It's exciting to hear how parishes are using Online Giving! Many are incorporating Online Giving with their new Faith In Action websites from Our Sunday Visitor for maximum impact. We held a customer advisory panel meeting recently and heard an idea to get parishioners to give to special collections. The parish sends out an email at the beginning of each month explaining which special or one-time collections are available that month for contributions. This gives them an opportunity to encourage parishioners to give to those collections while also reminding them to sign in to make their donation. Works great!. That particular parish has seen steady growth and acceptance of Online Giving.
Also remember to thank your parishioners for using Online Giving. Oh, and while you are at it thank them for using envelopes! This is an opportunity to explain why the parish encourages the use of these tools, and how they help the parish. Explain what's printed on the envelope and why. Note the special box to check indicating "gave electronically" so parishioners can participate in the liturgy. Its possible to add other types of gifts to the envelope, such as prayer or shared time that parishioners would like to note in addition to giving electronically.
Merchant Accounts
If you are evaluating your Merchant Account setup, then remember to look at the cash flow and the timing of processing for your account. With Online Giving you are assured that parishioner contributions are processed immediately and funds are not stored in escrow. You also are assured that your parish risk is minimized. In an environment where your provider is serving as the parish merchant of record, a problem at any parish is a problem for ALL parishes. Its compounded if funds are stored in escrow.
As the merchant you also can incorporate other services to support your bookstore or possibly credit card scanners and be confident that you are both compliant and secure.
How are things working at your parish? let us know!
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Online Giving and electronic service news, trends, and research from Our Sunday Visitor Offertory Solutions
Showing posts with label offertory envelopes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label offertory envelopes. Show all posts
Friday, June 1, 2012
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Online Giving and Envelopes: Synergy for your Parish
As I meet with parishes and dioceses I find that people think of their electronic giving application and their offering envelopes separately. Recently we were visiting a parish where these were two different staff members who managed the different offerings! When we asked them if they were working together on how to get the most out of both, they said no. By the end of our meeting they recognized the need to plan together to coordinate the two.
Even more concerning are parishes who place electronic giving and envelopes at odds with each other. "How do we decide which to use? Can we eliminate envelopes?" This approach completely misses the idea that we are providing options to parishioners so everyone can give from a sense of abundance and gratitude. we don't want to exclude anyone.
In our desire to compartmentalize functions and organize ourselves, sometimes we miss the opportunity to create an environment to foster cross-communications. Both web sites and electronic giving are technology based; however, their use is for communications and for contributions. While the skill set to understand the administration of electronic giving is different from the skill set to manage offering envelopes, the purpose of both of them is the same. So periodically it makes sense to step back and talk about these tools together as a parish staff. This includes how we represent them to parishioners.
As we all have gained experience with electronic giving it has become clear that we have to think about electronic giving and offering envelopes together as options for parishioners to use for contributions. Use them to reinforce each other by including your electronic giving URL on your envelopes and by reminding Online Giving users they can use envelopes at Mass and select "gave electronically". Remind envelope users if they forgot to give to a special collection they can use Online Giving and give to that collection as a One Time Gift.
This is a wonderful opportunity to remind parishioners about prayerful giving. As we talk about the introduction of electronic giving to our parish, we can use that opportunity to thank people for using envelopes. Our parishes can provide us options that are convenient for us as parishioners, and we can even use both as the need arises! What a great time to update your envelope designs and to express gratitude to people for their contributions. As a result we can raise overall awareness, remind people of the tools available to them, and get more engagement and contributions from both our electronic giving and our envelopes.
Use the introduction of new tools like Online Giving to create synergy for your parish! The same goes for web sites and Online Giving, but that's good for another time!
Even more concerning are parishes who place electronic giving and envelopes at odds with each other. "How do we decide which to use? Can we eliminate envelopes?" This approach completely misses the idea that we are providing options to parishioners so everyone can give from a sense of abundance and gratitude. we don't want to exclude anyone.
In our desire to compartmentalize functions and organize ourselves, sometimes we miss the opportunity to create an environment to foster cross-communications. Both web sites and electronic giving are technology based; however, their use is for communications and for contributions. While the skill set to understand the administration of electronic giving is different from the skill set to manage offering envelopes, the purpose of both of them is the same. So periodically it makes sense to step back and talk about these tools together as a parish staff. This includes how we represent them to parishioners.
As we all have gained experience with electronic giving it has become clear that we have to think about electronic giving and offering envelopes together as options for parishioners to use for contributions. Use them to reinforce each other by including your electronic giving URL on your envelopes and by reminding Online Giving users they can use envelopes at Mass and select "gave electronically". Remind envelope users if they forgot to give to a special collection they can use Online Giving and give to that collection as a One Time Gift.
This is a wonderful opportunity to remind parishioners about prayerful giving. As we talk about the introduction of electronic giving to our parish, we can use that opportunity to thank people for using envelopes. Our parishes can provide us options that are convenient for us as parishioners, and we can even use both as the need arises! What a great time to update your envelope designs and to express gratitude to people for their contributions. As a result we can raise overall awareness, remind people of the tools available to them, and get more engagement and contributions from both our electronic giving and our envelopes.
Use the introduction of new tools like Online Giving to create synergy for your parish! The same goes for web sites and Online Giving, but that's good for another time!
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