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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:

  1. An immediate thank you email with relevant links.
  2. A hand written thank you note about a week later.  You won’t find a better option than this.
  3. 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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?

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.

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)

  1. Wed, 5/9 at 2pm (For line leaders)
  2. Thurs, 5/10 at 10am (I’ll take brunch with my webinar)
  3. Sat, 5/12 at 9am (For people with day jobs)
  4. Sun, 5/13 at 9pm (But it’s 5 o’clock somewhere)
  5. Mon, 5/14 at 12pm (Lunch & learn)
  6. Tues, 5/15 at 7pm (It’s not Fat Tuesday, it’s Finance Team Tuesday)
  7. Wed, 5/16 at 11pm (Workaholics or people on the other side of Earth)
  8. 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:

Oh No! It’s a Sermon on Money

April 25, 2012 in Church Fundraising, Talking About Money With Your Church with 0 Comments

The other day I read a blog post from a pastor that began by stating, “No pastor likes to talk about money, and nobody in the church wants to hear a sermon on money.”  A few days before, I noticed a tweet from a pastor who claimed that he “survived” preaching on money that morning.

While we recognize that many people have abused the subject, we believe it’s time to conquer the fear of talking about money in the church.  I offer these five suggestions.

  1. Don’t apologize for talking about money.  It’s not a necessary evil – it’s an important part of the discipleship process.  Jesus said that people’s hearts and people’s finances were connected.  So when you stand to preach on money, you’re not preaching a money sermon; you’re preaching a discipleship sermon.  Never apologize for asking people to follow Jesus.
  2. Make it normal to talk about money.  People talk about money all of the time, probably EVERYDAY.  It’s time for this to be a normal topic in the church as well.  This means that you need to talk about spending, savings, debt, retirement, and insurance, in addition to giving.
  3. Start talking about money EARLY.  If you’re a church planter, one of the healthiest things you can do in your church is to teach on stewardship and generosity early on.  In fact, talk about generosity with your core group, because what they model will happen on a larger scale.  You’re not going to flip a switch and become a generous church with generous people.
  4. Un-churched people aren’t stupid…they know it takes money to run a church.  Pastors are often afraid to talk about money because we’ve all read the books showing skeptics think the church is all about money.  People who don’t go to church need Jesus, but they are not dumb.  They aren’t offended when they are asked to contribute, and they know it takes money to pay people and operate a facility.  Don’t’ let the fact that you’re reaching skeptics keep you from talking about money.
  5. People do want help with their finances.  For too long, the church has just asked for money from people, yet offered no practical help in the process.  What would happen if you helped your church WIN with their finances?  Would people in your church respect you if you helped them pay cash for a vacation?  Let’s want something FOR people, not just FROM them.

Let Giving Rocket help you have more money for ministry!
Click here to sign up for our 30-day trial membership for ONLY  $1! 

New Church Giving Statistics Revealed

April 23, 2012 in Church Fundraising with 4 Comments

Church Giving Stats Revealed

The premise of the the Church Giving Survey was to look at how churches are doing financially & what was influencing their giving.  I have to say that I was surprised at the data that came back.

Here is what surprised me:

1. 86% of churches are BROKE or BEHIND budget 

The study reveals only 14% of churches are ahead of budget.  This is a problem.  86% of churches are just existing… Jump over to the survey page & find out why.

2. Increasing church giving isn’t difficult

The study reveals 5 key influencers on church giving.  All 5 of the influencers can be implemented by any church of any size.

3. The 14% of churches ahead of budget act the same

The churches exceeding budget are different in their demographics but the same in how they operate.  I didn’t think it would be like this but it was.  It shocked me to see that there really is a formula you can use to increase church giving.

I’m in starbucks… Check this out:

 

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