3 Reasons Every Church Should Offer Giving Online

Tools for giving online have been around for many years but, suddenly, nearly every church recognized the need for digital options. Why?

Almost overnight, 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent church closures revealed the importance of offering a way to give when the doors are closed. Churches that could no longer meet in person or pass the offering plate scrambled to move their operations – including giving.

Now that most churches are back to meeting in person, do you still need this digital option?

Yes! Here’s why:

Give Online to Stabilize Church Budgets

In reality, the problem of attendance impacting giving is not new. Churches have always experienced seasonal giving dips when attendance dropped due to winter illness, spring sports, and summer travel. Or seniors, one of the church’s wealthiest demographics, became shut-in. Or people forgot their checkbooks.

But now, with the advent of streaming services, the opposite is true. Some churches even have online attendees in other states that have become generous supporters of their church via online giving.

Online giving is the perfect way to help stabilize church budgets through the inevitable ups and downs of attendance. Some giving systems can even manage pledges, which help churches to plan their budget, too.

Give Online to Make Giving Easy

A second reason to offer giving online is to respond to the changing way your members make financial transactions. Few people carry checks anymore. They are accustomed to speedy purchases and registrations on their phones. When you offer giving online or text giving, they can pull out that phone they always have with them and make a donation in a minute or so. They can give anytime, night or day, and from anywhere they have internet service.

All generations, even Baby Boomers, have come to expect this convenience.

Along with this convenience, most giving solutions offer a giving portal – a private online page with givers’ donation details – which enables them to view or download their giving history at any time.

Give Online to Enable Recurring Giving

Finally, a digital mode of giving offers another convenience that has a powerful impact on stabilizing church budgets: Recurring giving. Recurring giving is simply the ability for a giver to schedule their online gifts in advance.

It is a simple process that makes an individual’s giving truly consistent. Givers can set the schedule to their desired frequency and amount. Then, later, if desired, they can easily visit their giving portal and self-edit their schedule. Ideally, with the right giving platform, they can also designate which ministry (fund or funds) their gift will support.

How to Offer Giving Online

To get started, a church must establish an account with a giving platform like Vision2. The organization will create a giving page on your church website and establish connections with the bank to process transactions.

But Vision2 is more than a simple gift processing solution. It is a comprehensive donor and contributions management solution that offers a streamlined giving form, automated back office processing, and two-way sync with many Church Management Systems (ChMS)…and much more. Despite being a best-in-class platform, Vision2 charges no monthly fee.

Reach out to learn more about Vision2.