Recurring Giving: The Key to Creating Automatic Monthly Donations
Stone age tithing methods might be costing you 50% of your potential monthly donations. Find out how to change that.
Church leaders, here’s a quick quiz to determine if your church should automate its monthly donations:
- Would you use a VHS/TV combo at your next Youth Group activity?
- Would you use morse code as your primary communications technology for church announcements?
- Would you launch your capital campaign by sending carrier pigeons to the houses of all your richest members?
- Would you build a moat around your church building and call it a “church security” safeguard?
- Bonus Question: Would you use pate-passing and bank transfers as the primary means of collecting tithes and offerings?
Why do you think every church has ditched VHS, morse code, pigeons, and moats?
Because something else was invented and now it works WAY better.
When it comes to tithing, automated recurring giving software is the 5K 80” flat screen of tithing.
In many cases, it doubles tithing within the year.
There’s nothing wrong with passing a plate. This is still one of the ways many churches collect monthly donations.
But if your church is relying on these methods as the primary means of collecting tithes, you are leaving money for the Kingdom on the table that your members want to give.
Your church should use a recurring giving model of tithing.
Most of your church members give every monthly anyways.
Why not help them to make it automatic?
It’s that simple.
Here’s the deal:
The longer you delay in implementing a recurring giving platform at your church to automate monthly donations, the more money you’re losing, and the longer it will take to catch up when you finally do switch to a software ( eventually, every church will).
Buckle up!
Because in this article, I’m going to walk you through the seven steps to take you from 0mph to 100mph recurring giving model in your church so that you can automate monthly donations at your church and process every single dollar your members want to give.
More Resources = More Ministry
With more resources, you can do more kingdom building.
More discipleship.
More mercy ministry.
More community service.
More diaconal ministry.
Better childcare.
More money doesn’t automatically make you a better church.
But more tithing means more participating in God’s kingdom as the body of Christ in this age.
So get on board, and let’s get those monthly donations automated ASAP with these 7 steps.
1. Begin by selling it to your church leadership
Don’t launch a church giving platform with divided leadership. As Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Don’t implement a technology with your church—especially a technology so closely related to money—if there is any conflict.
Spend the time to get everybody on the same page about digital giving.
Once everyone in church leadership is on the same page, you can start writing a launch plan to communicate to members why implementing a recurring giving software to automate monthly donations will help the church.
One common obstacle that church leadership faces from other leaders in the church is the cost of recurring giving software.
They don’t like the idea of spending money on software that regulates giving, because they believe it compromises the integrity of the giving process.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
You could make the same argument about spending money on “giving envelopes” for plate passing.But giving envelopes don’t have the potential to double your giving, and tithing software does.
Implementing recurring giving software in your church doesn’t cost you money any more than a restaurant paying for a credit card machine costs them money.
It does the opposite.
When you increase recurring giving, tt increases cash flow, and therefore increases the opportunity and potential of the church.
2. Bargain with reluctant adopters
Some in the church may be reluctant to adopt technology because they are skeptical about technology to begin with.
This isn’t a problem.
All you have to do is give reluctant adopters an incentive to use your digital giving software instead of using cash.
For example, if you get the Tithe.ly Church App, a custom, branded app for your church, then giving is a free feature of that app.
If you put features such as sermon notes, prayer requests, and the church calendar on the app, then you get people used to using your church app for church-related items on their calendar.
Tithing becomes an organic part of that use.
3. Boost lifetime value, not immediate gain
Think about it.
What if Netflix was a cash only business.
How many people would forget to pay each month and eventually stop paying?
How much would customers be worth each year, compared to their automated model?
The answer is: If Netflix was a cash-only business, it wouldn’t exist anymore.
I know what you’re thinking:
But Tithing isn’t a product—people are commanded to tithe in the Bible.
Fair enough.
But if you’re a pastor, you know that that’s not enough to prompt regular giving.
People forget.
People go on vacation.
People get tight on money.
There are many reasons why people may not tithe month-to-month and therefore their lifetime value as a giver could be cut in half as easily as Thanos snaps his fingers.z
But with an automated monthly donation model with a recurring giving software, you guard against that.
People begin looking at tithing with the ease of a Netflix donation.
Then, you as a church can stop thinking about tithing as an answer to the question: “How can we survive month to month?”
And you can start thinking of tithing as an answer to the question: “How can we gather more resources for the kingdom year over year?”
Tithe.ly Giving enables your church to stop thinking about month-to-month survival, and start thinking about year-over-year growth.
Stop just surviving, and start thriving by looking at members as lifelong partners, not one-time givers.
4. Build a partnership, not patronage
Monthly giving programs like Tithe.ly Giving enables you to completely change your relationship with your members from patrons who give you pity money and partners who are proud to participate in God’s work in your church through monthly donations.
If you have to ask people over and over again, it gets tiresome.
Eventually, if you have to ask for basic tithes too often, people wonder if their tithes are really doing anything—and they may even give less.
When you implement recurring giving software, people assume that their tithes are needed, funding the work of God’s church, and meeting needs in the community, instead of barely keeping the lights on.
5. Bring all payment methods into one place
By implementing a recurring giving software, you are able to simplify your monthly cash flow. Instead of tracking four bank accounts, eight funds, 12 causes, and a partridge in a pear tree (does that guy still need a donation receipt?), Tithe.ly Giving enables you to streamline every fund, special cause, general giving, and in-serve text-to-give through the same backend software.
You can manage each donor, see how much they gave last month, and better pastor your members.
Remember—tithing is a facet of discipleship.
Would you leave other aspects of your pastoral ministry to inefficient and ineffective systems?
Of course not.
So why would you allow your tithing system look more like a street entertainer than a successful business?
Use the excellent tools the marketplace affords you to make your members’ giving to God’s kingdom as simple and easy as possible.
By consolidating giving into one place, you make the task of discipleship easier for your members (isn’t it hard enough already?) and you make the task of pastoring much more simple and time-saving for yourself (so you have time for more important work).
6. Bolster your relationship with givers
Digital giving solidifies your relationship with donors. When you have to “collect” every Sunday, you build a “debt collector” relationship with your members. That’s not good for church morale, and it’s certainly not good for giving.
When you automate monthly donations, members see those monthly withdrawals as something they are happy to do for God’s kingdom—mostly because you don’t have to ask them every Sunday.
It just happens.
And they can manage their cards, bank accounts, and giving methods within the Tithe.ly Giving app.
Recurring giving software makes relationships between members and donors better, not worse—and an added benefit: they end up giving more money.
7. Benefit from the best tool
We’ve mentioned it a few times here, but far and away, the best monthly donation tool for churches is Tithe.ly Giving. You’re free to do research and see that Tithe.ly Giving is far and away the highest rated church giving app in the marketplace (see Capterra and SoftwareAdvice).
Tithe.ly Giving has no sign-up fee.
No contract.
No obligation.
Free migration from other digital giving platforms.
Free training to launch digital giving in your church.
Tithe.ly was built by pastors for pastors.
Tithe.ly Giving is easily the best choice for church leaders to disciple their members in the act of tithing.
Over to you
Don’t be overwhelmed by all the online marketing you see about digital giving software.
God placed you in your church for a reason.
If you are prayerful and discerning, you will make the right choice.
But it’s clear that the right choice is to begin using some recurring giving software.
The future is now, and payment processing is transitioning entirely to digital.
Your tithing method should reflect that.
Again—not just so that you can be “high tech,” but because you didn’t build a moat around your church to keep it safe.
Don’t build a moat to safeguard your church’s financial security.
Get Tithe.ly Giving.
More resources and tips about online giving for churches:
- Online giving software for churches and ministries
- Increase Online Giving In Your Church with These 9 Proven Strategies
- Simple Guide To Creating Awesome Online Donation Pages
- 7 Ways to Optimize Your Church’s Online Giving Page to Boost Giving
- 7 Online Giving Myths That Are Crippling Your Church (NewData)
- 1 Offline Way to Encourage Online Giving
- How to Effectively Launch Online Giving: Expert Tips from 11 Communications Pros
- Choosing an Online Giving Service for Your Church: 7 Important Questions to Ask Before Making a Selection
- 3 Reasons Your Church Must Offer Online Giving
- 3 Key Findings & Online Giving Best Practices from Fundraising Research
- How North Coast Church Doubled Online Giving and Saved Over $82,000 in A Year
- The Top 3 Common Questions From Churches About Online Giving
- 8 Ways to Break Out of a Summer Giving Slump
- How to Increase Recurring Giving in Your Church
- 6 Reasons Your Church Should Regularly Promote Automated Recurring Giving
- 6 Proven Ways to Increase Recurring Giving in Your Church
- Recurring Giving: The Key to Creating Automatic Monthly Donations
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Paul Maxwell, Ph.D., is the Content Strategist at Tithe.ly. Find him at paulmaxwell.co.
Church leaders, here’s a quick quiz to determine if your church should automate its monthly donations:
- Would you use a VHS/TV combo at your next Youth Group activity?
- Would you use morse code as your primary communications technology for church announcements?
- Would you launch your capital campaign by sending carrier pigeons to the houses of all your richest members?
- Would you build a moat around your church building and call it a “church security” safeguard?
- Bonus Question: Would you use pate-passing and bank transfers as the primary means of collecting tithes and offerings?
Why do you think every church has ditched VHS, morse code, pigeons, and moats?
Because something else was invented and now it works WAY better.
When it comes to tithing, automated recurring giving software is the 5K 80” flat screen of tithing.
In many cases, it doubles tithing within the year.
There’s nothing wrong with passing a plate. This is still one of the ways many churches collect monthly donations.
But if your church is relying on these methods as the primary means of collecting tithes, you are leaving money for the Kingdom on the table that your members want to give.
Your church should use a recurring giving model of tithing.
Most of your church members give every monthly anyways.
Why not help them to make it automatic?
It’s that simple.
Here’s the deal:
The longer you delay in implementing a recurring giving platform at your church to automate monthly donations, the more money you’re losing, and the longer it will take to catch up when you finally do switch to a software ( eventually, every church will).
Buckle up!
Because in this article, I’m going to walk you through the seven steps to take you from 0mph to 100mph recurring giving model in your church so that you can automate monthly donations at your church and process every single dollar your members want to give.
More Resources = More Ministry
With more resources, you can do more kingdom building.
More discipleship.
More mercy ministry.
More community service.
More diaconal ministry.
Better childcare.
More money doesn’t automatically make you a better church.
But more tithing means more participating in God’s kingdom as the body of Christ in this age.
So get on board, and let’s get those monthly donations automated ASAP with these 7 steps.
1. Begin by selling it to your church leadership
Don’t launch a church giving platform with divided leadership. As Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Don’t implement a technology with your church—especially a technology so closely related to money—if there is any conflict.
Spend the time to get everybody on the same page about digital giving.
Once everyone in church leadership is on the same page, you can start writing a launch plan to communicate to members why implementing a recurring giving software to automate monthly donations will help the church.
One common obstacle that church leadership faces from other leaders in the church is the cost of recurring giving software.
They don’t like the idea of spending money on software that regulates giving, because they believe it compromises the integrity of the giving process.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
You could make the same argument about spending money on “giving envelopes” for plate passing.But giving envelopes don’t have the potential to double your giving, and tithing software does.
Implementing recurring giving software in your church doesn’t cost you money any more than a restaurant paying for a credit card machine costs them money.
It does the opposite.
When you increase recurring giving, tt increases cash flow, and therefore increases the opportunity and potential of the church.
2. Bargain with reluctant adopters
Some in the church may be reluctant to adopt technology because they are skeptical about technology to begin with.
This isn’t a problem.
All you have to do is give reluctant adopters an incentive to use your digital giving software instead of using cash.
For example, if you get the Tithe.ly Church App, a custom, branded app for your church, then giving is a free feature of that app.
If you put features such as sermon notes, prayer requests, and the church calendar on the app, then you get people used to using your church app for church-related items on their calendar.
Tithing becomes an organic part of that use.
3. Boost lifetime value, not immediate gain
Think about it.
What if Netflix was a cash only business.
How many people would forget to pay each month and eventually stop paying?
How much would customers be worth each year, compared to their automated model?
The answer is: If Netflix was a cash-only business, it wouldn’t exist anymore.
I know what you’re thinking:
But Tithing isn’t a product—people are commanded to tithe in the Bible.
Fair enough.
But if you’re a pastor, you know that that’s not enough to prompt regular giving.
People forget.
People go on vacation.
People get tight on money.
There are many reasons why people may not tithe month-to-month and therefore their lifetime value as a giver could be cut in half as easily as Thanos snaps his fingers.z
But with an automated monthly donation model with a recurring giving software, you guard against that.
People begin looking at tithing with the ease of a Netflix donation.
Then, you as a church can stop thinking about tithing as an answer to the question: “How can we survive month to month?”
And you can start thinking of tithing as an answer to the question: “How can we gather more resources for the kingdom year over year?”
Tithe.ly Giving enables your church to stop thinking about month-to-month survival, and start thinking about year-over-year growth.
Stop just surviving, and start thriving by looking at members as lifelong partners, not one-time givers.
4. Build a partnership, not patronage
Monthly giving programs like Tithe.ly Giving enables you to completely change your relationship with your members from patrons who give you pity money and partners who are proud to participate in God’s work in your church through monthly donations.
If you have to ask people over and over again, it gets tiresome.
Eventually, if you have to ask for basic tithes too often, people wonder if their tithes are really doing anything—and they may even give less.
When you implement recurring giving software, people assume that their tithes are needed, funding the work of God’s church, and meeting needs in the community, instead of barely keeping the lights on.
5. Bring all payment methods into one place
By implementing a recurring giving software, you are able to simplify your monthly cash flow. Instead of tracking four bank accounts, eight funds, 12 causes, and a partridge in a pear tree (does that guy still need a donation receipt?), Tithe.ly Giving enables you to streamline every fund, special cause, general giving, and in-serve text-to-give through the same backend software.
You can manage each donor, see how much they gave last month, and better pastor your members.
Remember—tithing is a facet of discipleship.
Would you leave other aspects of your pastoral ministry to inefficient and ineffective systems?
Of course not.
So why would you allow your tithing system look more like a street entertainer than a successful business?
Use the excellent tools the marketplace affords you to make your members’ giving to God’s kingdom as simple and easy as possible.
By consolidating giving into one place, you make the task of discipleship easier for your members (isn’t it hard enough already?) and you make the task of pastoring much more simple and time-saving for yourself (so you have time for more important work).
6. Bolster your relationship with givers
Digital giving solidifies your relationship with donors. When you have to “collect” every Sunday, you build a “debt collector” relationship with your members. That’s not good for church morale, and it’s certainly not good for giving.
When you automate monthly donations, members see those monthly withdrawals as something they are happy to do for God’s kingdom—mostly because you don’t have to ask them every Sunday.
It just happens.
And they can manage their cards, bank accounts, and giving methods within the Tithe.ly Giving app.
Recurring giving software makes relationships between members and donors better, not worse—and an added benefit: they end up giving more money.
7. Benefit from the best tool
We’ve mentioned it a few times here, but far and away, the best monthly donation tool for churches is Tithe.ly Giving. You’re free to do research and see that Tithe.ly Giving is far and away the highest rated church giving app in the marketplace (see Capterra and SoftwareAdvice).
Tithe.ly Giving has no sign-up fee.
No contract.
No obligation.
Free migration from other digital giving platforms.
Free training to launch digital giving in your church.
Tithe.ly was built by pastors for pastors.
Tithe.ly Giving is easily the best choice for church leaders to disciple their members in the act of tithing.
Over to you
Don’t be overwhelmed by all the online marketing you see about digital giving software.
God placed you in your church for a reason.
If you are prayerful and discerning, you will make the right choice.
But it’s clear that the right choice is to begin using some recurring giving software.
The future is now, and payment processing is transitioning entirely to digital.
Your tithing method should reflect that.
Again—not just so that you can be “high tech,” but because you didn’t build a moat around your church to keep it safe.
Don’t build a moat to safeguard your church’s financial security.
Get Tithe.ly Giving.
More resources and tips about online giving for churches:
- Online giving software for churches and ministries
- Increase Online Giving In Your Church with These 9 Proven Strategies
- Simple Guide To Creating Awesome Online Donation Pages
- 7 Ways to Optimize Your Church’s Online Giving Page to Boost Giving
- 7 Online Giving Myths That Are Crippling Your Church (NewData)
- 1 Offline Way to Encourage Online Giving
- How to Effectively Launch Online Giving: Expert Tips from 11 Communications Pros
- Choosing an Online Giving Service for Your Church: 7 Important Questions to Ask Before Making a Selection
- 3 Reasons Your Church Must Offer Online Giving
- 3 Key Findings & Online Giving Best Practices from Fundraising Research
- How North Coast Church Doubled Online Giving and Saved Over $82,000 in A Year
- The Top 3 Common Questions From Churches About Online Giving
- 8 Ways to Break Out of a Summer Giving Slump
- How to Increase Recurring Giving in Your Church
- 6 Reasons Your Church Should Regularly Promote Automated Recurring Giving
- 6 Proven Ways to Increase Recurring Giving in Your Church
- Recurring Giving: The Key to Creating Automatic Monthly Donations
podcast transcript
Paul Maxwell, Ph.D., is the Content Strategist at Tithe.ly. Find him at paulmaxwell.co.
Church leaders, here’s a quick quiz to determine if your church should automate its monthly donations:
- Would you use a VHS/TV combo at your next Youth Group activity?
- Would you use morse code as your primary communications technology for church announcements?
- Would you launch your capital campaign by sending carrier pigeons to the houses of all your richest members?
- Would you build a moat around your church building and call it a “church security” safeguard?
- Bonus Question: Would you use pate-passing and bank transfers as the primary means of collecting tithes and offerings?
Why do you think every church has ditched VHS, morse code, pigeons, and moats?
Because something else was invented and now it works WAY better.
When it comes to tithing, automated recurring giving software is the 5K 80” flat screen of tithing.
In many cases, it doubles tithing within the year.
There’s nothing wrong with passing a plate. This is still one of the ways many churches collect monthly donations.
But if your church is relying on these methods as the primary means of collecting tithes, you are leaving money for the Kingdom on the table that your members want to give.
Your church should use a recurring giving model of tithing.
Most of your church members give every monthly anyways.
Why not help them to make it automatic?
It’s that simple.
Here’s the deal:
The longer you delay in implementing a recurring giving platform at your church to automate monthly donations, the more money you’re losing, and the longer it will take to catch up when you finally do switch to a software ( eventually, every church will).
Buckle up!
Because in this article, I’m going to walk you through the seven steps to take you from 0mph to 100mph recurring giving model in your church so that you can automate monthly donations at your church and process every single dollar your members want to give.
More Resources = More Ministry
With more resources, you can do more kingdom building.
More discipleship.
More mercy ministry.
More community service.
More diaconal ministry.
Better childcare.
More money doesn’t automatically make you a better church.
But more tithing means more participating in God’s kingdom as the body of Christ in this age.
So get on board, and let’s get those monthly donations automated ASAP with these 7 steps.
1. Begin by selling it to your church leadership
Don’t launch a church giving platform with divided leadership. As Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Don’t implement a technology with your church—especially a technology so closely related to money—if there is any conflict.
Spend the time to get everybody on the same page about digital giving.
Once everyone in church leadership is on the same page, you can start writing a launch plan to communicate to members why implementing a recurring giving software to automate monthly donations will help the church.
One common obstacle that church leadership faces from other leaders in the church is the cost of recurring giving software.
They don’t like the idea of spending money on software that regulates giving, because they believe it compromises the integrity of the giving process.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
You could make the same argument about spending money on “giving envelopes” for plate passing.But giving envelopes don’t have the potential to double your giving, and tithing software does.
Implementing recurring giving software in your church doesn’t cost you money any more than a restaurant paying for a credit card machine costs them money.
It does the opposite.
When you increase recurring giving, tt increases cash flow, and therefore increases the opportunity and potential of the church.
2. Bargain with reluctant adopters
Some in the church may be reluctant to adopt technology because they are skeptical about technology to begin with.
This isn’t a problem.
All you have to do is give reluctant adopters an incentive to use your digital giving software instead of using cash.
For example, if you get the Tithe.ly Church App, a custom, branded app for your church, then giving is a free feature of that app.
If you put features such as sermon notes, prayer requests, and the church calendar on the app, then you get people used to using your church app for church-related items on their calendar.
Tithing becomes an organic part of that use.
3. Boost lifetime value, not immediate gain
Think about it.
What if Netflix was a cash only business.
How many people would forget to pay each month and eventually stop paying?
How much would customers be worth each year, compared to their automated model?
The answer is: If Netflix was a cash-only business, it wouldn’t exist anymore.
I know what you’re thinking:
But Tithing isn’t a product—people are commanded to tithe in the Bible.
Fair enough.
But if you’re a pastor, you know that that’s not enough to prompt regular giving.
People forget.
People go on vacation.
People get tight on money.
There are many reasons why people may not tithe month-to-month and therefore their lifetime value as a giver could be cut in half as easily as Thanos snaps his fingers.z
But with an automated monthly donation model with a recurring giving software, you guard against that.
People begin looking at tithing with the ease of a Netflix donation.
Then, you as a church can stop thinking about tithing as an answer to the question: “How can we survive month to month?”
And you can start thinking of tithing as an answer to the question: “How can we gather more resources for the kingdom year over year?”
Tithe.ly Giving enables your church to stop thinking about month-to-month survival, and start thinking about year-over-year growth.
Stop just surviving, and start thriving by looking at members as lifelong partners, not one-time givers.
4. Build a partnership, not patronage
Monthly giving programs like Tithe.ly Giving enables you to completely change your relationship with your members from patrons who give you pity money and partners who are proud to participate in God’s work in your church through monthly donations.
If you have to ask people over and over again, it gets tiresome.
Eventually, if you have to ask for basic tithes too often, people wonder if their tithes are really doing anything—and they may even give less.
When you implement recurring giving software, people assume that their tithes are needed, funding the work of God’s church, and meeting needs in the community, instead of barely keeping the lights on.
5. Bring all payment methods into one place
By implementing a recurring giving software, you are able to simplify your monthly cash flow. Instead of tracking four bank accounts, eight funds, 12 causes, and a partridge in a pear tree (does that guy still need a donation receipt?), Tithe.ly Giving enables you to streamline every fund, special cause, general giving, and in-serve text-to-give through the same backend software.
You can manage each donor, see how much they gave last month, and better pastor your members.
Remember—tithing is a facet of discipleship.
Would you leave other aspects of your pastoral ministry to inefficient and ineffective systems?
Of course not.
So why would you allow your tithing system look more like a street entertainer than a successful business?
Use the excellent tools the marketplace affords you to make your members’ giving to God’s kingdom as simple and easy as possible.
By consolidating giving into one place, you make the task of discipleship easier for your members (isn’t it hard enough already?) and you make the task of pastoring much more simple and time-saving for yourself (so you have time for more important work).
6. Bolster your relationship with givers
Digital giving solidifies your relationship with donors. When you have to “collect” every Sunday, you build a “debt collector” relationship with your members. That’s not good for church morale, and it’s certainly not good for giving.
When you automate monthly donations, members see those monthly withdrawals as something they are happy to do for God’s kingdom—mostly because you don’t have to ask them every Sunday.
It just happens.
And they can manage their cards, bank accounts, and giving methods within the Tithe.ly Giving app.
Recurring giving software makes relationships between members and donors better, not worse—and an added benefit: they end up giving more money.
7. Benefit from the best tool
We’ve mentioned it a few times here, but far and away, the best monthly donation tool for churches is Tithe.ly Giving. You’re free to do research and see that Tithe.ly Giving is far and away the highest rated church giving app in the marketplace (see Capterra and SoftwareAdvice).
Tithe.ly Giving has no sign-up fee.
No contract.
No obligation.
Free migration from other digital giving platforms.
Free training to launch digital giving in your church.
Tithe.ly was built by pastors for pastors.
Tithe.ly Giving is easily the best choice for church leaders to disciple their members in the act of tithing.
Over to you
Don’t be overwhelmed by all the online marketing you see about digital giving software.
God placed you in your church for a reason.
If you are prayerful and discerning, you will make the right choice.
But it’s clear that the right choice is to begin using some recurring giving software.
The future is now, and payment processing is transitioning entirely to digital.
Your tithing method should reflect that.
Again—not just so that you can be “high tech,” but because you didn’t build a moat around your church to keep it safe.
Don’t build a moat to safeguard your church’s financial security.
Get Tithe.ly Giving.
More resources and tips about online giving for churches:
- Online giving software for churches and ministries
- Increase Online Giving In Your Church with These 9 Proven Strategies
- Simple Guide To Creating Awesome Online Donation Pages
- 7 Ways to Optimize Your Church’s Online Giving Page to Boost Giving
- 7 Online Giving Myths That Are Crippling Your Church (NewData)
- 1 Offline Way to Encourage Online Giving
- How to Effectively Launch Online Giving: Expert Tips from 11 Communications Pros
- Choosing an Online Giving Service for Your Church: 7 Important Questions to Ask Before Making a Selection
- 3 Reasons Your Church Must Offer Online Giving
- 3 Key Findings & Online Giving Best Practices from Fundraising Research
- How North Coast Church Doubled Online Giving and Saved Over $82,000 in A Year
- The Top 3 Common Questions From Churches About Online Giving
- 8 Ways to Break Out of a Summer Giving Slump
- How to Increase Recurring Giving in Your Church
- 6 Reasons Your Church Should Regularly Promote Automated Recurring Giving
- 6 Proven Ways to Increase Recurring Giving in Your Church
- Recurring Giving: The Key to Creating Automatic Monthly Donations
VIDEO transcript
Church leaders, here’s a quick quiz to determine if your church should automate its monthly donations:
- Would you use a VHS/TV combo at your next Youth Group activity?
- Would you use morse code as your primary communications technology for church announcements?
- Would you launch your capital campaign by sending carrier pigeons to the houses of all your richest members?
- Would you build a moat around your church building and call it a “church security” safeguard?
- Bonus Question: Would you use pate-passing and bank transfers as the primary means of collecting tithes and offerings?
Why do you think every church has ditched VHS, morse code, pigeons, and moats?
Because something else was invented and now it works WAY better.
When it comes to tithing, automated recurring giving software is the 5K 80” flat screen of tithing.
In many cases, it doubles tithing within the year.
There’s nothing wrong with passing a plate. This is still one of the ways many churches collect monthly donations.
But if your church is relying on these methods as the primary means of collecting tithes, you are leaving money for the Kingdom on the table that your members want to give.
Your church should use a recurring giving model of tithing.
Most of your church members give every monthly anyways.
Why not help them to make it automatic?
It’s that simple.
Here’s the deal:
The longer you delay in implementing a recurring giving platform at your church to automate monthly donations, the more money you’re losing, and the longer it will take to catch up when you finally do switch to a software ( eventually, every church will).
Buckle up!
Because in this article, I’m going to walk you through the seven steps to take you from 0mph to 100mph recurring giving model in your church so that you can automate monthly donations at your church and process every single dollar your members want to give.
More Resources = More Ministry
With more resources, you can do more kingdom building.
More discipleship.
More mercy ministry.
More community service.
More diaconal ministry.
Better childcare.
More money doesn’t automatically make you a better church.
But more tithing means more participating in God’s kingdom as the body of Christ in this age.
So get on board, and let’s get those monthly donations automated ASAP with these 7 steps.
1. Begin by selling it to your church leadership
Don’t launch a church giving platform with divided leadership. As Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Don’t implement a technology with your church—especially a technology so closely related to money—if there is any conflict.
Spend the time to get everybody on the same page about digital giving.
Once everyone in church leadership is on the same page, you can start writing a launch plan to communicate to members why implementing a recurring giving software to automate monthly donations will help the church.
One common obstacle that church leadership faces from other leaders in the church is the cost of recurring giving software.
They don’t like the idea of spending money on software that regulates giving, because they believe it compromises the integrity of the giving process.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
You could make the same argument about spending money on “giving envelopes” for plate passing.But giving envelopes don’t have the potential to double your giving, and tithing software does.
Implementing recurring giving software in your church doesn’t cost you money any more than a restaurant paying for a credit card machine costs them money.
It does the opposite.
When you increase recurring giving, tt increases cash flow, and therefore increases the opportunity and potential of the church.
2. Bargain with reluctant adopters
Some in the church may be reluctant to adopt technology because they are skeptical about technology to begin with.
This isn’t a problem.
All you have to do is give reluctant adopters an incentive to use your digital giving software instead of using cash.
For example, if you get the Tithe.ly Church App, a custom, branded app for your church, then giving is a free feature of that app.
If you put features such as sermon notes, prayer requests, and the church calendar on the app, then you get people used to using your church app for church-related items on their calendar.
Tithing becomes an organic part of that use.
3. Boost lifetime value, not immediate gain
Think about it.
What if Netflix was a cash only business.
How many people would forget to pay each month and eventually stop paying?
How much would customers be worth each year, compared to their automated model?
The answer is: If Netflix was a cash-only business, it wouldn’t exist anymore.
I know what you’re thinking:
But Tithing isn’t a product—people are commanded to tithe in the Bible.
Fair enough.
But if you’re a pastor, you know that that’s not enough to prompt regular giving.
People forget.
People go on vacation.
People get tight on money.
There are many reasons why people may not tithe month-to-month and therefore their lifetime value as a giver could be cut in half as easily as Thanos snaps his fingers.z
But with an automated monthly donation model with a recurring giving software, you guard against that.
People begin looking at tithing with the ease of a Netflix donation.
Then, you as a church can stop thinking about tithing as an answer to the question: “How can we survive month to month?”
And you can start thinking of tithing as an answer to the question: “How can we gather more resources for the kingdom year over year?”
Tithe.ly Giving enables your church to stop thinking about month-to-month survival, and start thinking about year-over-year growth.
Stop just surviving, and start thriving by looking at members as lifelong partners, not one-time givers.
4. Build a partnership, not patronage
Monthly giving programs like Tithe.ly Giving enables you to completely change your relationship with your members from patrons who give you pity money and partners who are proud to participate in God’s work in your church through monthly donations.
If you have to ask people over and over again, it gets tiresome.
Eventually, if you have to ask for basic tithes too often, people wonder if their tithes are really doing anything—and they may even give less.
When you implement recurring giving software, people assume that their tithes are needed, funding the work of God’s church, and meeting needs in the community, instead of barely keeping the lights on.
5. Bring all payment methods into one place
By implementing a recurring giving software, you are able to simplify your monthly cash flow. Instead of tracking four bank accounts, eight funds, 12 causes, and a partridge in a pear tree (does that guy still need a donation receipt?), Tithe.ly Giving enables you to streamline every fund, special cause, general giving, and in-serve text-to-give through the same backend software.
You can manage each donor, see how much they gave last month, and better pastor your members.
Remember—tithing is a facet of discipleship.
Would you leave other aspects of your pastoral ministry to inefficient and ineffective systems?
Of course not.
So why would you allow your tithing system look more like a street entertainer than a successful business?
Use the excellent tools the marketplace affords you to make your members’ giving to God’s kingdom as simple and easy as possible.
By consolidating giving into one place, you make the task of discipleship easier for your members (isn’t it hard enough already?) and you make the task of pastoring much more simple and time-saving for yourself (so you have time for more important work).
6. Bolster your relationship with givers
Digital giving solidifies your relationship with donors. When you have to “collect” every Sunday, you build a “debt collector” relationship with your members. That’s not good for church morale, and it’s certainly not good for giving.
When you automate monthly donations, members see those monthly withdrawals as something they are happy to do for God’s kingdom—mostly because you don’t have to ask them every Sunday.
It just happens.
And they can manage their cards, bank accounts, and giving methods within the Tithe.ly Giving app.
Recurring giving software makes relationships between members and donors better, not worse—and an added benefit: they end up giving more money.
7. Benefit from the best tool
We’ve mentioned it a few times here, but far and away, the best monthly donation tool for churches is Tithe.ly Giving. You’re free to do research and see that Tithe.ly Giving is far and away the highest rated church giving app in the marketplace (see Capterra and SoftwareAdvice).
Tithe.ly Giving has no sign-up fee.
No contract.
No obligation.
Free migration from other digital giving platforms.
Free training to launch digital giving in your church.
Tithe.ly was built by pastors for pastors.
Tithe.ly Giving is easily the best choice for church leaders to disciple their members in the act of tithing.
Over to you
Don’t be overwhelmed by all the online marketing you see about digital giving software.
God placed you in your church for a reason.
If you are prayerful and discerning, you will make the right choice.
But it’s clear that the right choice is to begin using some recurring giving software.
The future is now, and payment processing is transitioning entirely to digital.
Your tithing method should reflect that.
Again—not just so that you can be “high tech,” but because you didn’t build a moat around your church to keep it safe.
Don’t build a moat to safeguard your church’s financial security.
Get Tithe.ly Giving.
More resources and tips about online giving for churches:
- Online giving software for churches and ministries
- Increase Online Giving In Your Church with These 9 Proven Strategies
- Simple Guide To Creating Awesome Online Donation Pages
- 7 Ways to Optimize Your Church’s Online Giving Page to Boost Giving
- 7 Online Giving Myths That Are Crippling Your Church (NewData)
- 1 Offline Way to Encourage Online Giving
- How to Effectively Launch Online Giving: Expert Tips from 11 Communications Pros
- Choosing an Online Giving Service for Your Church: 7 Important Questions to Ask Before Making a Selection
- 3 Reasons Your Church Must Offer Online Giving
- 3 Key Findings & Online Giving Best Practices from Fundraising Research
- How North Coast Church Doubled Online Giving and Saved Over $82,000 in A Year
- The Top 3 Common Questions From Churches About Online Giving
- 8 Ways to Break Out of a Summer Giving Slump
- How to Increase Recurring Giving in Your Church
- 6 Reasons Your Church Should Regularly Promote Automated Recurring Giving
- 6 Proven Ways to Increase Recurring Giving in Your Church
- Recurring Giving: The Key to Creating Automatic Monthly Donations
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Paul Maxwell, Ph.D., is the Content Strategist at Tithe.ly. Find him at paulmaxwell.co.
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