Pastor Resources: Moving from Online Giving to the Mobile Revolution

Pastors know that they need a digital solution for collecting their church’s offerings, and online giving has become the standard digital giving method. Relying on cash or check as your main source of income is counterintuitive in an increasingly hi-tech world.

For many churches, the decision to go digital was made when online giving—as a web-based form on the church’s website—was one of the finest giving solutions available, but is it still the best answer to the giving conundrum?

Why Online Giving Was (and Is) Big

When you think about some of the problems that churches were trying to solve with digital giving solutions, the advantages of online giving were obvious. If people could give digitally, it freed them to give from anywhere. It was okay if they forgot their checkbook one Sunday: They could give any time from any browser—day or night.

Since people had to go online to give, the church website became more of a hub for communication. Plus, anyone visiting the website from anywhere in the world could give.

Many online giving forms allow people to sign up for recurring giving. When churches got their members to have their offering regularly withdrawn from their accounts, it was a huge win.
These are all strong reasons churches chose online giving as their digital donation solution. Your church may have made this decision a few years ago for the same reasons.

But for the sake of your church today, there are reasons why it’s time to embrace and prioritize mobile giving.

Why Move from Online Giving to Mobile?

It was a pretty big deal when Amazon revealed that 60 percent of its 2015 sales were made from mobile devices. In light of the fact that their revenue was $107.01 billion, that’s extremely significant. It’s definitely one of many signals that the future of how people spend and give money is mobile.

When it comes to mobile giving, there are a couple solutions. You can go with a text-to-give solution, but that might actually be a step backward. A mobile giving app like Pushpay is a step in a much more future-oriented direction.

A mobile app is going to offer all of the benefits of online giving while canceling out its cons. Filling out online forms on your phone is a tedious and annoying task. But using a mobile app for online giving is a simple process that literally takes seconds. When moving toward a digital solution, the ideal is to find one that’s as quick and intuitive as possible.

Not only can you champion recurring giving with a Pushpay mobile app, but a representative works closely with you to increase adoption in your church. This means that you get more people in your church giving this way.

Bundling Mobile Giving with Your Own Church App

The biggest win for your church, however, comes by marrying mobile giving with your own native church app. Imagine having your own church app where people can…

• Watch and listen to sermons
• Keep track of what’s going on through digital bulletins
• Pay for and make reservations for church events, conferences, and concerts
• Follow the blogs of church members
• Receive push notifications from the church
• Share content on social media

Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to increase their church engagement with an app like that? Now imagine that your digital giving solution is part of that branded mobile church experience! In a world where people are used to interacting with organizations and brands through their apps, it only makes sense that churches offer their own native apps.

There was a time when most churches realized that a website was necessary if they wanted to grow. It’s time for churches to realize that they’re faced with a similar decision. If churches want to meet people where they are, they’ll engage them digitally with a church app.

Pushpay’s Total Engagement Package gives you everything you need to create a custom church app to help you build community and connection—and it comes bundled with Pushpay to make giving (and reconciliation) a breeze. It’s a lot easier to have your own working app than you may realize! We even offer worship planning software to help you create the perfect Sunday morning experience. Contact Pushpay today for a free demo, and you’ll wonder why you’ve waited this long.