This is the third in a series of three blog posts on using church management software for stewardship development. In the 101 blog post we looked at filters that help you recognize first, second, and lapsed givers. In the 201 blog post we looked at how to automate feedback and follow-up using scheduled reports.
In this blog post we want to share with you the mechanics not only of giving, but also of helping people feel good about their giving. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, "the Lord loves a cheerful giver." So, it is important for church leaders to do everything they can to help people feel good about their giving.
Here are a few suggestions on how to use church software to accomplish this.
- Send statements quarterly to help people feel good about doing their part. Every church sends out giving statements in January for people to claim on their taxes. But, we've seen many churches send them out quarterly. This gives them a chance to remind everyone of the vision and thank them for their part in helping see it accomplished. Those who have given little or nothing can be encouraged by this consistent communication to seek and trust God in this grace of giving.
In the past it took a lot of time and expense to send out statements, so doing it more frequently than annually was an obstacle. But, we built our statements report to make it as easy as updating and sending an email. The .pdf of their year to date giving is automatically attached. Learn more here. - Use pledges to help people feel good about being part of something larger. We developed a best-in-class level feature to help you set up giving campaigns. It is connected to our registration feature so that people can register their pledges in the same way they sign up for anything else. The data goes directly into the database without the need for data entry. But, we also have an efficient process for data entry of paper pledge cards.
Your people and your administrative team spend a lot of energy getting the data into the system. So, it's crucial that you have an easy way to get out summary information to help everyone see and be encouraged by what they are doing together. Our pledge report does exactly that. In fact, why not save the report and then schedule it to be automatically emailed to leadership monthly? Learn more here. - Offer online and text giving to help people feel good about the giving process. People don't carry cash and checks like they used to. By far a majority of financial transactions these days are done electronically. The research I did last year across all of our churches indicated that overall right at 50% of giving in our churches came from online and texting. Many churches now receive over 80% of their income through electronic means.
Online giving is easy to use. It helps donors develop good giving habits. Setting up recurring gives a person confidence that they are following through on their commitment to the Lord. It tells people their church understands the times and is committed to helping them grow.
Because we built our own online and text giving system, our churches just have one system for both donations and registration payments. But, the best part is we are able to save churches a ton of money on fees. Click here to learn more and request pricing.
The purpose of a carefully laid out stewardship development strategy is first of all to raise up fully devoted disciples of Christ in a materialistic culture. Money, if not rightly understood and handled, has the power to break through the guard around hearts devoted to Christ and become the object of deepest affection.
As a church management software we want to do our part in helping churches build effective stewardship development systems because in so doing disciples are made and churches thrive. And, that's what we live for.
