Managing Our Perceptions of Change

With so many stories of difficult technology platform migrations, it is hard to approach a change for your church without trepidation. The fear of change is a natural response, especially when the outcome seems unknown, or a past experience clouds your perspective. However, with a few easy steps, providing your church with a better solution is within reach:

• Carefully define the costs and benefits of such a move: What is the lost opportunity if you don’t move?
• Complete your due diligence: How well does the new platform solve your identified problems?
• Confirm the commitment of the new provider: Will you be navigating the migration on your own or does the provider manage the heavy lifting for you?

The Annual Season of “Change”

Now that we have entered the new year, you’re probably starting to implement some of the changes in your 2024 plan. 

You’re motivated to change because of the pain some issues are causing the church, by dreams of something better, or perhaps by a track record of successful changes you’ve made in the past. Remember how voluntary change required you to keep your eye on the outcome and believe in its worthiness? Remember the sense of accomplishment and pride you felt and the ongoing benefits?

We’re all constantly making plans to change, but whether we actually follow through boils down to how we answer this question: Is the pain of the change worth the benefit of the change?

This is the million-dollar question with church giving platforms.

“But We’ve Already Changed!”

If you already have online giving, you’re familiar with the pain of change. Moving to a new system, educating your givers, training staff… It’s not something you’re anxious to do again anytime soon.

Especially if the benefit didn’t materialize. You took the leap, but has generosity increased? Does gift processing still take up a disproportionate amount of your staff’s time and sanity? Has that monthly contract fee become unsustainable? Do your various systems play nice with each other?

Bottom line: A change that doesn’t solve your problems isn’t a solution.

Easing the Pain of Change

We know the challenges churches expect to find when they switch systems, so we’ve renovated the process of switching to a comprehensive giving solution to make it as painless as possible. You always know what to expect. You’re never on your own. And our team becomes a friendly extension of yours, both during implementation and afterward, with our Customer Success team and Managed Services. In fact, our customers tell us the change is never as hard as they feared!

We’ve also addressed the hidden challenges of change in our new resource, Giving Growing Pains.

It’s one Executive Pastor’s story of exploring and facing the changes needed to improve his church’s financial picture, including the surprising discovery that his existing system was a key part of the problem.