Upgrading Your Giving System: Why “LATER” isn’t Better
When Leonard Bernstein said, “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a PLAN and NOT QUITE ENOUGH TIME,” he was surely talking about churches...
Churches have been collecting giving data on members and guests for years. But what are they doing with all that information?
For the most part, NOTHING. Most giving solutions don’t make your givers feel known or show churches how to use the data they’ve gleaned to connect givers more personally to the church.
This is part 5 of our 11 Commandments of Online Giving series.
For many churches, the top priority of keeping giving history seems to be producing a record of gifts for tax purposes. This is valuable, of course. But the majority of people could easily pull that information from their own sources if they needed to.
A tax focus as a primary reason for saving giving history overlooks a golden opportunity for churches: Better serving your congregation.
Giving data is an important way to:
Like a brightly colored signal flare, patterns of giving can alert you to challenges or changes in givers’ lives that need your attention.
But this is only true if you are:
This can make some people feel uncomfortable. But as Joel Mikell at RSI Stewardship says, “This is not about dehumanizing people or the disciple-making process. It’s about enhancing it.” (Source)
At Vision2, we see ministry as the primary purpose of giving data. That’s why we invest in powerful analytics and email automation tools to allow you to personally communicate with your givers.
Here’s just a few ways giving history can help you do this:
…and so much more.
Explore these additional resources:
Have questions about how to use giving analytics to serve your congregation? Send us a message.
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