“How much does online giving increase a church’s overall giving?” That was the question a church without online giving asked us recently. It’s a difficult question to answer for many reasons. First, not all churches have the same demographics and thus will not see the same results. An inner-city church might not see the same result that the church next to the country club would see. Since one church is different from the next, the honest answer to this question is, it depends.
Suppose you are in the market for a new car. You will find that each car has a stated miles per gallon rating on the sticker. That gives you a range or an estimate. The actual miles per gallon you get after you buy the car depends largely upon your driving habits. If you have a lead foot, you are probably not going to get the same average miles per gallon that your grandmother gets driving her car. How many miles per gallon will your car average? It depends.
Answering this question is difficult as there is very little research on this topic. What is out there is often misleading. You have to separate marketing numbers compared with empirical data done by research institutes.
In researching this, I found claims from some online vendors that their churches see an average increase of 32%. That is a sales answer designed to get you on that company’s site. I would argue that while some might see those kinds of increases, they are the exception rather than the rule. That has not been my experience in working with churches. The Blackbaud Institute, which is one of the leading research firms about charitable giving, recently reported that “Faith Communities grew their online giving in 2018 by 2.9% compared to 2017.”
A better question in my mind is, “Does online giving increase overall giving?” I believe the answer to that question is yes. The Blackbaud study listed above does show an increase in online giving that one would trust translates into overall increases in giving. Again, however, the amount gained will differ from church to church.
In my experience, online giving has increased the overall giving of my clients. While there are a host of reasons for this, let me share with you some reasons for the increase in giving.
First, the easier you make it for people to give, the more likely they are to give. Online giving is one of the easiest ways to give, which is one reason why it can increase your overall giving.
The ability to set up giving to be recurring is another reason online giving increases overall giving in my experience. Members who set up recurring giving never miss an offering even while they are at Disneyland or on the beach. Recurring giving can help you offset any weather impacted weekend.
Not long ago, my church, Seacoast Community in Charleston, SC, an OnlineGiving.org client, had to cancel services due to a hurricane. Since 75% of their giving comes in some digital format, the offering loss for that weekend was much less than if they did not have an online platform.
One other key reason online giving can help you increase overall giving is that Americans have changed the way they do commerce. Few carry a checkbook, and most have very little cash on them. Providing online giving, text giving, giving through an App and other means allows them to not only give but give in larger amounts than the meager amount of cash they might have on their person when you pass the offering plate.
That is why I feel online giving can increase overall giving. How much, again, depends upon a wide variety of factors. Some churches do see more considerable percentage gains than others. I always tell my clients to stop looking at what the church across the city is doing and concentrate on what you are doing.
I can’t predict how much online giving will increase your overall giving. What I do know is that the churches with the most increases are those that have the right tools in place, and they use those tools to see giving increase.
Recently I bought a new lawnmower. It sits in my garage. Yet if I want it to cut my grass, I have to take it out of the garage, put gasoline in it, start it up and then push it around my little yard. Merely having a tool like a lawnmower doesn’t mean my lawn will get mowed. I have to use the tool. The same is true for your online platform tool. Churches with the greatest percentage of increase in giving are those that continually point people to their online giving platforms.
Does online giving increase overall giving? It can, but the answer is dependent upon having and using the tools. My friends at OnlineGiving.org can help you set up the systems you need for an effective end of year giving campaign. Currently, they offer 12 different methods (tools) of giving, including mobile giving, text giving, and church in-app giving. Contact OnlineGiving.org today at (615) 206-4000 or drop them a line at support@onlinegiving.org.
Source: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/online-giving-increased-1.2-percent-in-2018-report-finds
“How much does online giving increase a church’s overall giving?” That was the question a church without online giving asked us recently. Let me share with you some reasons for the increase in giving.https://t.co/cXKewDllrV #giving pic.twitter.com/pcgvrS7BYC
— Online Giving (@onlinegivingorg) November 7, 2019
