A lot of people wonder if they can tithe to a church online. The truth is that it really depends on the church in question. There are several churches that are set up to accept this style of donation and there are several who have not made the leap. The truth of the situation is, however, every church or ministry should be pushing as hard as they can towards this reality. The new world, especially in light of recent events, has become very digital. Therefore, making sure your church or ministry is ready for that reality is paramount to its survival.
The last thing that a member of a church wants is for their chosen church to have to scale back its services. It does not matter if those services are online or offline. Every member knows a shortfall in a church’s budget feels like it is partly the fault of the flock. Therefore, you either get more money out of the flock or you increase the size of the flock.
Unfortunately, the reality of failing to do this job well is very commonplace. There are many churches that have had problems due to the fact that they have a shortfall from giving. A lot of them have not dug their well before they needed it and are now spending most of their time trying to build it quickly. If you spend any amount of time with any ministry leader then you will find out that this is a massive concern. They, often, try to employ youth leadership in order to talk to the potential new members in those internet-based crowds out there.
Here is another truth of the matter. Your voice and your style of teaching/preaching is the only one like it. You are specially gifted to talk to a certain slice of people out there. Honestly, there is no one else to do it. You were already ordained to change certain people’s lives and all you have to do is do the job in front of you. A happy flock is a flock that donates willingly. Therefore, opening up your little ministry to the whole world not only helps you generate money but it helps the Body of Christ as a community. You will grow your ministry and His Kingdom at the same time.
Subsequently, choosing the right platform to help you along this endeavor is very important. You are doing the hard work of generating these people. Therefore, you have to wonder why you have to give away a lion’s share of those donations to the payment provider. Theoretically, they are doing a lot less than you are and those donations are just a drop in the bucket to them. For you, unless you run a massive church, every little penny and nickle in that donation is important.
Finding a way to maximize the amount you keep is paramount to keeping your lights on and growing your ministry larger. You may ask yourself why the payment platforms charge so much for their job. The truth is that they were, for the most part, developed for “for-profit” companies. Therefore, the margin of profit is much higher and they can afford to charge more for their services in the way of straight fees, or even hidden fees in some cases. It is why you can have such a hard time figuring out just how much you are getting from every donation.
The companies are made to squeeze their profits from different types of transactions than the ones your non-profit, donation-based, ministry uses on a daily basis. Subsequently, you must do a lot of homework to make sure that you are keeping as much of your donations as possible. A good starting point is to make sure that you are using services that are meant for what you need them to do. If you work with a solution that was made for a “for-profit” solution then you may find that you are unable to make the numbers work in your favor. Select a provider who understands your needs and is not going to nickle and dime you for every inch of possible profit.