Three Keys to Your Online Giving Page

Churches can lose tens of thousands of dollars a year by not making online giving a top priority of their site. We want to help you avoid common errors churches make every day, but first, a few quotes and myths. 

No one wants to talk about money in the church.

The truth states the opposite. The only people who don’t want to talk about finances in the church are those that are not giving. Therefore, this section is not for them. It is however, for you.

People give to vision.

Again, not true. More than anything, people give to success. If they are seeing goals met and progress made, then they are much more likely to buy into the process personally and give big.

We believe that an effective giving strategy is integral in the discipleship process of your church. Oftentimes though, churches can make it difficult for people to give. We want to help you remove the obstacles that people often face when giving to a church online.

Before we give you three simple keys to your giving page, we want to remind you why you are here: people. Too often we see generosity and giving elevated beyond the personal and corporate experience of being a part of a body of believers. Your goal for online giving is not to get people to give, but rather to assist them in unleashing generosity in their life. As you do that, you help build the disciple deep and wide, and have a greater opportunity to leverage life-change generationally. So please, whatever you do, focus on people over place and focus on generosity as a matter of discipleship over getting a dollar.

Here are the three keys to your church’s online giving page: 

1. Start with the why behind giving: Generosity in discipleship.
2. Let people know what happens when they give.
3. Put givers in an automation queue that thanks them for giving.

While the last piece sounds so static and not at all relational, it helps keep the relational aspect of giving alive. If we don’t have a process in place hone people give digitally, it’s easy to drop off the face of the planet. Giving platforms like Tithe.ly and Planning Center have queues built into their systems that allow you to fully markup an email before an automated send. That way you can send a letter from ________ (pastor, elder, etc …) that seems personal, yet takes the legwork off of an admin.

As a matter of process, we recommend that you send out a thank you email within a day and a follow-up phone call within three to thank people for giving. We also recommend your online giving portal to be placed on page, as links that jump off page decrease giving by 36%. If you can make it happen, pair your website, app and ChMS in order to have a seamless giving and user-friendly experience.

Take these tips on the road with you and download our new ebook, Church Website Best Practices: Seven Steps to Improving Your Online Presence.