Will You Vote in this Election? 3 points to Motivate Giving Online

I was reading an article yesterday that featured people who were not planning to vote in the presidential election this year.  There were a variety of reasons ranging from "don't like either candidate" to "not going to bother".  I was fascinated that a number of people had an opinion about who they would like to have serve as our President but were not planning to vote.

At the other extreme we have volunteers in both parties who are fiercely focused on their cause and are fully engaged in the campaign of their preferred person.

This sounds to me like a cross section of any given parish and the attitudes of the parishioner base.  We have a group of parishioners who are committed to the parish and the cause and are involved deeply in the community of the parish.  And we have many who are not engaged and don't plan to bother. 

I think the difference is in how the parish appeals to the gifts, priorities and needs of parishioners.  When people have a cause they care about,  they become active and engaged.  When there is conflict or emergency or perceived urgency,  we find ways to respond.  Kind of like election times.

I have seen a couple interesting reports in the past few weeks that provide pertinent information.  The first, from CARA,  indicates the distribution of ages of who attends Mass:

When we are appealing to parishioners in the pews,  we must consider their experience base.  The age groups represented have been accepting Online Giving but also are comfortable with offering envelopes.  The 9% millenial group has a very different view.

The second report indicated trends in tools used for contributions:

So we see strong acceptance of Online Giving types of applications, approaching the use of envelopes.  Has this been the experience at your parish? 

Our OSV data indicate that 10% is a pretty good expectation for the number of parishioners who use Online Giving as their preferred method.  So taking a lesson from the behavior of people for this years election,  maybe we need to find the motivation for people to use Online Giving.

Here are 3 points that you can use to motivate parishioners:

1.  It is simple for them.  Once they set it up it is easy to change at any time.  Contributions recur automatically

2.  It helps the parish.  Overall giving increases because of consistently scheduled gifts and a more thoughtful contribution from the parishioner.  Staff time and money handling is reduced.

3.  Access is convenient.  Parishioners can contribute from any location with internet access at any time.

Its time to vote in the election.  While we are at it lets show our vote for our parishes and give online.
Comments?

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...