Almost every church leader now understands the importance of an online giving option that church members can use to give their support. But not all giving options are created equal, and churches – especially growing congregations – need more than just a giving tool that simply processes transactions. The right giving program should serve as a vital resource to help you grow your ministries, engage your church families, and live out your mission, while making security a priority for your givers and your church.
Here are four reasons why it pays to have secure, full-service online giving for your church:
You’ll Build Added Security for Your Givers
This should be a primary concern for your church, because it’s a top consideration for your church family. Your members want to know that their online giving is secure – the more confidence you can give them, the more likely they are to give. Online giving should at a minimum incorporate a strong PCI compliant platform, and the best programs go above and beyond to keep donor information secure by supporting intrusion detection and SSL transaction security. Your program should also build donor trust with a branded platform they can recognize, designed to match your site colors and your logo. Donors contribute faithfully when the giving process is familiar, secure, and simple to use.
You Will Have a Strong Gateway to Recurring Gifts
Monthly, recurring gifts from church members are a lifeline for your ministries, especially when unforeseen circumstances (COVID-19, to use a recent example, but also events like winter storms and other treacherous weather) keep church members away from your services or cancel services altogether. A full-service giving program will offer a robust recurring option, branded for your church, that handles the complexities of processing credit, debit, and/or ACH (eChecks) donations, and allows you to choose the payment options that work best for your church – all within a secure platform. This simplifies giving for your church members, and bolsters your ministries now and for the future, no matter what.
You’ll Have a Broader Universe of Forms and Registrations
Your giving programs should go beyond accepting tithes and offerings A full-service solution will allow you to create, manage, and update custom, branded forms to collect information or payments, with the ability to embed the forms directly onto your site for quick registration for classes, events, and other programs – with an option to streamline your follow up process with custom payment receipt emails to your members. This will simplify day-to-day administrative tasks for your church family, while reducing the need for handling cash and checks on the day of the event.
You Can Make the Most of Enhanced Reporting
Accepting gifts is just the beginning – you’ll need to generate reports for front-office accounting, as well as documents for your members’ tax records. In addition to simple reports to quickly track donations, your provider should give you the option of creating your own custom reports for all digital donations, with filters by person, transaction, fund, date range and even donation type. In addition to making bookkeeping easier for your church staff, this also gives you better insights into how and when your church members are giving.
Moving Forward with the Right Strategy
Your church giving program should go beyond basic transactions, to engage your donors and save time and effort for your church staff. Let Ekklesia360 help you develop the best strategies for your church – visit https://hello.ekklesia360.com/strategy today to set up a call with our team. Or, if you're ready to get secure online giving, you can signup NOW for e360 giving!
