We’re Giving Away a Case of Giver Booklets

Archive - May, 2012

May 31, 2012 in Follow Up with 39 Comments

A few months ago, we released a super-practical, done-for-you product. It’s a short, mailable, booklet you can personalize and send to people who make donations to your church. Take a look, but keep reading…

We designed this to be a simple solution. Whenever you see that someone made a first time donation to your church, grab one (they come in a case of 48), personalize the included thank you note, and put it in the envelope. Send it in the mail, and you’ve gone a long way to personally thanking someone for their donation. Here’s the website where you can get more information and order.

Today, we’re giving away a case of 48 of these booklets. Simply answer this question in the comments and you’ll be entered to win.

What do you do when someone gives money to your church for the first time?

How to Follow-up with Digital Donations

May 29, 2012 in Church Finance & Ministry Money, Church Fundraising, Follow Up, Online Giving In The Church with 0 Comments

Churches often forget a key group of people in church – digital givers.

People who give online may go unnoticed if the pastor does not set up systems to remind them to follow-up on first time digital givers, just like first time givers with cash or checks. Sometimes, because churches use digital giving systems outside of their church database management system, the digital givers could be left out.

As you build your systems, make sure that your online givers receive the same communication that other givers in your church receive.

For what it’s worth, we think every digital donation should receive:

An immediate thank you email with relevant links.
A hand written thank you note about a week later. You won’t find a better option than this.
A quarterly contribution statement at the end of the next quarter.

Giving Rocket Member Story

May 25, 2012 in Church Finance & Ministry Money, Church Fundraising, Follow Up, Online Giving In The Church, Talking About Money With Your Church with 0 Comments

Here’s a story from one of our international members, Proclaimers Church who has been going since the early 90s and has been lead by Pastor’s Tom & Denise Rawls since 2003. They currently average over 500 each Sunday and have a campus in Norwich and in Ipswich, UK.

“When we did the first quarterly report for 2011 we had come in more than £5000 under budget on tithes and offerings. I first started to read some articles by Casey Graham and others around this time to see what we could do to try and turn this around. Despite seeing a slight upturn, we were over £8000 behind budget at the end of June. It was at the start of October that we decided to give the $1 trial of Giving Rocket a go – nothing to lose!

It turned out that we were doing most of the right things but weren’t doing them strategically or intentionally enough. Giving Rocket helped us take what we already had and use it in the most effective and efficient way.

We had 2 online giving systems, both of which were a bit confusing so we simplified this down to one with the option of automating giving on there. We were a lot more intentional about how we spoke about money during our church service. We revamped our first time giving system and redesigned our quarterly giving statements. It was around this time we started running budgeting courses too to help people with their personal finances.Giving Rocket helped us take what we already had and use it in the most effective an efficient way.

Tithes and offerings have consistently increased since we were members. We ended last year above budget on tithes and offerings and the first quarter of this year was up more than 25% on the previous year and April was our highest month on record as a church for tithes and offerings.”

Special thanks goes out to Olly Kiff, Proclaimers Business Manager, for sharing this fantastic story with us! We are truly honored to serve your church.

If you’d like to see what Giving Rocket can do for your church, sign up for the $1 trial membership today!

Four Things Pastors Should Not Delegate

May 23, 2012 in Church Fundraising with 0 Comments

Aside from unique campus pastor or teaching pastor situations, there are several things the senior pastor should not delegate.

Vision stewardship. I think the senior pastor is the primary champion of the specific vision. Like an army general, he must rally the troops to accomplish the specific vision and keep the leaders focused on the task at hand.
Communicating the Gospel. In most cases, the senior pastor is the primary Bible teacher. This is an incredible responsibility that should not be taken lightly. It means careful attention and time must be given to this task.
Building and leading the staff team. This is another thing that can’t be delegated, even if there are others highly involved in the process. A church staff that isn’t unified isn’t going to lead a healthy organization.
Fundraising. Too many pastors try to delegate this responsibility to an executive pastor or finance team, but it rarely works. The pastor is the CFO: Chief Fundraising Officer.

Do you agree or disagree? Comments are open.

His Kingdom or Their Kingdom?

May 21, 2012 in Church Fundraising, Talking About Money With Your Church with 2 Comments

So many churches struggle with the issue of balancing their view of credit card debt with their desire for digital giving. I read a quote recently:

“In all transparency, I would rather people go into debt furthering His Kingdom rather than furthering their own kingdom!”

What do you think? Would you rather people go into debt advancing His Kingdom over building their own? Obviously, God does not want us to get caught up in “stuff.”

What’s the balance?

How to Build Consistent Givers

May 16, 2012 in Church Finance & Ministry Money, Online Giving In The Church with 0 Comments

Digital giving has one key component that many leaders overlook – recurring gifts.

When attendees of your church engage digital giving, they have the opportunity to establish a gift that repeats on a recurring schedule – weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. If your church teaches financial stewardship classes, consider a component of that class that includes how to set up recurring payments for the resource dollars that are allocated towards “giving.” Also, take time regularly (during a weekend service) to teach your church how to set-up recurring payments.

Consistent givers will carry your church on weekends when attendance may be low, but specifically during the “J” months (January, June & July) when giving can be consistently low.

Take time to focus on building consistent givers!

Click here to find out more about how we can help your church “Automate the Important” .

Remember the Good Old Days?

May 14, 2012 in Church Fundraising, Online Giving In The Church with 0 Comments

I’ve never heard anyone reminisce about the good old days that lacked air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and faster cars. However, in church we are often so resistant to changes that could make our ministry have a greater reach.

Digital giving will be an area that soon becomes common in most of our churches, and it is unlikely that people will reminisce about the good old days when they wrote checks for their giving or brought cash from their paychecks.

Don’t get stuck reminiscing about things that do not matter. Turn your attention to the future and consider the best ways to reach the people that God has called you to impact for His name.

Automate the Important is a full-blown initiative to help people in your church automate their giving. It’s a focus on digital giving, and it’s one of the monthly member benefits for Giving Rocket members.

Goats, vegetables and grain

May 3, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

There was a time when people gave using items they grew or raised, like goats, vegetables, or grain. Then one day, someone had a great idea: Sell all my crops for money. They went to church with cash and asked if they could give. It was a quandary, but churches will always take cash – and they did.

Today, people want to be able to give in new ways. Cash and checks have been replaced with debit and credit cards, but churches are still resistant to the idea of digital giving. Don’t get left behind when it comes to giving! Implement a digital giving strategy that will grow your church’s budget and engage people in new ways.

This month, we’re coaching all of our Giving Rocket members in the area of digital giving. If you’ve been thinking about jumping in, this is the time to do it.

Click here to give Giving Rocket a trial run for only $1.

Simple Solutions to Exceed Your Church Budget

May 2, 2012 in Church Finance & Ministry Money, Church Fundraising, Online Giving In The Church with 0 Comments

We surveyed 1,078 churches and found that only 14% of churches are exceeding budget.

THIS IS A PROBLEM! And we are going on a campaign to fix it.

That’s why we’re inviting you to one of eight identical Town Hall Meetings where we are going to address the issue head-on and tell you how you can fix it. We’re tired of churches being broke and behind budget, struggling to make ministry ends meet.

During the Town Hall meeting, you will learn:

The 5 Key Influencers to exceeding your church budget
The three things you can do right now to change the giving economy in your church
How a real church applied these principles and saw a significant increase in giving

Here are the eight options you have to attend: (All times are U.S. Eastern Time)

Wed, 5/9 at 2pm (For line leaders)
Thurs, 5/10 at 10am (I’ll take brunch with my webinar)
Sat, 5/12 at 9am (For people with day jobs)
Sun, 5/13 at 9pm (But it’s 5 o’clock somewhere)
Mon, 5/14 at 12pm (Lunch & learn)
Tues, 5/15 at 7pm (It’s not Fat Tuesday, it’s Finance Team Tuesday)
Wed, 5/16 at 11pm (Workaholics or people on the other side of Earth)
Thurs, 5/17 at 6am (For England & old people)

Pick the one that’s most convenient for you and sign up now by completing this form: