Choosing a text-to-give service can be an intimidating process. Especially when you’re confronted with church board buy-in before you can opt-in, understanding potential sticking points is crucial. Conversations with our partners revealed five big concerns with text-giving. Here are those hesitations—and the answers you might want to look for in your text giving company:
1. Is it secure?
1. Is it secure?Giving is a sacred act of worship and exercising generosity by sending a text shouldn’t interrupt that communion. The reality is that unless you’re confident in the company you have chosen to facilitate simpler giving, you will be wondering whether you’ve jeopardized your church’s sensitive data, rather than focusing on obedience to God.
Security should be paramount in any text giving company. Verify that all card information is stored to PCI Level 1 compliant standards (independently audited). PCI is a set of standards developed by credit card companies to ensure card security and level 1 is the highest level offered. No sensitive information should ever be sent via text message. In addition to card storage, ask if there are other safeguards and policies in place to prevent fraud. All of this should add up to less margin of error and fewer interruptions to generosity.
2. Is is easy to set up and easy to use?
Text giving should make things easier, not more complicated. When you give by text, you need to think through whether you want your congregation to enter their payment information once, without navigating online or opening an app. Designations are also important to consider. Does the service allow church admins to determine which accounts gifts will land in by creating keywords? The backend of the platform should also be fluid, where barriers to generosity are dismantled, not built up. Whether a giver or the person in charge of giving, partnering with your text-to-give company should mean less time wrestling with complicated forms and spreadsheets.
3. Does it integrate with my existing church management software?
If you have church management software, consider whether the text giving service seamlessly integrates with your existing platforms. If you don’t have software, check whether the company has an alternative method of quantifying disbursals and tracking gifts so you’ll spend fewer Mondays entering donations line by line.
4. Is there any rollout assistance?
People are creatures of habit and the idea of text-giving is still relatively new. Most admins wonder how their congregation will react to text giving.
Feel it out. Does the text to give company understand how important first and lasting impressions are? Do they not only provide customizable rollout materials but success plans and metrics? If any questions arise, is there a customer support team consistently available to answer them? Remember, service shouldn’t stop after sign-up.
5. Is it actually affordable?
At the end of the day, if a church can’t afford a giving service, even if it’s secure, easy to use, and integrates well, the solution isn’t one at all.
Looking at Kindrid, specifically, our fundamental desire is to be good stewards of God’s resources and serve the local church better. With this in mind, we keep prices as affordable as possible. Monthly plans, from basic to plus to pro, range from $45-$120, with service charges at 2.5%, plus .30, per transaction.
Many of our partners were hesitant to sign-up for Smart Giving because they were doubtful their congregations would give enough to both cover the expense and validate the risk. One church in particular rationalized the cost with the reality that if just one person tithed $45, they wouldn’t be out anything, even if the service didn’t catch on.
Since we’re all called to reinvest God’s blessings back into the church, it’s exciting when our partners tell us when Smart Giving does catch on with many reengaged and first-time givers. After their introduction to Smart Giving, church members who knew they should give, but hadn’t because they no longer carry cash or check, offered up their gifts to God, unleashing generosity and entering into fuller obedience.
Choosing a text giving service can be tough. There are many good options out there, and Kindrid might not be right for you, but we’d love to help you as you make the decision. Even if we’re not the one, hopefully we can point you towards another solution that is–so, if you’d like to learn more about Smart Giving or have concerns we didn’t address, reach out to our support team or visit our website.
