Contactless Giving and Card Readers

Contactless Giving and Card Readers

Although regular giving is the bedrock of support for most churches, one-off donations are a very useful additional supplement to this.

Enabling people to make one-off donations ‘digitally’ (i.e. without cash) can really increase the amount a church can raise for specific appeals and one-off events. Accepting card payments is one such way to encourage ‘digital’ giving in an increasingly cashless society.

For information about different types of ‘digital’ giving, visit the Digital Giving page of the Parish Resources website.

Information about accepting card payments – including a helpful ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQs) document – can be found on the Parish Resources website.

A growing range of card reader terminals are available on the market. Card readers and contactless donation units can be purchased at a discount through the Parish Buying service, visit their website here to learn more. On this site you will also find a questionnaire designed to help you think about and choose the right solution for your church.

To view pricing and other information, and to benefit from the discounted transaction rates negotiated by the Church of England National Stewardship Team, your church must be a Parish Buying member. It’s free of charge, and you can register as a member on their website here.

Diocesan Card Reader Initiative

In October 2019, the Diocese of Ely launched a scheme to offer to pay for a contactless giving device for every church in the Diocese. Full details of this initiative were sent to PCC Treasurers (copied to Clergy and Churchwardens).

Kindly note that this scheme has now been withdrawn in advance of the Diocese joining in the rollout of a national Digital (or ‘contactless’) Giving scheme. Partnering with the National Giving Team in this scheme will enable us to equip 50 or more churches in our Diocese with contactless capability. You can find out more at: Diocese of Ely | Digital Giving in the Diocese of Ely (elydiocese.org)

Contactless Giving for Mobile Phone users

Parish Buying have recently added a new supplier offering Mobile Phone Giving using a QR code. This is an inexpensive, versatile, and easy to set up option which will enable you to receive contactless donations from smartphone users in your church.

A QR code is a unique code made up of small black and white squares that can be read by the camera or a QR code reader on a smartphone. It can be printed on anything that you print on paper, such as a pew card, an order of service, parish magazine, poster, banner or card. More information can be found on the Parish Buying website here.

Page last updated: Thursday 23rd June 2022 9:17 AM
First published on: 9th October 2019
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