Online Giving: Keep Your Giving Steady When Your Pews Are Empty Due to COVID-19

Church attendance skyrockets at Easter and Christmas. Other times, it dips. And sometimes, it plummets—whether because of flu season, coronavirus, or summer vacations. 

Of course, church isn’t about numbers. It’s about ministry. But you’ve got to keep the lights on so you can keep the doors open . . . and keep serving. Even if you’re not sticking to your regular Sunday schedule or are having church online, you’ve got to stick to a regular budget (more or less).

While there’s no surefire secret to reliable giving, online church giving helps—tremendously. 

• Since giving is possible 24/7, from the church pew or the couch, there’s no “right place, right time” to give. Anyone can give from anywhere, anytime. 
• Creating a recurring gift eliminates having to remember to give—contributing to more consistent giving. Your members can take a couple of minutes to set up missions giving or tithe for the entire year, helping them remain faithful to supporting your ministry. 

Follow these three steps to get your church accepting online gifts in under 24 hours.

1. Get started with online giving for your church.

Faithlife Giving for churches offers a free option and a subscription-based option so no matter your church’s size, you can maximize your giving. For a limited time, in light of this current crisis, we are waiving that subscription fee for six months. You have enough to worry about right now.

Here’s how to get started with online giving for your church: 

1. On Faithlife Giving’s pricing page, choose the premium Faithlife Giving plan.
2. Click the green Get Started button.
3. Enter your ministry’s name and location to find your church’s free Faithlife Group, or create one. (Your church group is the online hub where you can set up and manage Faithlife Giving, build online community, and more.)

2. Activate your online giving.

Fill in your church’s info to activate your Faithlife Giving. This typically takes 10 minutes to complete, and in most cases, you can start receiving gifts right away!

Here’s what you’ll need to have on hand:

• Your organization’s name—both legal and common—along with a phone number, website, Tax ID, and physical address
• Contact and government-required personal information for the person who’ll serve as the contact for your church. You can change this later if necessary. 
• Bank-account details

The video below walks you through it, step by step, or you can follow the steps to activate your giving account. 

3. Add online giving options.

After you activate your account, set up your new online giving options. 

TIP: Enable giver-covered fees so 100% of donations can support your ministry, if givers choose. This option is simple but powerful—72% of givers given this option choose to cover fees. 

1. Text to give

Set up text to give to allow donors to give by texting the unique phone number provided to you. 

TIP: We highly recommend you enable text to give because increasing convenience can have a major impact on increasing gifts. People spend five hours a day on their mobile devices, on average. With text to give, it only takes a few seconds of those five hours to send your church a gift.

2. Giving through Faithlife TV

Your church can use Faithlife TV to stream your services. 

Additionally, through Faithlife TV your church members and guests can watch Christian movies, documentaries, and more for free.

Seeing your church’s give button right there onscreen will remind viewers to support your ministry. 

If your church uses Faithlife TV, a Give button is automatically added to your church’s videos. See what it looks like. 

3. Giving through your website

Add a give button to your website.

This one is a must. Add a give button with just one click if you have Faithlife Sites. If you use another website provider, adding a give button to your website is still easy to do. 

On top of these options, you can also send your givers a direct link to your church’s giving page. From your church group, simply click the Give button to go to your church’s dedicated giving URL.

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Once you’ve set up your online giving, you’ll want to let people know about it! 

Share this video to show your donors how to text to give. 

On your social channels and in your small groups, communicate the new giving option on your church’s website.

You can also share a direct link to giving: see how.

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Even if your pews are empty, you never have to miss a donation. Get started with Faithlife Giving today! To support churches affected by coronavirus, we’re waiving the subscription fee to Faithlife Giving Premium for a limited time.  Our support team is here every day—even Saturdays and Sundays—to help you if you have any questions. Chat with us, or call 888-634-2038.