1. Text: Chat Notifications
2. Text: Volunteer (ME) page minor changes
3. Volunteers:  Leader opt-out of accept / decline notifications
4. Volunteers:  Reminder text messages link directly to schedule
5. Volunteers:  Texts to scheduled team members who've not responded now link to schedule
6. Giving: Address for online giving
7. Giving: ACH refunds
8. Giving:  Default contributions set to start of previous year
   

This is the third in a series on year-end and online giving.  In this post we are going to rank the most used online giving features and consider their benefits to donors.    

All of these insights come from the survey we did a few weeks ago.  So, they originate from church leaders using online giving every week.  If you would like to learn more, join us tomorrow afternoon at 2 Eastern / 1 Central for our year-end onling giving zoom briefing.

This is the 2nd of 3 blog posts related to end of the year campaigns and online giving.  Last week we looked at ideas for end of year online giving campaigns.  In this post, we're going to look at online giving from the perspective of organizational promotion and benefits.  

I really appreciate those of you who took the time to give us your thoughts.  I think your  responses are representative of a broad spectrum of churches and that they are very insightful. 

Consider this summary chart of how our survey respondents promote online giving.

Thanks to everyone who took last week's survey.  In these next three posts we're going to look at a few statistics from these churches and their insights related to:  1) end of year campaigns, 2) organizational practices, and 3) individual benefits.  I picked up several good ideas and think you will to.

Let's start with these statistics from the survey that show the changes we all know happened in online giving since Covid.  73% of our respondents now receive more than 60% of their giving online compared to 27% in 2019.  That's a 270% increase!  

For decades nonprofits and churches have used the holiday season as a special time to raise funds for ministry.  In fact a large percentage of income for many ministries will come in the next couple of months.  The significance of this season has only increased in the last decade with the poplularity and promotion of Giving Tuesday.

Our team could put together a list of ideas to help your church get the most out of online giving this season.  However, a lot has changed in recent years and we would like to hear your stats, stories, best practices, and/or creative ideas.   

What do you think about your website?  Does it accomplish what you wish it would for your church or organization?  This past year we spent a lot of time asking and analyzing these questions for our website.

That's why we were so excited last week to publish the results of our work.  Check it out.  There are all kinds of articles and blog posts out there from professional marketing and website design firms that are incredible.  We don't pretend to compete with them.  But, we did learn some things along the way.

We have been building software for churches for over twenty years and have regularly heard from clients about how cumbersome reports are across the industry. 

Some systems are so complex that creating a new report takes a degree in computer science. Others provide so many options that you're not sure which report is for what purpose.  Still others allow everyone to create reports and over time you're not sure who created what and which ones are still useful.

We've been through a traumatic few years in the life of our country.  It is the topic of sermons, podcasts, blog posts, conferences, books, and everyday conversations.  But, for some of the people in your congregation the trauma has been far greater than for others.  And it may have nothing to do with either Covid or culture. 

The trauma I'm speaking of is the loss of a spouse, family member, or close friend.  It is during these dark times that the church often shines the brightest.  And, when it does the spouse or family members are forever grateful for the encouragement, prayer, help, and care they receive. 

All of us realize that email marketing and website hosting are two different things. However, as we talked about last week's release of email links for text and social with our development team; we recognized that hosting email content was just a half step from being able to provide hosting for landing pages.  

It was so close in fact that we decided to build a Landing Page feature and released it with Email Links last week.  You can find it on Content Pages option under the Communicate button.  

Our team has been busy the last few months responding to customer ideas that make the software just a little always-better. 

These are listed in order of their release with the most current one first.  All of these were released in June, July, and August. 

It just happens this time that my favorite one, the update that I think may be most useful, is #1.  It was released a little over a week ago.  I think you'll love how it improves your website registration experience.  

1. Use pop-ups for registration from your website.
2. Use text message templates with free texting.
3. Guardrails for group auto-registration from forms.
4. Button and page title changes in service volunteers.
5. Print option added to service volunteer schedule.
6. Check-in Adults and College roles with other families.
7. Incremental search now includes legal first name.
8. Donor portal option shows giving for entire household.
9. Filter reports for families with or without children.