Now more than ever is the time to reflect on how well placed your church is to receive online donations.
Online giving is where a donations platform is linked to your website, Facebook page or other social media channels. The platform allows individuals to donate using a variety of payment methods.
A good donations platform provider will embed a ‘Donate Now’ button on your website, automatically reclaim your Gift Aid and will often allow you to seek donations for a few separate projects.
A comprehensive supplier listing is available on Parish Resources here.
Before choosing a provider, you should carefully research the costs involved. These can include set-up fees, monthly subscriptions and transaction charges.
The solution available on Parish Buying is the most affordable and is available here.
Receiving Online Donations video
You can watch a recording of a national Church of England webinar for parishes on Receiving Online Donations below.
A step-by-step animated film on how to set up an online giving account is available here
Creating an online giving account (Full video) from The National Giving Team on Vimeo.
Just Giving
One relatively quick and simple solution is to set up a JustGiving page linked to the Ely Diocesan Board of Finance (EDBF) page at https://www.justgiving.com/edbf.
In the top right hand corner of this landing page you will find an option to ‘Fundraise for us’. From here, you should be able to create your own JustGiving page and include an explanation of what you are fundraising for.
Donations made will be credited to the Diocesan bank account every fortnight (approximately), with any gift aid due being received a couple of weeks thereafter.
Staff in the Diocesan Finance Team receive JustGiving reports, from where they can identify to which church the donations belong. Arrangements are then made to transfer the funds to the church bank account.
For more general information about JustGiving (including transaction fees) see https://www.justgiving.com/for-charities/a-new-free-way-to-join-justgiving
A Church Near You (ACNY)
A ‘donate’ button is now available on each church homepage on A Church Near You, enabling churches to link their online giving page (once set up) to this button.
A short video (about 4 minutes) explains how to make use of this new ‘donate’ button on ACNY (achurchnearyou.com) – you can watch it below.
Creating the ACNY donate button from The National Giving Team on Vimeo.
Encouraging Online Giving
Online giving is a good mechanism to enable one-off donations from people and to act as an alternative way to give for those who regularly donate by cash or for occasional and new givers.
Some resources to help you encourage people to give at this time are available on Parish Resources website here.
You may also find some helpful ideas in the How to promote your online giving video below.
How to promote your online giving page from The National Giving Team on Vimeo.