The Crypto Question

Should your church offer members and attendees the option to give through cryptocurrencies? If you had asked me that question just a few years ago, my first response would have been, “Crypto, what?” If that is your reaction, don’t feel bad. Here is a brief description our team put together,

“Cryptocurrency (crypto for short) is a digital currency that runs on a secure decentralized network stored using a blockchain. The phrase "blockchain" is a fancy way of describing a secure and immutable transaction ledger stored digitally in the cloud. Think of a blockchain as a ledger book with the "blocks" being pages in the book containing transaction records.”

The bigger question for you might be whether or not anyone in your church would use this. Consider these facts from a study done by Fidelity Charitable, 

• Currently, 13 percent of investors hold cryptocurrency in their portfolios. Among the rest, 20 percent say they may consider investing in cryptocurrency next year.
• Over 1 in 3 Millennial investors own cryptocurrency. Among the rest, half are likely to consider it next year.
• 9 out of 10 Millennials say charitable giving is an important part of their lives compared to 74% of the population.
• Nearly half (45 percent) of cryptocurrency investors donated $1,000 or more to charity in 2020—compared to 33 percent of the general investor population.
• A third of cryptocurrency investors have donated some of their cryptocurrency to charity, and their motivations are head- and heart-based. 1.

The lesson from the above is just because you might not own cryptocurrency doesn't mean no one in your congregation does. We do have church partners that are utilizing cryptocurrency gifts. The OnlineGiving.org platform handles the technical aspects of accepting crypto transactions, making accepting cryptocurrency easy for the church. Here is a story about one of those churches: https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/this-church-is-seeing-crypto-success 

So, does it make sense for your church to offer the ability to give through cryptocurrencies? That answer depends upon the makeup of your congregation. If I have a younger, tech-driven congregation living in an area with multiple technology companies, the answer might be yes. If my congregation comprises primarily blue-collar workers or Seniors, I would probably pass on this option for now.

My opening sentence in this post was, should your church offer members and attendees the option to give through cryptocurrencies? The keyword in my opening sentence is “option.” A better way to ask this question is, should your church offer members options in giving? The answer to that question is yes! Why is that? Multiple studies have shown that people love options regarding how they do financial transactions. This is one of the major reasons why we provide more than a dozen ways to give. Below are some blog posts about our giving options.

Do you have Seniors who still write paper checks? Here are two posts that talk about this and how we can help.

https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/the-value-of-a-fifty-dollar-check

https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/announcing-our-new-check-scanning-capability

For younger donors, you must provide the ability for them to give via their smart devices. Here are a few posts about how we help you connect with your members through this giving option:

https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/the-power-of-instant-communication 

https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/the-mobile-wave 

The above is just the tip of the iceberg of our available giving methods. Our platform and systems offer the latest and most effective giving methods, allowing your members to give through the means they like most. This is why we get comments from clients like Fred Lofberg, Director of Finance at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD, who said switching to OnlineGiving.org “Was like going from a Flintstone model to a Ferrari." 

Would you describe your digital giving provider as a Ferrari? If not, it’s time to make a change. Here is one last post on why you should consider OG as your provider; we don’t require our clients to sign a contract!

Read this post for why: https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/re-evaluate-your-contracts 

It’s time to give your members the options they want, from crypto to text to old-fashioned check writing OnlineGiving.org can provide those for your church. Contact us to find out more at (615) 206-4000, or drop us a line at support@onlinegiving.org.

Does it make sense for your church to offer giving through cryptocurrencies? Let us help you answer The Crypto Question. https://t.co/RQnv7nS31P pic.twitter.com/V31QYiQbeg

— Online Giving (@onlinegivingorg) January 4, 2024

1. https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/insights/cryptocurrency-and-philanthropy.html