I have five ways to make online giving work for your church just in time to head off the summer slump. Online giving is perhaps the best tool to avoid a summer slump in giving. So here are five ways to make online giving effective for your church that will help to head off the summer slump in giving.
- Have an online giving portal that is clearly visible and easy to use. The first thing is to have online giving! Your members should be able to find the giving button easily. If you have to hunt for it then it is not easy. Online giving is easy to set up and will generate additional funds if used properly. Don’t just set one up and leave it, advertise it and drive people to the site. Online giving allows for concurrent giving to be set up and thus helps you avoid slumps that might typically occur in summer or when weather causes your services to be cancelled. Not happy with your online provider or still need to set up online giving? Check out Charis Giving Solutions
- Set up your website to be Mobile. More and more people are utilizing their smartphones to access the Internet and search for everything from where to find pizza to how to find your church. If your website is not set up for these phones your pages will not look right. It will make using your online portal difficult. When giving is hard donors will leave your site. Make your site smartphone friendly with a good mobile platform.
- Set up text giving. Since most Americans never carry cash you have to provide multiple ways in by which people can give. They now read your Scripture passage with their smartphone why not give them an opportunity to give with that device. To find out more go to, Charis Giving Solutions
- Use clickable links to your online giving site in all your communications. Especially with email you should always provide a clickable link to your giving portal. This makes it easy for people to give. Studies are showing that even in print materials IF you list your giving portal people will use that to access your website and give. So, make sure your giving portal is on all communications!
- Use QR codes linking to your giving site. Every church in all their print publications should have a QR code on them that will take donors to your giving site. It is one other simple and easy way to drive traffic to your giving site. It also allows people to give even if they did not bring their check book or have much cash with them.
Online giving is affordable for any size church. Don’t think that these things are only for larger churches. You would be amazed at how relatively inexpensive it is to do all this. So don’t think it is only the large church that can pull this off. You too can do it too.
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach