It’s a typical Sunday morning and you are the pastor of a thriving church, watching happily as the tithe is collected. It looks like a good turnout, so you expect a reasonable amount of donations. The youth mission trip is coming up, and you need some more funds for that community outreach next month. Later that day, your financial team counts the offering and… well, it isn’t anything to get excited about. In fact, it’s not enough. You know your congregation isn’t stingy; they’re good people, so you wonder why this keeps happening, and how you can change it.
With church management software and a little psychology, we can figure that out.
Church management software works on a lot of levels. There are basic features like nonprofit fund accounting, and more advanced features, like apps for mobile giving.. To figure out which ones your church might need, let’s look at a few examples of congregants who could find giving just a little easier if your church used software to manage donations.
Bill the Family Man
Bill Smith is a hardworking guy, struggling to keep his job in a tough economy. He’s supporting his family of five, and he can’t give buckets of money away… even for a good cause. Bill is also very sharp, and he knows that if he can’t afford to give a lot, it has to be going to the right place. At Bill’s church, the accounting software is integrated with its Church Management Software, which means the financial team keeps a backlog of transactions connected to specific members. That keeps the church accountable, ensuring that Bill’s money will be used wisely. The church’s ChMS also keeps its funds organized so Bill’s money won’t just be thrown in a big pot of checks, but used for a missions trip to the Dominican Republic like he wanted. Knowing his money will go exactly where he wants it to helps Bill make the choice to give.
Grandma Mary
Mary Dalton has only been to 10 church services in the past year- and not because she hasn’t wanted to. She’s 80 years old, and finds it difficult to make it out to the services every week. Mary loves her church and knows many congregants personally. She often checks the church website to stay in the loop. Mary hasn’t been able to tithe lately, since she can’t be at the church service. Online donation would make giving much easier. Many ChMS programs provide an online giving options. In fact, it’s one of the leading features of ChMS, because of how helpful it is to churches and congregants.
Jenny, the Teenager
Jenny Nguyen is seventeen. She doesn’t have a job and is constantly on the internet. You probably don’t expect much out of Jenny when it comes to donations – which is fair because, with no income, she can’t afford to give much. But even high school students can get involved in the giving process, and a lot of them might be more impassioned to give than you think. Jenny’s form of charity might look less like Bill’s responsible, consistent giving and more like a spontaneous desire to help. Don’t let that moment slip away! There is ChMS out there that provides ways of donating through apps on mobile phone devices. This makes the giving process seem much less intimidating to people like Jenny and much more like something she can get involved with.
If you implement just one of the features of church management software listed above, you could soon find that mission trips aren’t out of the scope of possibility. Of course, not all of these methods of giving are necessarily right for your church, but if you’re looking to grow in new and exciting ways, or even just make sure the church’s bills get paid, you might want to look into ChMS solutions.
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