Boost Church Giving with Envelopes

When your church first signed up with Givelify for mobile and online giving, you had the default giving envelopes of Offering, Tithe, and Other. While these church giving categories work, a simple way to increase donations is to create custom giving envelopes.

Many churches have a variety of capital campaigns they’re engaged in. You might have a building fund, pastor appreciation, an upcoming visiting pastor, and community projects. In your Givelify dashboard, create envelopes for these funds and they’ll appear in the app. Your members can then direct their giving as they are so moved, or when you make specific appeals.

These campaigns can last any time frame you choose. You can even set up a campaign for a specific fundraising event. Then you can help draw attention to said event by highlighting the campaign in your app’s cover photo, and ask donors to select the campaign while using the app to give.

How To Create Custom Envelopes

To create a custom campaign, visit www.givelify.com on your computer and follow these steps:

1. Log in to your organization’s account
2. Click on Settings at the top right of your screen
3. Click on the Envelopes tab
4. Click the New Envelope button at the top right of your screen
5. Fill out the form with the name of your envelope and a description
6. If you want your envelope to only run for a certain period of time, enter your desired date range
7. If you want to set a fundraising goal, click to turn the button to the on position and type the amount in the box provided
8. Select Create

Church Giving Your Members Will Connect With

When your members know exactly where their gifts will go and what they will help accomplish, they will feel more emotionally connected. When they are engaged with your mission, they will tend to give more.

At offering time, you can direct your congregants to specific capital campaigns such as building funds and mission trips. Let them know they can make their offering directly to those campaigns via your custom envelopes.

Show Tangible Results

Once you’ve created your custom church giving envelopes, try setting a fundraising goal where appropriate. If you know your upcoming youth mission will cost $3,000, set that as a goal for that envelope. You’ll be able to show your members exactly how much has been raised for that activity. As you get closer to the goal, people will be motivated to help you reach it.

Increase Transparency

People–especially millennials–want to give to a cause, not just an organization. While the tradition of church giving says you give as a matter of course, nowadays people want to know exactly how their donations will be used.

Transparency also inspires trust. By being a model for trustworthiness, even your offerings can turn into teachable moments. Your members will carry your lessons in generosity and openness with them throughout their lives.

Need More Ideas?

Custom envelopes are just one way to personalize and increase church giving. You can learn more about fundraising strategies like running a Givelithon on the Givelify Launchpad.