Have you considered the potential resource the Internet offers in funding your church’s missions or ministries? Might it make sense to reach beyond your local membership to those who share your church’s distinctive vision?

Just as people spend more than ever on online purchases, online giving is the fastest growing church giving trend. A few simple guidelines can help you maximize this inexhaustible resource.

Diversify

Rev. Robert H. Schuller describes his masterful fundraising strategy in "Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do". He says that needing $5 million, you can get it all from one person, a dollar each from 5 million people, or any combination to reach that total. The Internet lets churches benefit more from small contributors in online giving.

Social Media

Social media, most notably Facebook, empower single dollar online giving more than any prior contact method. You can reach millions with Facebook pages and causes, and support your own congregation without having to depend on local members for finance, but it needs doing right.  Tell a real story - one that communicates how your church is changing lives and then make it easy for people to give to your cause.

Fresh Content

Your website, and any associated social media pages, need fresh content optimized for search engines. Before you can find perfect donors halfway around the world they need to find your cause. Then they need to take interest. Articles should be pertinent, interesting, and updated regularly.  Make sure your website is updated often and optimized to attract people to your causes.

Visual Appeal

Churchgoers may say that appearances do not matter, but few things make them leave a web page quicker than an amateurish appearance. The website design needs to welcome them and draw them to your ministry.

Go Mobile

The fastest growing sector in digital hardware is mobile technologies. From smart phones to tablets, potential online contributors will find you on the go.  You need to incorporate online giving into this medium to maximize mobility.

Outsource Fundraising Management

With so many other tasks to complete, the last thing you need are more accounting chores tracking thousands of single dollar donations. That is where the services of MyGivingSolutions.com can help your church. We offer an intuitive online giving solution convenient for both you and your donors, freeing your time to advance your mission.

Involve the Whole Congregation

Managing your website, social media portals, and numerous other pages can mean a lot of work. Fortunately, you probably have the talents to manage them within your own congregation.  Site maintenance and updates make a great activity for youth ministries, and they may already know more about it than your adults.

Youth and adults under 30 have grown up with the Internet, mobile technologies, and social media. For older people leading the congregation these only amount to representations of a more tangible social environment. For young people, used to texting each other from the same room and posting new photos straight to Facebook, social media is the literal social environment. Their familiarity with digital interaction is your greatest online church fundraising resource.

With these options, churches can count on more of their online giving to come from smaller contributors. This makes your church and its mission less dependent on any single revenue stream, and leaves you free to fulfill the mission God has given your church.

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com is a perfect resource for those people who care about their church family yet cannot always attend services.  The world is a busy place and sometimes life gets complicated.  Attending weekly services may be challenging during seasons of life for many people. And yet, these important church members are a vital part of their church home.  Tithing should be accessible to these special members of the church body even when they cannot be physically present.

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com makes it easy for those absent members to honor their stewardship commitments without having to travel to the church or mail in a check.  We all know that many older folks have trouble making it to their church home weekly.  In fact many seniors can no longer weekly attend their church services due to health related issues.  Retired people, who are deeply committed to their church often travel near and far, which takes them away from their church home making it difficult to tithe.  And as our culture continues to change, many families with young children find themselves attending sports events on the weekends which take place during church services.  When absent, tithing takes an extra step, is overlooked or even forgotten.

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com provides your absent members the opportunity to more easily give and stay connected with their church family.  Giving members the opportunity to give with such ease will be appreciated by those who cannot always worship weekly with their church family.  MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com (a perfect resource for online giving solutions) allows these important church family members to plan ahead to give.  They can set up weekly, bi-monthly or a monthly tithing plan.  At any time they can access their account.  

If the giver wants to change the amount they give, direct it for missions, or a love offering, they can.  Church members who use MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com as their online giving solution can also access their account and see how much they have given over a period of time and do so from their home, their grandchildren's home, or even overseas.  They can even print their own tax statements!  This is welcomed news for people who find health, travel or other circumstances keeping them away from the church they call home.  Giving fulfills a need and desire to support a greater purpose.  We make that possible for all church members. And the best part is that both the church body and the giver will be blessed when they easily tithe using MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com.

"We believe that is it important to listen to our ministries. Over 40% of the calls we receive inquire about or are interested in "Debit Card Only Online Giving" which blocks credit cards from being processed when giving to the church. A majority of our customers use a church management system that doesn't seamlessly integrate with this form of giving. It is important that our offerings reflect the needs of the church and we sought to overcome these obstacles." 
                                                                            - Brandon New CEO MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com 

When using MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com donor management software, ministries can grow their giving while reducing administrative time and expense through robust reporting and communication tools. They are empowered with a choice in online giving (credit, debit, ACH, debit cards only, etc.) while receiving the lowest cost available. Giving data is then seamlessly integrated with most major church management systems.

"We are pleased to provide a solution that lowers both donor management and online giving expenses, matches ministry values and seamlessly integrates with church management systems."  - Brandon New

Information about MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com:

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com was developed in 2007 by Senior Pastor, Doug Walker and his team at Fellowship of the Parks in Keller, Texas:

"We are sympathetic with the sometimes overwhelming financial impacts of the church and the difficulties that face ministries to both survive and grow amidst our current economy and shrinking resources. To address this issue, our team developed a web-based software in 2007 that helped us increase our contributions, inexpensively incorporate online giving, and cut administrative related costs. This software was made available for purchase in 2010 as MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com." 
                                                                                                               - Senior Pastor, Doug Walker

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com is personally endorsed by Dr. Jimmy Draper -- President Emeritus, LifeWay Christian Resources:

"It is rare for me to give endorsements to products, but MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com has to be an exception...Every church that desires to move forward with stewardship promotion and development need to prayerfully look at this product."

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com can help your organization efficiently administer and effectively communicate year-end appeals and future planning.

1. Track Giving History:

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com’s reporting tools can help your organization easily track giving over the past year and review giving trends to plan future campaigns. Members can track their individual donations or view church-wide giving for funds that you deem appropriate.

2. Share Your Story:

Results from a stewardship survey conducted through Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary indicated that the best way to increase member giving is to provide consistent communication.  Consistently communicate with your members via MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com’s email tools. Inform your members how their gifts have improved the church, enhanced lives both in their community and through your missions.  Appeal to all or selected members for year-end gifts to fulfill financial deficits.  Provide your vision for the coming year by communicating new campaigns, programs, missions and general funds. 

3. Provide Ways to Give:

Provide your members the opportunity to give while at church or away with MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com online donations.  Recurrent, electronic giving can help to stabilize giving trends when your attendance fluctuates. 

4. Give Thanks:

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com automatically sends a personalized message to thank members for gifts given online or in person.  Saying thank you allows you to acknowledge members for their donations while assuring them that the gift has been received.  Providing sincere appreciation is one of the best ways to ensure that donors will give to your organization again in the future. 

5. Provide Tax Receipts:

In addition to mailing, members can easily print charitable tax receipts quickly and easily from home using MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com’s member portal.  This helps to eliminate your administrative costs and phone calls to ask when year-end statements will be received.

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com was designed to help churches lower administrative expense and time through our robust reporting and communication tools.  We seek to help organizations grow, stabilize and retain donations by offering new ways to give, establishing recurrent giving to stabilize donation trends and immediately thanking members for their gifts to retain future donations. 

Congratulations on the setup of your online giving software!  Now, in order to grow and stabilize your giving it is important to communicate to your members that they can now establish one-time and recurring tithes and gifts online.  Below are some suggestions about how to communicate online giving to your church membership.

Make it a Part of Your Message:

After establishing your church online giving software, let your members know that this option is now available during each church service.  Explain your church’s giving philosophy, how donations will be used to accomplish your mission, special programs and capital campaigns.  Provide the benefits of how easily members can establish recurring gifts, track their individual donations and view giving church-wide. 

Make it Easy to Give:

Place a “Give” button and/or tab on your website homepage so that it is easily accessed by your members. Provide your church’s giving philosophy, steps to set-up online gifts and methods that people can give (i.e. ACH, Credit/Debit Card Processing).

Put it in Print:

Spread the word by incorporating your church online giving in each week’s programs and church bulletins.  Add “how to give online” information to new member packets, pledge packets and financial updates.

Electronic Messaging:

When using MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com’s electronic messaging tool, provide a link to donate to new funds, program registrations, or inform members when funds will be closing so that they have an opportunity to give.

Make it Social:

Post information about online giving on your church Facebook wall, Blogs or Twitter feed.  

Communicate the Benefits:

It is important to communicate not only how online giving benefits the church but also how it benefits the donor.  Some of the key donor benefits are:

• Much like online banking, online giving allows members to budget their household finances by including recurring gifts to the church.
• Members can manage their giving (i.e. change gift amount and frequency, donate to a new fund, view their giving history, etc.) anytime without delay.
• Members can donate via their most preferred method as established by the church (ACH, Credit Card, Debit Card).
• When the church sends out electronic bulletins communicating new programs or church funds, members can immediately donate or register online.
• Members can easily track their own, church-wide giving as allowed by leadership team, as well as receive personal tax receipts at their convenience.

Through effective communication, each church can utilize online giving to increase donations while stabilizing giving trends.

To learn more about establishing your online giving solution with MyGivingSolutions.com, feel free to use thse links to get more information:

• Church Online Giving and Donor Management System
• Online Giving and Donor Management System Features
• Church Online Donation Demo!
• Church Online Giving Software Pricing

What was the impetus for creating MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com?

“Fellowship of the Parks took part in a Southwestern Seminary Doctoral Student’s survey on Stewardship.   The survey results showed the more you communicated with the members of your church the greater your donations would be. The further that person gets from their pledge it can become out of sight out of mind and the less likely they are to honor their commitment.  For this reason, I made the commitment to send out quarterly giving statements to our donors.  Printing statements quarterly for everyone who had given in that year was eating up a lot of time and cost. As our church grew it became more expensive and we determined that by developing software that would satisfy the communication, appreciation and reporting needs for both church leaders and donors we would be saving money in the long run.”

Why didn’t you buy an existing software solution to meet your needs?

“Before we began investing time and money in the software I researched what was out there and there was nothing adequate that allowed for investing in nonprofits and churches.  We are also a multi-site church and we interviewed several churches about the software systems they were using.  We found that their teams had to come up with creative ways to manipulate their system to accommodate for multi-site locations. This caused us to develop our software to have a feature that allowed us to add and sort campuses in addition to the necessary communication and reporting features.”

What influenced the framework and features for MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com?

“I was influenced to create MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com due to my investment firm’s software.  I was amazed at how I could see exactly how my funds performed. I didn’t have to call or wait for the mail, it was all laid out for me right there.  When we give, we are making eternal investments.  In creating MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com, we applied the tools from personal investments in the physical world to create a similar system for those making eternal investments.”

How can MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com benefit a Pastor?

"I am more of a strategic leader and I don't want to just lead from the gut. I want to have good information so that I can make the best decisions for our church.  MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com allows me to graph yearly giving trends.  I don't have to worry week to week and can plan around giving patterns.

We know that giving increases on the 1st and 3rd weeks of each month during pay periods.  December is the highest giving month and July is the lowest when families travel.  I can plan additional campaigns around cash flow projections. I can also sort my top ten givers and send a personalized note requesting that they take part in an upcoming campaign.  We have also created unlimited fund categories so with just a few keystrokes I can find how much has been given to our Uganda mission vs. having my accounting team dig through reports to find that information.  Because I can track our cash flow and know where we are financially, I don’t have to be panicked about not meeting our bills when I preach about giving. I approach it from how giving is about you and your relationship with God.  I preach about good stewardship with the message that what we spend our money and time on is what we most value.”

How does MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com benefit the Donor?

“Our members are making “eternal investments” when giving to the church.  In doing so, I wanted all church members to “personal giving portal” similar to information found on my personal investment account.  When logging in, each member can see their current total pledge amount and where they stand in relation to their overall annual commitment.  Members can also see funds that they have given to and how resources were used.  Lastly they can view how others have given church wide and the overall financial picture of the church.  When giving to the church, we felt it important that the donor receive an immediate thank you for their gift which we personalized through MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com.  In receiving this response our members are assured that the gift was received and not lost in a “black hole” somewhere.  In thanking our donors it also creates greater likelihood that our members will give again. Our donors also receive receipts so that they don’t have to wait until the end of the year to get their taxes in order.  Lastly, we facilitate the opportunity to give by emailing messages about church needs and campaigns while providing a way to contribute immediately online.” 

Why was it important to incorporate online and recurrent giving?

“In order to tithe 10% to the church it is nearly impossible to do so without online giving.  I never carry cash and I don’t like to write checks.  I typically pay for everything using a Debit Card.  Online giving allows our members set-up recurrent transactions so that their tithes are made even if they are away from the church. An example was this year was that the 4th of July fell on a Sunday which created a double whammy to us as a large portion of our congregation was on vacation or celebrating the holiday.  By providing recurrent giving tithes were still received although our members were not in attendance.”

How has MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com impacted giving at Fellowship of the Parks?

“We have increased overall annual giving by 104% during a time when our congregation grew 65%. Our electronic giving usage has increased 575% since we began using it with our software in 2007.  We have also stabilized our weekly giving. This year July 4th fell on a Sunday, we would have experienced a double whammy had our congregation not been using recurrent, electronic giving.”  

Dr. Jimmy Draper recently endorsed MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com:

“It is rare for me to give endorsements to products, but “My Giving Solutions” has to be an exception! This was developed by a pastor/church for churches. Doug Walker is the pastor and he served with me on my staff at First Baptist Church in Euless, TX many years ago. This program has been thoroughly tested and it effectively gives churches the ability to do a number of things: Promote increased giving, communicate effectively with donors, automates the entire process, creates an unlimited number of fund categories, helps to analyze and understand giving patterns and trends, develop strong online and recurring giving capabilities…and all this with a reduction of expenses to do these and other applications. Every church that is seeking to understand the economic meltdown we have experienced and desires to move forward with stewardship promotion and development needs to prayerfully look at this product.”
                                                                            - Dr. Jimmy Draper, President Emeritus – LifeWay Christian Resources

“MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com has increased our annual giving by 104% during a time when our congregation only grew 65%” reported Doug Curlee, Executive Pastor for Fellowship of the Parks in Keller, Texas

After participating in a Stewardship Survey, Fellowship of the Parks Church in Keller learned that the best way to increase giving was to increase communication with their church members. By communicating financial goals, reporting current funding to annual goal and sharing the good that is being done in the church and community as a result of tithing, a church can engage and incite their members to give.  With this understanding they were met with a challenge that many churches face:

“How do we increase communication without increasing expense?”

A common practice is to mail quarterly financial statements consisting of:

• A Letter from the Pastor
• Church Financial Summary
• Member Giving History
• Pledge Form
• Postage Paid Return Envelope

The cost for communication to 500 church members quarterly = $374.00 per Quarter with total cost of $1496.00/year

*Non-profit bulk mail rate 3.5 oz or below mailed to 1 zip code. 
**Based on minimum wage, cost to compile and send packets. 
   Administrative time and cost for received pledges not factored.

While mailed quarterly statements can increase giving, it doesn’t remedy all issues in that:

• As congregation size increases/cost increases
• Allows little flexibility to communicate needs or successes quickly
• Members have to wait for information to be pushed-out vs. accessing data immediately
• Members wait for thank you letters,  tax receipts, and giving statements

Fellowship of the Parks sought to increase communication and decrease mailing expense by developing the web-based donor management software, MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com.  Compare the expense for quarterly communication cost to the ability for constant conversation in a 500 member church:

• Mailed Quarterly Statements Annual Cost = $1496.00                   
• Constant Communication with MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com =  $708.00  (not including $150.00 setup fee)

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com enables constant communication by:

• Providing a portal where members can immediately access individual and church-wide funding information
• Immediately sending customized thank you responses for each gift given and ability for members to print tax receipts at time of donation
• Equipping church staff with the ability to send out e-mails about current goals, new campaigns, and current stories on how monies were used to improve their community to selected groups or all church members

As churches face financial challenges in securing funds for their congregation and community, MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com offers a solution. By increasing effective communication with their members while decreasing administrative expense, more monies can be raised and used to benefit their church, congregation and community.

“It is rare for me to give endorsements to products, but 'My Giving Solutions' has to be an exception! This was developed by a pastor/church for churches. Doug Walker is the pastor and he served with me on my staff at First Baptist Church in Euless, TX many years ago. This program has been thoroughly tested and it effectively gives churches the ability to do a number of things: Promote increased giving, communicate effectively with donors, automates the entire process, creates an unlimited number of fund categories, helps to analyze and understand giving patterns and trends, develop strong online and recurring giving capabilities…and all this with a reduction of expenses to do these and other applications. Every church that is seeking to understand the economic meltdown we have experienced and desires to move forward with stewardship promotion and development needs to prayerfully look at this product.”    – Dr. Jimmy Draper

MyGIVINGSOLUTIONS.com, a revolutionary, web-based donor management software created by the church for the church.  Conceived and developed by Senior Pastor Doug Walker, Fellowship of the Parks in Keller, Texas.  The software was built to support both single and multi-site churches to provide effective communication with congregation, increase and stabilize giving, provide customized reporting for both church and donor while decreasing both administrative time and expense.