How many calls do you make, or take a week to get your online donation processing system to work for you and your members? How much time does that drain out of your week? I talk regularly with church business administrators and staff who tell horror stories of countless hours on the phone on hold, waiting on tech people to solve some problem. At the same time, they field questions from donors who are confused by the donation process and make errors that must be corrected. If you have had an online donation platform for any time, you can identify with this scenario.
Perimeter Church, located in greater Atlanta, is one of the city's largest churches with multiple campuses. For years, it has offered an online donation platform to its members and attendees. It regularly lived out the scenario described above. All that changed when it changed to OnlineGiving.org.
“Since joining OnlineGiving.org, we have had so much more time to do our job.” That was the comment Doug Mumma, the Mission/Fundraising Specialist at Perimeter Church, made on how our platform has saved them time. “Our previous platform was double the work I was constantly on the phone with their engineers, trying to fix something or figure out how to change something. Plus, our old system was not easy for our donors to use. I was on the phone a lot trying to help them set it up or to correct some errors. Our people were so frustrated with our old system, and I had to answer many calls. With OG I rarely am on the phone with problems. We have heard nothing but positive things from our donors!”
Perimeter’s Contribution Manager, Debbie Wood, said, “We were in a system that was not working well. There were too many hiccups with the system, and it was causing me a lot of heartburn!” She clarified this by saying, “I like the simplicity of OG’s platform. It’s easy to understand and easy for us to maintain, and it works well with our ChMs system, Ministry Platform. At the same time, it is easier for our donors to use. In our old system, people had a hard time logging in. OG makes it easy for our people.”
Doug agreed by saying, “I use many of the features to help me keep abreast of giving. This allows me to notify ministry leaders of changes in giving that might impact their ministry area. I also like how easy it is for me to adjust and edit information in the system. I find I have a lot more ability to manage things with OG rather than always being forced to call someone for simple steps, as I did with our old provider. Again, this has saved me a lot of time.”
At OnlineGiving.org, we have designed our system for the end users: donors and church staff. To help support that system, we have designed the industry's best customer service. When asked about customer service, Doug said, “It’s been great. When we ask questions or need help, we get immediate attention and help.” Does your digital giving partner give you immediate attention, or do you find you spend hours waiting for someone to come on the line to help solve your problems? If you're spending too much time on the phone with digital giving problems, it’s time to make a change.
In my experience, churches will put up with this because they consider transferring from one online donation platform to another an incredibly difficult and painful experience. For a church the size of Perimeter, with thousands of donors, making a change could have been problematic. This is one of the biggest reasons churches don’t change digital giving providers.
At OnlineGiving.org, we recognize this problem and have a process designed to make the transition as painless and seamless as possible. Our process made the transition for Perimeter an easy one. Debbie Wood commented on the transition: "OG gave us a step-by-step guide that made transferring donors' information easy. Doug Mumma said, “I don’t even think most of our people noticed the change because it was so easy.”
What has all this meant to Perimeter's staff? Doug summed it up well: “Switching to OG has been a stress reliever for us!”
Is your digital giving provider a cause of stress for you? Contact us today to find out how we can be a stress reliever for you at (615) 206-4000 or support@onlinegiving.org.
The Stewardship Coach
Perimeter Church, located in greater Atlanta, is one of the city's largest churches with multiple campuses. After one year with https://t.co/u2tMB6uoI4, their staff reminiscences on all the time we've saved them.https://t.co/1nbtnYbqEG pic.twitter.com/5edI6nDrm6
— Online Giving (@onlinegivingorg) March 21, 2024