How To Be Unpopular In the Donation App World

Your place of worship gets by thanks to the donations and offerings of your members and visitors. While operating a church is not a popularity contest, you do want parishioners to keep coming back — and giving to your organization.

How can you make sure that you aren’t the last kid picked for kickball? What can you do to ensure a thriving ministry, where members give regularly and cheerfully? Don’t make any of these common mistakes.

Rely On Outdated Methods

In these modern times, most of your parishioners don’t carry cash or checkbooks. These methods of payment are on the decline. In 1990, cash and checks made up 84% of all payments. By 2018, that number will drop to 18%.

Now consider how you currently accept offerings and other donations. If your members and visitors aren’t carrying cash or checks, how will they give? When the offering plate is passed, will it simply have to pass them by?

To make the giving process simple and convenient for your tech-savvy members, give them the ability to donate using their phones. Accept offerings via a donation app. You won’t have to miss out on those much-needed donations, and your cashless parishioners will be happy to give.

Make Giving Difficult

If you want people to feel comfortable giving to your church, you have to make sure giving is as easy as possible. If they can’t figure out how to give, or the process is too complicated, you may lose out on their donations.

Some modern methods may seem like a great idea at first, but in reality they can make the giving process clunky and confusing. Text-to-give, for example, makes use of your donors ever-present mobile phones. But donations are limited to specific amounts, and your members have to memorize text codes in order to give.

Online giving is great, but it also can cause problems — especially if your site is not mobile optimized. According to Tech Impact:

60% of mobile users expect websites to load in 3 seconds or less.

80% of mobile users leave a site immediately if it’s not optimized.

When you can get a much simpler and faster experience with a donation app, why use these problematic methods?

Not Using a Donation App

In a world with such advanced technology at your fingertips, the biggest mistake your organization could make is to not use a donation app at all. Consider the impact this change could have on your church giving. If you want to see an increase while others are seeing a decrease, donation apps are the solution.