Recurring giving benefits the parish and the giver. For the giver, donations are easy to manage, and consistent giving helps develop spiritual growth. For the parish, forecasting is more accurate and the average recurring giver donates 42% more annually.
While recurring giving makes sense for everyone, it can still be a challenge to grow your recurring giving program. In order to help, we’ve listed 5 simple steps that inspire participation for recurring giving.
Step 1: Show your parish where to start
If you notice givers are hesitant to sign up for recurring giving, you’re not alone! Just like giving for the first time, deciding to join recurring giving can be intimidating. In many cases, the donor simply doesn’t know where to start. Other times, the giver isn’t aware the program is easy to sign up for.
Here are a few ways to address these issues:
- Share a slide before mass showing the steps for the one-time setup
- Invite people to join via email and social media
- Add an opt-in recurring giving button on your website’s giving page
- Feature news about the recurring giving program in pamphlets, blogs, and welcome packets
You can also create giving tiers to make getting started even easier. The first tier can be as little as $1 a month to show that it’s not the amount you give, but the consistency. Over time, encourage givers to move up to the next tier.
Step 2: Make signing up incredibly easy
You might think your recurring giving is incredibly easy to sign up for, but it may not be. If the person signing up is taken to unbranded third party sites or they find the steps confusing, then you could be losing a lot of people in the process.
Your giving platform has a lot to do with this. With ParishSOFT Giving, it’s a one-time setup and givers easily manage the frequency and amount given. They aren’t boxed-in with recurring giving either. They can give a single gift to other funds when inspired by outreach events or a powerful sermon.
Make sure your giving platform accepts ACH (eCheck) transactions. When recurring gifts are given through direct bank draft, processing fees are lower, and this saves the parish money!
Step 3: Share the impact of recurring gifts
While raising awareness that you have a giving program is essential, you also want to share the real-life impact of those gifts. Highlight the results of recurring gifts during services, on social media, and in newsletters.
Show pictures and videos of your parish in the community building homes or delivering food to the elderly. Share stories of volunteers and mission trip leaders. By seeing how the parish uses the recurring gifts, people get a better understanding of all the good the program does.
Not only will you inspire people to sign up for recurring giving, but you’ll also encourage current recurring givers to donate more!
Step 4: Celebrate your parish’s recurring giving program
All giving is important whether it’s a one-time or monthly donation. But, recurring giving is unique because it shows a new level of spiritual maturity, and people enjoy celebrating this! A few ways you can celebrate your recurring giving program include:
- An annual luncheon for recurring givers with a keynote speaker
- A monthly newsletter sharing the impact of recurring gifts
- Personalized thank-you cards mailed once a year with specific details of how their gift impacted the community
Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4
It takes time to cultivate a recurring giving program, but by repeating the 4 steps above often, you’ll start to see the needle move in the right direction. Simply show people where to start, make it easy to sign up, share the impact of recurring gifts, and celebrate your recurring givers.
Let ParishSOFT Giving help grow your recurring giving program! Contact ParishSOFT at 866-930-4774 x6 or parishsoftsales@parishsoft.com or schedule a quick demo to learn more.
