As a church leader, you’ve been challenged with providing a safe and engaging virtual environment for your congregation. Part of that responsibility also includes developing online channels of giving that all members support the church and donate safely. Thanks to technological advances, you can raise funds online while keeping your congregants engaged and making them feel like part of a community.
Church Payment Processing: Protect Your Donations
Before we begin, remember that the benefits of working with a dedicated payment processor go beyond short hold times and flat processing rates with no hidden charges. Sometimes if unexpected problems can crop up before and during your church's online fundraiser, you need to be sure that issues are dealt with quickly.
By working with a dedicated, nonprofit-focused payment processor, you ensure that your church will be treated with empathy and given excellent customer service. This gives you peace of mind and sets you up for success. Your payment processor should take care of everything in the background, so that you can focus on raising money for your church.
Once you're confident about your choice of payment processor, you can start organizing your virtual church fundraiser. Here are 5 easy tips your church can use when organizing your fundraiser to collect online donations
Online Donation Forms for Church Fundraising
Online donation forms are one of the easiest ways to accept payments online.
They are a useful tool that can be set up within minutes without any programming knowledge. They can be embedded on your church’s website or can function as standalone pages offer conveniences such as pre-populated fields (so that recurring donors don’t have to fill in their information every time they donate), and allow your donors to cover the processing fee for their donation (so that the entire intended amount of their donation goes to their church).
You can customize the forms to ensure consistent branding for your church. This is important because donors are much less likely to donate if redirected to third-party websites.
Text Giving for Churches
Accepting donations via text is one of the easiest and most convenient ways of fundraising, both for your church and your donors. As the name implies, your members can donate by simply sending a text message from anywhere and at any time. By using text giving for your church's fundraising, allows anyone to give to your church by sending a text message with a dollar amount. The amount is then charged to their card on file with your church.
This is particularly useful for elderly members of your congregation, who may not be very tech-savvy or who may not have a smartphone.
Livestream Fundraising for Churches
Using platforms like YouTube, Twitch and Zoom, you can live broadcast services directly to your congregation’s homes. Your congregants can enjoy the service and donate virtually, as they would in person.
Programs such as YouTube Giving enable creators and qualifying nonprofits like your church to embed fundraising campaigns that appear next to videos and live chats on YouTube. Viewers can donate to campaigns directly on YouTube via a ‘donate’ button or via a ‘Super chat’, that allows them to donate while commenting in the live chat.
Facebook also allows nonprofits to set up a ‘Donate’ call to action button on their pages, which can redirect users to your church's landing page or can allow them to donate directly from Facebook. You can use this functionality on your church’s Facebook page header, in advertisements, in posts, and in Facebook live sessions.
In case your even platform does not offer online giving capabilities, you can call on congregants to donate live via other channels such as text giving or an online donation form.
Virtual Church Fundraising
You can organize virtual community events such as walkathons, 50/50 raffles or auctions. Virtual church fundraisers give your congregants the opportunity to interact with each other and help foster a spirit of community. Virtual church fundraising events also facilitate visual storytelling, which is more effective at soliciting donations than appeals based solely on statistics.
Events like walkathons and raffles are family-friendly activities that are easy to set up and participate in and can also be held safely online. To raise funds during these events, you can employ methods like peer-to-peer fundraising, which ensures both increased participation and donations. Here’s an example of an upcoming walkathon organized by the Centretown. Churches Social Action Committee in Ottawa, Canada.
Online auctions are growing in popularity and many nonprofits have conducted online charity auctions in recent years, to great success. Your church would not have to bear the cost of organizing a physical space with seating and proper lighting. Attendees can bid from any location at any time and with increased anonymity. Your can also reach a wider audience by hosting auctions online, which could result in more money raised.
Improve the Online Donor Experience
Regardless of the online fundraising channel(s) your church decides to adopt, the main principle you should focus on is donor experience. Here’s how you can do so:
- Regularly communicate with donors. This is key to building a long-standing relationship with members of your congregation. Going forward, opportunities for in-person interaction with old or new members are becoming increasingly challenging and it's important to establish regular contact with your congregants.
- Provide multiple giving options. Part of creating a good donor experience is giving them options (such as text giving or online forms) to donate as and when it is convenient for them.
- Acknowledge donations and express gratitude. Acknowledging and expressing timely gratitude to donors plays a major role in donor retention and creating recurring donors. Virtual fundraising allows your church to thank your members live on air as soon as they donate.
- Show, don’t tell. Keep your members updated about how their donations are making a difference and show them visually whenever possible. For example, you can show them pictures of what the donations have achieved, be it essential supplies for the needy or improvements to your church. This will also make your members feel involved even when they cannot attend in person. Seeing their donations make a tangible difference would make donors more likely to donate again as well
With everything going on, we know that it can be challenging to host fundraise for your church online while helping your members a feel a sense of community. By following the above tips, you can organize engaging events for your members while ensuring they can donate to their church safely.
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