Deka.Blog
5 Benefits of Recurring Donations
Is your church taking advantage of the benefits that come from Recurring Donations?
Helping your givers set up automatic giving makes donating easier for them and helps your ministry reach its goals. Here are some ways setting up recurring giving can help your church and your members.
Planning: Your members want you to plan and execute the vision God has given you. Helping your members set up recurring giving does that because it evens out season dips in donations. When you know how much support you can count on each month, then you can plan with confidence for the future.
Convenience: Automatic giving is easy to set up. For some, going online to give may not be something they are likely to do because they are used to giving in-person. Recurring giving only requires an initial setup. After that, they continue to donate regularly without logging into a portal or putting banking information into a website.
Prioritizes Giving - For many people, donating to charity and church is a priority. The problem is, most church members do not attend every week. When someone schedules a recurring financial gift, it helps them prioritize giving, even when they cannot participate in person.
Increases the Amount Each Person Gives - Those who tithe make up about 10-25 percent of your congregation, but churches that accept tithing online increase overall donations by 32%. Not only that, people who schedule recurring giving are 75% more likely to also make a one-time donation.
Engagement of Younger Givers: Millennials have grown accustomed to digital payment in a way that other generations have not experienced. They have online subscriptions and pay their friends back through apps instead of cash. They are now in their professional careers and attending your church. Having a recurring giving option presents them with the same model convenience they are accustomed to in the other areas of their lives.
Recurring giving benefits your church members by making giving more effortless than ever before, and it also helps your church financially by increasing the overall amount of giving to your church and creating consistency in your donation.s
Our team is here to help if you have more questions about recurring donations or would like to talk to someone about setting up automatic giving at your church. Click here to learn more about our digital giving solution.
5 Solutions for Common Church Streaming Problems
More people are enjoying church online more than ever before. During the pandemic, 96% of churches moved their worship service online, according to Barna. This gigantic shift in how we do church also comes with some growing pains.
Maybe you have experienced some adjustments or roadblocks as you have moved to provide more church activities online. While the innovation of digital church opportunities has expanded many ministries' reach, it has also presented some setbacks. This blog will cover five common problems church's face with streaming their church service and how you can overcome them.
1. Avoid being kicked off of Facebook and Youtube by not playing copyrighted music in your pre-service buffer video. Having the latest upbeat worship song play in your pre-service video's background may be acceptable in your building but can cause issues online.
For example: if you are playing Hillsong on your pre-service countdown video, you can get kicked off for copyright infringement. Live music is fine, but playing tracks could cause the music to be picked up as copyrighted. You do not want to have your broadcast canceled before service even starts!
2. Combine your efforts. If you do not have a permanent location or equipment, team up with other churches that do. Maybe one person has the equipment, and the other has the permanent space. Or perhaps you have team members who can lead worship and can help the other church as well. What a witness this could be for your community. Even your "know-how" may be a benefit to a larger church with more resources that may not be up to date with the latest digital church innovations.
3. Are you having trouble getting the word out about your digital church experience? You do not have to pay for ads promoting your next digital broadcast. Instead, encourage your church members to share the broadcast on their personal social media platforms. This is something you can even ask people to do in the pre-service countdown or in the chat. Speaking of the broadcast chat…
4. For more meaningful interaction during your digital stream designate someone to run and operate the stream chat. Ensure they are an experienced team member who can keep things positive and know the flow of the service and the purpose of each element. People are commenting and asking questions live. As a result, you need to have a knowledgeable team member who can address those items in the chat as they come up.
5. Have you had your embarrassing moment live and while streaming yet? The internet is filled with church fail videos of someone who made a mistake or wishes they could have a moment back, but it is too late because it was broadcast live. There is an easy solution to this.
You can deliver your entire production at a higher quality level if it is pre-recorded instead of live. Not only does it help you avoid becoming an embarrassing viral video, but it also allows you to add post-production elements like titles and information in the lower third of the screen.
We hope this blog will help you better navigate the digital landscape churches are using to minister to their communities. If you have any questions, then we'd love to help. Click here to schedule a free personal coaching session with one of our knowledgeable team members.
The Bow and Arrow of Church Marketing
How to Hit Your Target in Church Marketing
"Marketing that appeals to everyone appeals to no one." -Seth Godin
Surprised by My Results
Have you ever attempted to shoot a bow? I was surprised by how hard it was to pull back the bowstring the first time I picked one up. I was equally surprised by how much easier it once I could get it halfway.
Do you know what else would shock me? If I hit a target with an arrow. The reason why is because I do not understand how all the parts work together and how I should change my strategy based on the type of target I am shooting at.
Why Is Your Marketing Not Working?
Are you surprised by how much your church marketing efforts are not working? Like with me shooting a bow, if you do not know how all the parts work, why would you expect to hit your target?
Hitting the Target
If you want to hit your church marketing target, you need to understand how these three elements work: brand, audience, and promotion.
Your Arrow = Brand
Your Target = Audience
Your Bow Technique = Promotion
Your Arrow
Your church's brand is your arrow. This is what you are going to use to aim at your target (market). Your brand is what people think about you. You create this through how people feel when they interact with your church.
The easiest way to create your branding is through the look of your social media, website, and the banners/decoration in your church. The most lasting way to create this is through legendary customer service, a.k.a. How you and your team treat people when they come to your church or interact with your church on digital platforms.
Your Target
Like Seth Godin said, "marketing that appeals to everyone appeals to no one." This does not mean that you will actively exclude people. There should be a variety of people at your church. You need to know who are you are trying to reach with each event, experience, and environment you create.
For example, if you want to reach families with small children (a target) with your church, you should consider how your church's social media posts impact your brand. Every photo you post on social media (branding) should not be of a 20-something laughing with coffee in their hands with other 20-somethings who do not know what it is like to be late for church because they discovered a dirty diaper right as they were walking out of the door.
Your Bow Technique
Church Marketing can be intimidating, but just like pulling a bowstring back is hard at first, it does eventually get easier.
You will have multiple types of people you will want to reach with your church's message of hope. Because of this, you will need to know how to change your technique depending on the audience you are hoping to connect with.
Deka has experience helping churches reach their branding and marketing goals. We would be happy to help you with your by scheduling a free coaching session. Click here to set up a convenient time for you. We'd be glad to help!
Church Marketing Nuts and Bolts
Save Time and Money by Mastering the Basics
What is Marketing?
Nuts and bolts work closely together but serve different purposes. If you do not understand the difference, then you will have a hard time putting together or keeping together whatever you are building.
It is the same with marketing.
The word marketing is often used interchangeably with advertising and promotion, but it is not the same. The basic definition of marketing is the exchange of goods and services. It is most often used to describe the process you use to create that exchange. In the church world, the exchange we are looking for is the opportunity to connect with people at an event or worship experience.
What Doesn’t Work
If your marketing plan consists of only using bits and pieces of what has worked for other people, you do not actually have a marketing plan. Doing this is like driving in someone else’s car until it runs out of gas and then switching modes of transportation until you hopefully get where you want to go. Directions, GPS, maps, who needs ‘em? Fuel, restrooms, and food, just distractions! We’ll get there when we get there! Wrong! Spending money on random types of advertising does not guarantee success. You want to work smarter and not harder, and you definitely do not want to work more expensively.
What Does Work
If you are going to promote your church effectively, you should first create a process that leads to an exchange. The process is your marketing strategy, and the exchange is them investing their time in your church. So, let me ask you an important question you should be able to answer if you want people to know about your church; what is your marketing strategy?
The Cornerstone of Your Church Marketing Strategy
The fundamental element, the cornerstone of your marketing strategy, is your brand. Your brand is not something you get to choose to have. You have a brand whether you want one or not. The only choice you get is what you are going to do to create the best possible brand.
What do you want people to think about when they think of your church? That is the brand you are trying to create. Everything that interacts with people should be done with this thought in mind. If you do a good job creating your brand, it will lead to the exchange you want: people visiting your church.
When the Nuts and Bolts Come Together
When you create a good brand, the promotion and advertising get a lot cheaper because people start doing it for free by simply spreading the word about their great experience with your church. At this point, your marketing budget just ads fuel to fire.
If this all still sounds a little complicated, then we would like to make it easier for you by scheduling a free coaching session with one of our Deka digital marketing experts. You can set up your free no-commitment appointment by simply clicking here!
Transparency Equals Longevity
Four Steps to Earning Long-Term Financial Trust
We know you are making every dollar given to your church stretch to reach as many people as possible, but does your church know this? We no longer live in a day and age where people donate and assume the best. You need transparency if you want longevity with giving. Your church members want to know where their money is going. So how do you build trust with those giving to your ministry so you can earn their long-term trust?
Budget
Can you imagine taking a cross-country road trip with a broken fuel gauge? You would never know how far you can go before you end up stranded on the side of the road. It is the same with your ministry. Your budget lets you know how far your vision can go before it needs to be “refueled.” Your budget is the first step of financial transparency. A well-planned budget is foundational for everything else you do to achieve financial accountability.
Keep Records
Do not toss out the receipt or put off entering in your expenses. Keep good records is the only way you can make sure you stay on track with your budget. Most financial goals fail, not because of not enough income but because of spending. One way to make sure you are not outspending your budget is to update your balance regularly. Did you know when you use Deka as your giving solution, we automatically track each person’s financial gifts to your church? This makes it easier for you to track and to keep them informed as well.
Audit
If you have done the first two steps well, then this one will be so much easier. Having outside eyes on your finances brings increased trust with givers. An audit can seem like a painful thing, but in fact, it is something that generates future income because it lets your church members know where their money is going. Deka can help make your next audit much easier through our portfolio of financial tools. Click here to learn more about our digital giving solution.
Report
You are required by law to give a yearly report of financial support to those who donate to your ministry. Deka makes this easy by creating automatic reporting sent to each person who gives to your church each year. We take care of the reporting to focus on the ministry that your givers are supporting. We also think it is good to send out a letter each year reporting how donations to the church have been used to minister to church members and your community.
Financial transparency equals longevity when it comes to building trust with givers. If you have questions about how your church can do a better job in one of these four steps, then we’d like to help. Click here to schedule a free personal coaching session with one of our knowledgeable team members.
5 Things You Must Get Right On Your Church Website
Having an excellent church website is not about spending a ton of money. Simpler is better for the most part. The key is to understand who you are, make that clear, and understand who your audience is. Here is a quick checklist of things you cannot mess up on your church website if you want to accomplish these three things.
1. The website should have a picture of the pastor (or co-pastors for couples leading together). It also helps if the image is with your spouse and family, if possible. People should be able to navigate to this part of the website in one or two clicks.
2. The pastor’s bio should be about 3-5 sentences, not 3-5 paragraphs. In some cases, it feels like 3-5 pages (“I knew I was called to plant since I was five years old when I used to preach to my G.I. Joes.”). Give us a quick overview. If you want to share your story in more detail, allow people to watch a video.
3. Put your location and service time on the “top fold” of your website. Make it the easiest thing to find on your site without clicking or navigating in any way. It’s also a good idea to put a picture of the outside location and a link to Google Maps. If you are a portable church, then the name of the space should be displayed and the physical address.
4. Instead of a long text explaining what kind of church you want to be, show what church you are. You can do this by linking your church’s social media to your website. This will help people who want to keep exploring who you are. You should also use actual high-quality photos from your gatherings on your website. People can always tell when it is a stock image.
5. Give easy access to the front door of your digital church. Can people find when your church services are streaming online without too much trouble? When you go live with a new service, do people know what platforms they can find you? Now, more than ever, people need to be able to find your church’s streaming option so that they can watch from home.
Bonus Tip: Consider having someone else with experience in branding and marketing look through your website and give you feedback. This is something we would be happy to do for you for FREE. If you are interested in scheduling a free coaching session with Deka, click here to set up a convenient time for you. We’d be glad to help!
Three Shifts to Increase Giving
How to Develop a Winning Giving Strategy
“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” John Bunyan
Giving is not just about what it does for the person who receives the gift but also about how it transforms the giver. Ministries exist to be conduits of generosity. People give so that you can preach the gospel, make disciples, and meet the needs of your community. We do not want people to give just for those reasons, though. As a pastor, you know living generously is the best way for those in your church to be fulfilled in their purpose.
How do we help people live more fulfilled by activating them in the area of giving financially? You may be surprised that some people are not giving, not because they are stingy, but because the right opportunity has not been put in front of them yet. We want to help you with three shifts to increase giving in your church.
Shift 1: Communicate Clearly
You do not have to over-communicate to communicate clearly. When you have an opportunity to give in your church service, do you put all the ways people can give on the screen? Have you considered printing the giving options on your worship guide? This way, people can still have that information in front of them when they get home. Do not assume people already know how to use your giving systems.
Shift 2: Share Stories
Do not tell people to give. Instead, tell people what their giving is doing. This can be as simple as talking about what your church did to help someone in need this week right before receiving an offering. Celebrate your outreaches on social media and then bring up the number of people impacted by that outreach at church on Sunday. Putting photos up on the screen so people can visualize how giving to your church is serving the community makes a huge difference. It is also a good idea to share video testimonies of individuals helped by your church in your weekend service.
Shift 3: Make It Easy
Do your church members even know that you have automatic giving as an option? Once a year, send out a letter with steps on how to set up automatic giving. This gives them another opportunity, and people like options. You may be surprised by how many people find it easier to do an account transfer because it helps them make it easier to include generosity in their monthly budget. If you do not know how to set up automatic giving for your church, Deka can help. Click here to schedule a free personal coaching session.
Deka’s goal is to make giving more painless than ever for you and your church members. We can help you develop giving options that include a fully custom giving page, short-code text to give, fast and excellent giving experiences, and robust giving management.
Click here to set up an appointment with one of our helpful team members to see how Deka can make the shift to a more enjoyable giving experience.
Free to Lead
Three Keys to Reducing Debt
Where Are You Leading From?
You may know where you want to lead people, but are you aware of where you are leading from? The place you lead from is just as important as the place you are leading people. When you are under pressure as a leader, you cannot help but lead from a place of stress and anxiety instead of peace and grace.
We can see this principle in Romans 13:8:
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law."
Are You Free to Lead?
As a ministry leader, you want to be free to serve people well, but what do you do when your financial situation does not allow you to accomplish all your community's vision desires?
According to the Christian Standard, 73% of churches in America are running into debt. Managing your finances can be challenging if you are not an accountant or finance expert. It's still important to stay on top of your budget, spending, and expenses. The ministry you give to your community is dependent upon the resources you receive.
As a church leader, you need to have a debt management plan and build a financial reserve to avoid debt. When there is added stress, you will naturally start putting more pressure on those around you. A sound financial plan frees you up to be lead by God and not the tyranny of the urgent. Remember, where you lead from is just as important as where you are leading people to.
Here are Three Keys to reducing debt:
Be Pro-Active
Review and identify current debts or substantial upcoming costs. In most cases, cutting back does more to help your overall financial health than trying to increase income. Taking one step at a time to attack current debt and save for future expenses is more important than trying to cover those financial gaps in one sweeping move.
Be Patience
Pay off your current debt before starting new projects. It can be tempting to rush ahead financially, but doing so may get what you think you need now at the expense of future peace.
Be Prepared
Use online resources such as Deka Wallet to manage your daily, weekly, and monthly expenses. We would love to schedule a free coaching session to ensure your church has a healthy financial plan and effective marketing strategy. Click here to find out more!
A Finacial Solution Simplified
Deka Wallet is our solution for you to distribute, fund, and manage team spending. Manage your spending on any device in any location with our device-friendly software. No matter where you are, you have access to every card registered on your account. Managing your team's spending has never been more simple or accessible.
DEKA can help free you up to lead where your vision is directing you instead of where financial stress is limiting you. Click here to set up a time to discuss Deka Wallet or one of our other effective solutions today.
Owning Your Church's Finances
A Small Adjustment with a Huge Impact
Is managing your church's budget a drain on your limited time and energy? No pastor gets into ministry because of the balance sheets. However, fiscal responsibility is a necessary part of being a good steward of your ministry. If you are not careful, though, church finances can take attention away from what you are passionate about - people. How do you own your church finances in a way that keeps you involved with people without the budget suffering?
Simple Change with A Significant Impact
You can make one small adjustment to your ministry right now that can make a significant impact in this area. If you want to spend less time crunching numbers and more time connecting with people, then you will want to include this habit in your yearly, monthly, and weekly routine. Are you ready for this game-changer?
Here it is: review your budget and track progress towards your annual goals. So simple, but also incredibly essential to long-term sustainability.
Accelerate Future Vision
Budget planning is vital for managing your church's finances. It's important to review last year's budget and analyze your income and expenses to better forecast allocating your budget this year. It can be tempting to budget optimistically, but we would encourage to build in the financial margin instead. Plan for the unexpected, and you can avoid debt and cutbacks after making plans and hires. Doing this will build confidence in those who support your ministry financially as well. To do this effectively, make it your goal to spend less than what you received in the previous year, not more. If giving increases, then you can add to your long term savings and accelerate future vision. To assist you, you'll find the expense breakdown of a healthy operational church budget here <LINK>.
Effective Church Finance Tools
There are tools available to help you set and maintain the financial goals for your church. Deka Wallet is a fantastic online resource to help you keep track of your spending and better manage your financials. Not only is Deka Wallet easy to use for your overall church budget, but it has also been designed with teams in mind. With the click of a button, you can allocate the exact amount of money assigned to each department of your church and review spending in different areas. This enables you to quickly adjust your budget to stay on track with your church's overall financial goals.
We'd love to help. Click here to schedule a free coaching session with a knowledgeable Deka team member. There is no commitment required. We want to help you find out what other simple changes you can make today to help you spend less time crunching numbers and more time connecting with people.
Digital Giving is the new normal
Over the last few years, the world has slowly been transitioning towards a cashless society with the emergence of contactless payment and tap and go options. Shopping online and paying bills digitally has become the new normal across all generations especially in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, as fewer millennials attend church, it’s becoming critical for churches to improve their online strategy in order to appeal to younger individuals. In this article, we’ll explain what digital giving is before diving into the powerful benefits that have rendered this concept the new normal.
What is Digital Giving?
Digital giving is the action to donate money to charitable organizations online. There are a few different ways to donate online:
Text-To-Give
The charity or organization sends a text to the donor with a link for them to donate. This is a quick and easy way to give to your favorite charitable organizations via mobile phone.
Giving Website Page
You can also offer a giving option through your website by embedding a payment system. Make sure you work with a marketing partner to ensure your website is optimized and your giving page appeals to donors.
Digital Giving App
In this day and age, offering the option to donate via an app can be very efficient. Indeed, an app enables quick and easy access to the donation page as well as recurring payment setups, reminders, messaging options and other useful functionalities.
Benefits of Digital Giving
Cashless society
A study led by DepositAccounts and published in 2019, has shown that 33% of Americans can’t make a $20 purchase unless they go to the ATM. Indeed, people carry less cash than ever before, limiting the donations you can hope to receive on Sundays. As a result of this shift, 49% of church donations in the USA now stem from credit cards. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated the adoption of cashless payments for health purposes as contactless payments significantly reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission.
Offering online payment options to your parishioners will therefore likely ensure the survival and success of your church. It’ll mitigate the risk of your parishioners forgetting cash and make it easy for them to set up recurring donations so that they can even give when away or on vacation.
People prefer to give online
Trends are shifting and people prefer to give online may it be through a church website or a dedicated app. According to a recent study led by Reach Right, approximately 60% of people prefer to give online. Balancing Everything also released a recent study highlighting that 26% of people who attend Mass on a weekly basis give online. Therefore, churches need to embrace new technologies and harness the power of online charitable giving in order to thrive in the future.
Online giving is more flexible and secure
Online giving, may it be via text-to-give, an app or a website is an extremely convenient way to donate for churchgoers. Indeed, by allowing them to donate online, you also ensure they can give whenever they want and as often as they want. Not only is online giving no longer restricting them to give on Sundays only, but it’s also allowing them to pick the best time for them to do so.
Digital giving is also a seamless process. Not only does it allow parishioners to give at the click of a simple button, but it also makes the whole process hassle-free for you. With online giving, you can easily track your donations and monitor their evolution. That way, you can quickly implement strategies if donations decrease.
Last but not least, digital giving can increase your donation efficiency as it will prevent cash money from being lost or stolen. Working with online payment ensures your donations are secure on a bank account you can easily access!
Smartphone and Internet use is widespread
81% of Americans own a smartphone and chances are they’ll have it with them at church making it easy to donate online before, during or after the service. Moreover, 87% have access to the internet, therefore offering a tremendous opportunity for your church to tap into.
We hope this article sheds some light on the benefits of offering digital giving as an option to churchgoers. If you’re ready to harness the power of technology, click here to contact us or browse around at the solutions we offer!
The benefits of Social Media Marketing for Your Church
Want to increase your contributions and your attendance but not sure where to start?
Marketing has significantly evolved over the last century underpinned by the rise of the Internet and technology. If the wide number of options available to advertise services nowadays gives businesses flexibility, it can also be overwhelming and frankly, daunting. However, the online shift is here to stay particularly driven by the current coronavirus pandemic and the need for most churches to step up their social media efforts, regularly engage with their parishioners and post online masses. As 60% of churchgoers prefer to give online, building a strong social media presence to create a powerful online community is, therefore, key in this day and age. Moreover, 71% of non-for-profit organizations cite social media as one of their most important communication channels.
In this article, we’ll briefly analyze how marketing has evolved over the years (print to digital) before highlighting the importance of social media marketing for your church.
Marketing evolution over time
As a charitable organization, it’s important to understand marketing evolution as it is a great way to prepare yourself and your organization for big changes to come and harness the power of the next big thing in Marketing. From billboards and radio to social media, we’ve highlighted below the chronological evolution of marketing mediums over the last century:
1900-1950’s:
Marketing, as we define it nowadays, has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. As sales slowed down due to political and economical factors, mass production companies originally focused on economies of scale, efficiency and aggressive sales techniques using a door to door approach along with magazines, posters and billboard advertising.
1955-1995:
From 1955 onwards, companies started to embrace the need to assess what individual customers really wanted, therefore offering more choices and options based on marketing segmentation and market research. Radio, TV, Telephone and Direct Mail were the main mediums used as marketing tools for advertising during this period.
1995-Today:
By 1995 the idea that customers came first was widely adopted and relationship marketing started to emerge. Therefore, Marketing campaigns started to become customer-centric. Businesses have, since then, been thriving to ensure customer satisfaction by harnessing the power of the internet. As Digital Marketing allows companies to better target and reach customers across mobile and desktop, some specific fields such as Email Marketing or Social Media Marketing revealed to be powerful sales and customer satisfaction tools.
The importance of Social Media Marketing
With more than 3.8 billion people using social media, according to We Are Social, it’s easy to understand why Social Media Marketing is such a powerful tool for companies, charities and organizations nowadays. With 1 in 4 social media users claiming to follow brands from which they might make a purchase, harnessing the power of social media has, therefore, never been so important for your church to thrive and succeed. But how can social media help your organization?
Brand awareness
Creating a social media account on the right platforms is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase your church’s visibility. Having a social media presence means that you’ll be able to connect with a broader audience and increase your attendance in the long run as well as drive your donations. 91% of marketers claim that spending a few hours a week posting and engaging on social media significantly increased their exposure and improved their users’ experience.
Cost-effective
Creating a social media account and interacting with your loyal and regular parishioners is free. If you want to increase your reach, paid advertising campaigns will see you gain valuable insights and fine-tune your strategy for very little money in comparison to any other marketing tactics.
Market Insights
Being on social media and directly interacting with your parishioners is the best way to understand their needs, their fears and their thoughts. This can help you refine your messages, your content, your sermons and better assist both your online and offline audience as you’ll be able to craft messages that resonate with your audience. This will also help you target suitable content to drive your contributions and broaden your reach.
Display your church’s culture
Social media is a great way to convey your church’s culture and draw people to your church. You can also post messages of hope and give parishioners some well-needed comfort during difficult times.
Drive giving opportunities
Your social media content can be used to drive giving through other Marketing tactics too. Indeed, a study published by Anthony Coppedge has shown that the average click-through-rate is 115% higher for church emails that include at least one social media link.
Choosing the right platform and sharing the right content is critical to ensure your efforts are rewarded. However, we know how overwhelming it can be! At Deka, we help churches like yours grow their contributions and attendance as well as increase and optimize their online presence. Sounds helpful? Click here to get in touch! We’d love to assist you!
The Importance of Online Giving in Today’s New Normal
The Importance of Online Giving in Today’s New Normal
In today’s marketplace, people’s demands are reshaping when and how consumers transact and receive their goods or services. Today, 1.8 Billion people worldwide purchase goods online and 63% of shopping occasions begin online (Oberlo). In 2020, online grocery store sales are expected to grow by 40% (Supermarket News) and online restaurant orders are currently making up close to 50% of restaurant industry sales (Upserve). Bring on COVID-19 and these market evolutions are being amplified. People today require same-day or instant purchase and delivery. For the church, our members and demographic are much more than just consumers or customers, but they are the same people whose needs, demands, and transaction habits are the same as when they make everyday financial decisions. In today’s normal, churches must have a streamlined, simplified, and clear way for donors to give as they feel led to do so. It is vital for churches to pair the real story (the messaging and promotion of the difference they are making) with a response opportunity to give. Do you have an excellent online giving and text to give solution that you are communicating well? If not, now is the time to transform your giving experience.