Generush & AGCU want to help you accomplish 3 things:
- Increase overall giving by making it simple for your members to give in the moment, through the week or with scheduled recurring gifts.
- Help people respond with giving faster by putting the power to give in the palm of their hand. No need for a checkbook or wallet.
- Reduce your cost and administration time spent on data entry, gift management and administration.
After you log into your account, customize your site and set up your causes like General Tithes & Offerings, Missions, Building etc. Here are 2 things you can do to kick start your new digital online giving.
- Train your leaders and key volunteers
It’s critically important that you teach, train and motivate this group to use Generush themselves so that they can gain confidence and start sharing with the groups of people they lead.
- Take 30 minutes to demonstrate Generush to this group. Be sure to go through the entire giving process end-to-end so that they can “see” the full experience.
- Have them all sign-up for accounts and go through the entire giving process end to end.
- Give them the ability to ask questions. Take notes on all the questions being asked so that you can create an FAQ document for larger church audience.
- Ask this group to be your early adopters over the course of a month or so. Compile their feedback so that you can use it when you roll out the tools to the entire church.
- Work with this group to formulate a solid roll-out plan.
- Ask them to get one of their friends from within the church to sign-up and use Generush. Then have them share their experience with you.
- Communicate early & often
Lack of communication is the #1 reason people struggle to adopt online giving. The question for church leaders is this, have you taken the time to demonstrate Generush to your church? Have you shown your congregation how to use it? Have you taken 10 minutes on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night to show people?
Here’s a few suggestions.
- Connecting a laptop to your projector screen and actually going through the motions of making a contribution will increase your digital giving instantly.
- Record a demo of you going through the setup and giving process.
- Create a how-to page on your website.
- Put information in your weekly bulletin.
- Tweet it. Post on Facebook. Share it on Instagram.
- Email your congregation.
- Setup in person group-meetings for those looking to learn more.
- Have small group leaders continue to help their groups.
Push back is always something a new idea or system is destined to encounter. Here are some common objections to digital giving and some ideas on how to respond:
- “It’s too expensive.”
No doubt there is a cost of “doing business” in a church. Electricity, water, internet service, toner for the copy machine…Not only is AGCU dedicated in keeping merchant costs low for churches, think of this; digital giving is the #1 way to connect with brand new givers. Sure, Generush will be attractive to some of your existing givers, but the primary advantage of digital giving is its ability to engage with members who are not giving on a regular basis. One study reported that 25% of digital givers had never given to their church before. Considered this, if your church only gets $97.00 of a gift that was originally $100.00, the church is not losing $3. The church is getting $97.00 of a gift that was originally $0.00!
You could suggest givers “pick up the tab” for the cost of online giving by adding a couple dollars to their gift to off-set the cost of providing an additional channel of generosity.
- “Giving should occur during the worship service.”
While the offering is undoubtedly a central part of the Sunday morning service, we should be careful when turning personal preferences into Spiritual Laws. Is a tithe mailed in on Wednesday of any less merit than one given on Sunday morning? Whenever generosity is discussed in Scripture, we are only told that it should be cheerful, consistent, and sacrificial. Create a compelling vision for generosity and then allow your people to respond in whichever way makes the most sense for them.
We also like to think this way: Worship is not just something we do on Sunday, it’s a lifestyle. Giving online throughout the week is a great way to extend worship into the week and include the entire family.
