Online giving has become a necessity for many churches and ministries in the digital age. The onset of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic elevates it to an immediate need. With that in mind, here are a few tips that can help:
Use What You Have
If you already have a way of managing people for your church or ministry, there may be a way to give online already built-in. A lot of churches, for instance, use the Planning Center People Manager for their database. It’s a great tool that includes several additional features that, while they don’t integrate with your site, can be set up to where your site forwards people to them. One of them is their giving platform. Check out this example from Thorington Road Baptist Church in Montgomery.
Keep It Simple
If you don’t have a giving option through your people management system, our next suggestion would be to set up an account with Stripe, Paypal or Square. All of these are online payment gateways. They all have self-hosted pages that allow people to give. On your website, add “Give” to your menu and connect that button to the giving platform. LifeWay also offers a simple option that requires no setup fees, subscription or contracts. Check it out here: https://lifewaygenerosity.com/.
Make It Pretty
Dogwood works for the most part in the WordPress content management system. You can easily create a form and integrate any of the options above into it. This would allow a seamless integration into your website. Your site visitors would not have to click a link and be redirected.
Here are a few other options to read about and check into. As always, if we can assist, contact us here at Dogwood. We’ll be glad to help!
- https://outreach.com/blog/best-church-online-giving-platforms/
- https://www.churchdev.com/4-inexpensive-online-giving-solutions-for-small-and-mid-sized-churches/
- https://reachrightstudios.com/7-top-online-giving-companies-churches/
- https://lifewaygenerosity.com/
