03 Mar Reduce your Accounting and Tech Issues With Text-Notifications and Text-to-Give Platforms

Simplify Your Church’s Technical Processes With Text Notifications & Text-To-Give Software

Text-to-Give and Text-Notifications are all the rage these days for churches. The nerdy term for Text-Notifications is SMS (short message service).

More and more churches are making the switch and effectively engaging with their congregations using these mobile solutions. Best yet, churches and ministries are better stewards of their resources and don’t waste thousands of dollars on a church app that is hard to maintain, unlikely to be downloaded; and if downloaded, likely to be deleted by church members.

But what exactly are the facts? Does making this switch lead to a better experience for your church members? And can it lead to more donations?

Let’s start off with the fact that A LOT of Americans own smartphones—81% of them actually.

60 percent of churchgoers are also willing to give to their church digitally. Having the option for your community to give digitally could be the difference in helping people to engage more fully.

Today we’re digging into some of the benefits that Text-to-Give platforms offer as well as Text-Notifications. You might notice that these tools can work really well together in engaging your members. And, the bonus: It will relieve the accounting and tech issues you are experiencing.

How To Use Text-Notifications

There are a lot of ways that churches can utilize Text-Notifications and messages to help communicate with their community. Simple ways to utilize Text-Notifications for your church include donation reminders, event updates, or Holiday greetings. Sending spontaneous, engaging, and relevant messages to your congregation is only limited by your imagination. You can even send a link to a video.

The Benefit To Text-Notifications

Emails get lost or thrown out before their viewed, and it can be costly to mail out individual letters. Research has shown that text messages have an open rate of up to 98 percent. Emails currently have an open rate of only 20 percent. So, by using texts, your messages are effectively reaching almost every person on your list.

Another benefit is that it’s cost-effective. With ReachNow, there are flexible levels or tiers where you can pay based on how many texts you plan on sending each month.

Tech Issues? Text-Notifications Are Simple

The simplicity offered by Text or SMS notifications is what draws many churches to this solution. Some email and social media messaging platforms are complicated to understand. With Text-Notifications, all you have to do is select (from predetermined groups) who you’d like to send the message, type it out, proofread it, and send it! That’s it! It’s as easy as a 4 step process, and anyone can learn how to use the platform.

Why Text-to-Give?

If you already have a mobile app or an online giving option within your organization’s website, then you might be wondering why you should even think about text-to-give options. First off, text-to-give is easier for your community to use because they don’t have to access your website or download an app. Software such as GiveNow allows people to give by directly sending an SMS text message to a number that they can save on their phone.

Other advantages to this program include the ability to check giving history, set up recurring donations, and give to different funds. By using text-to-give you’re giving your organization its best shot at reaching it’s giving revenue potential.

Mobile Optimization

Many churches and organizations don’t have the money to employ full-time IT people and web designers. That’s why, at times, their websites aren’t well optimized for mobile devices. Mobile optimization isn’t always a big problem for churches, but it can definitely become one if your community is attempting to use their mobile device to give online.

Some churches have chosen to use giving kiosks to help prevent people from being deterred by a website that’s not optimized or easy to access, but those solutions can be costly. Using text-to-give allows anyone with a cellphone, which is mostly everyone, to give quickly and easily.

Accounting Help

Keeping track of cash and checking donations is not easy, and manually entering every gift into a spreadsheet or software is definitely enough to make an accountant dread every day. What’s more, is that this job has to be done perfectly. If there are any mistakes in the records, the organization won’t be able to properly issue documents at the end of the year or correctly pass an audit.

If you’ve been struggling to keep track of gifts and donations, then you might enjoy hearing that text-to-give options include a detailed record of all contributions received, including the name of the donor and the date and time. Because this data is tracked, you’re able to keep better tabs on your own records and be able to offer better records to your community.

Next Steps

If you think that an SMS notification system or text-to-give platform is right for you and your organization, then there are a few things you can do to start taking the next steps. Number one is research. At mobileAxept, we want you to make an informed decision about the product that you choose to use for your organization.

If you think that mobileAxept is right for you, then we’d love to hear from you and help create the perfect solution for your organizations giving. Browse our website to learn more about our products or fill out our contact form to start a conversation about your needs!