online giving

It’s common knowledge that smartphone ownership and mobile internet usage are skyrocketing globally. It’s also common knowledge that, on average, people attend church less frequently and that people tend to write very few checks or carry much cash.

Often, churches tend to get wrapped up in the day-to-day grind and don't take a close look at the fact and figures about giving. It's important to take time out to consider giving statistics in order to look closely at your giving numbers and see how your organization can improve.

From the early days of dial-up internet to the first cell phones commercially offered, communication methods and tools have drastically changed over the last twenty years. For churches, cumbersome analog systems (that’s fancy-talk for pen and paper) were the only option before personal and business computing emerged. Now

Millennials are making up an increasing number of church attendees, and this generation doesn't carry cash or check. Even older folks are choosing debit cards and online payments over paper payments. Churches, however, struggle to find ways to process online donations, gifts, and offerings that do not eat into their bottom line.

We all know and realize that most pastors and ministry staff operate on tight church and personal budgets. It's just the reality of being in ministry. Expensive degrees and copious years of schooling to do not promise a luxurious salary. However, if you get creative (or have a spouse who works at a more high-paying position) this doesn't have to be a deterrent to being in ministry. At Christmastime, however, often we feel the penny-pinch both in our church finances and in our personal finances.

Giving is a big deal, especially this time of year when churches often find themselves in the red, instead of the black. Once Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday have passed, the race is on to encourage generosity and elicit donations from congregations. While trusting God to help close the year in the black is, of course, the goal, most pastors and church staff find themselves "sweating it" if even just a little. The annual State of the Plate survey is quite timely and offers insight into people's giving patterns.

Giving Tuesday - the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday - has turned into a phenomenon that delightfully transforms our focus, if only for one day, from shopping and consumerism to giving and generosity. According to WikiPedia, "Giving Tuesday was started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season.

Heading into the giving season, churches are looking for tools, techniques, and ways to achieve their donation goals and end the year in the black. Leadership Network sat down with the number crunchers at MortarStone, which has analyzed more than $1.5 billion in personal church giving, and asked them to calculate various benchmarks. What they found provided very interesting results.