One COVID 19 Thing your Church is Forgetting
Mar 13, 2020
Your church's COVID 19 announcements have been carefully prepared and emailed. But they're missing one critical thing...the invitation to your members to "be there" with their support even if they won't be there at worship.
Drops in worship attendance wreak havoc on church revenues. Most congregations still rely too heavily on the offering plate. Just one good Minnesota blizzard has reduced a month's income by 25%.
While you're taking the appropriate social distancing precautions, I'm sure you've already started asking "What impact will COVID 19 have on my congregation's budget?"
If you haven't heard much good news lately, here's some...churches are the LEAST likely of nonprofits to be negatively impacted during times of economic downturn. People of faith typically consider their congregation to be their highest charitable priority. But you'd be the foolish steward to take this faithful generosity for granted right now.
If your church is going to weather the weeks ahead, you need to make your members' opportunity to give EASY and OBVIOUS. Here are 3 things you need to do TODAY before this coming Sunday surprises you.
1) Get your digital giving house in order. Most churches now offer online giving, but sometimes your process is confusing and needs to be simplified. If you don't yet have a texting option or a Venmo account (no fees for bank transfers), this is the right time to get these more contemporary giving tools in place. Give your digital giving options a home on your website.
2) Create a 'click to give' ad, button, or link. This needs to give your readers one touch access to the menu of digital giving options you have to offer. If you only use online giving, this touch will take them directly to that page. Make sure that it looks good and works well on your mobile app. Feel free to use the PLEASE GIVE graphic above if you need something ready-made.
3) Use your 'click to give' option everywhere - your emails, your texts, your website, your digital feed of Sunday's sermon, your Facebook page...everywhere. Redundancy is essential across every communications channel. Statistically, people need to see this an average of 15 times before they will act.
The weeks to come pose real challenges to the financial well-being of your ministry and your members. If I can be one of your guides for the journey, you can follow me on social media or at brendamoore.org.