than mail-acquired donors.

But here was one of the big points to note:

• Robust direct mail programs drive up the retention and long-term value of new donors acquired online. Without the ability to become multi-channel givers by renewing their support via direct mail, this group of donors would be worth far less. Other than monthly recurring giving programs, established direct mail programs area the best method for gaining repeat gifts from online-acquired donors.

 This next chart shows that while there is a significant percentage of online donations there is still a far greater percentage of donations from mail:

 

  So why do I think this is pertinent to parishes?  

          1.  Online giving attracts a younger and likely more affluent group of people.  While our data indicate that every age group uses Online Giving,  this is still our best way to engage younger people to contribute financially to our parishes.

          2.   We should continue to emphasize envelopes.  Think of them as ongoing direct mail.  Parishioners may want to use both Online Giving and Envelopes for various reasons. And if the parish has other projects then mail is a very effective medium. 

This is all kind of analytical -  in the end we must engage our parishioner base in our parish by focusing on our formation and by accomplishing our mission as Church.  At a more superficial level,  we do need to make the best use of the tools available to us.  This is also good stewardship!

Tell me how your parish makes use of electronic services, envelopes and direct mail...

 

Online Giving - How do we Stay Engaged with Our Parish?

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the Northwest Region International Catholic Stewardship council event. It was a wonderful and uplifting experience. (The event! I hope my presentation offered something to those who listened and if they were uplifted then Thanks Be to God!)

During my talk I had just finished a section of the presentation during which I thought I made a compelling case for why all of our parishes should be using an electronic giving application. There were a number of questions and comments from the audience, supporting the use of electronic giving. Then a priest in the rear of the room suggested that electronic giving applications removed people from participation at offertory and the Mass. This concern brought me to a halt momentarily while I considered the implications.

This comment may be part of the reason behind why some parishes have not moved to embrace electronic giving applications. Please consider some of the data about how the United States population performs banking and payment functions. In 2007, the US Census reported that there were 60 million electronic bank transactions versus slightly more than 20 million checks.

Americanbanker.com reported in 2010 that 80% of all households with internet access do online banking. (I propose that its possible for parishioners who do not have internet at home to use the library or even the internet provided by the parish to access their online contributions). Of the households doing online banking, 28% are ages 21 to 34, 48% are ages 35 to 54, and 24% are age 54 or older. So online banking is distributed across all age groups!

The Leadership Network survey of 1000 churches found that 40% of them plan to do electronic giving in 2011. OSV did a survey of 1000 parishes in 2009 and ALL of them that use an electronic giving application indicated that contributions increased. The OSV Online Giving Indicator shows that about 10% of parishioners are using Online Giving at those parishes who have elected to offer OSVs Online Giving.

Any individual parish may not reflect the attributes of the United States overall population, but the data should generally apply. We have overwhelmingly moved to using the internet for our financial transactions. To respond to this change, our parishes should be making it very easy for our parishioners to give to the church using whatever tool works best for them. So we should offer both envelopes and Online Giving, teach people about the use and importance of both as tools for the parish, and thank them for using the tools provided.

Pope Benedict invites us to make good use of technology for the Catholic Church:

“Without fear we must set sail on the digital sea,

facing into the deep with the same passion that has

governed the ship of the Church for two thousand

years…. [W]e want to qualify ourselves by living

in the digital world with a believer’s heart, helping

to give a soul to the Internet’s incessant flow of

communication.” 22 — POPE BENEDICT XVI (2010)

So rather than avoid electronic giving, we should harness it for the good of the parish as a tool to serve our parishioners and increase our operational efficiency. To engage our parishioners we may need to look far deeper to match talents and strengths with parish ministry and mission. While we do the more challenging work to change lives, let’s create a plan for our “offertory tools” so that it is convenient to give financial gifts and so that we also provide a way to participate actively at Mass.