Why You Should Use Church Donation Tracking Software

As a church, you have a responsibility to your donors. You must remain accountable and keep them in-the-loop about what you’re doing with their donations. Unfortunately, it’s near impossible to do this without software in the modern age. That’s where church donation tracking programs come in.

By integrating a powerful tracking software into your organization, you’ll be empowered to collect, track, and distribute all the funds you collect. These programs can do this in an efficient and streamlined manner. What’s more, advanced reporting will help you keep track of donors’ information. You’ll also have the opportunity to follow-up and communicate with donors throughout every stage of your campaign.

In other words, the right software will help you improve the donor experience at your church and ultimately lead to bigger, more frequent, and even more recurring gifts from your congregants. So, let’s talk more about donation tracking software and why you should be using it.

What Is Donation Tracking Software?

The exact features of donation tracking software vary depending on the exact solution you choose. Here at DonorWerx, our software solution covers every aspect a church needs to consider. This includes the actual collection of data, the backend information keeping, communications and even follow-up. The framework even handles reporting.

If this is brand new territory for you, don’t sweat it. Donation tracking software can be simply explained. It’s essentially a dashboard where you can get all of your donations and donors in one place. From that dashboard, you should be able to effortlessly generate reports and keep an eye on where every donor is at in the process. You can even drill down to specific information about your donors and donations.

For instance, the best donation tracking software will allow you to upload all of your contacts and information on them that will help you customize follow-up. Then, it should help you track who you’ve followed up with recently and who you haven’t. It will also help you identify donors capable of gifting more often or giving larger gifts, and guide you as you work to engage them so they do so.

All in all, a donation tracking software should be your new go-to tool that you can use to keep track of everything to do with your church’s financial health and donor experience. The trick is finding the right all-in-one solution so you don’t end up having to integrate with third-party software for this or that.

Benefits of a Robust Donation Software

So, now that you know what a donation tracking software does, let’s go over some of the key benefits of implementing the right one.

Versatile Collection Methods

People are interacting with their favorite organizations in all new ways now and, the fact is, very few people use cash or checks. Those two facts together help prove why your church should be able to collect donations through multiple forms with options that go beyond a basic website integration.

If you’re not already using text-to-give, mobile apps, or even a kiosk at your church’s physical location, you’re missing out on countless donations.

Improved Engagement

How would you feel if you just made a major donation to a cause you’re passionate about and all you got in return was a generic “thank you” page and a tax receipt? What if you just made a small donation of $5 to $10 and you got the same thing? The fact is, no matter how big or small a donation may seem to you, every donor deserves to be recognized with personal follow-up.

This same follow-up is what’s going to give them the warm fuzzies and the feeling of inclusion so that they want to donate again, and again, and again. Miss out on this follow-up and they’ll find someone else.

Stronger Relationships

With a software like DonorWerx, you’ll learn how to center your focus so that you can build lasting relationships with your donors. Whether you call it relationship building or donor management, it’s an essential practice that you should be investing time and money into. If you don’t, your donors will gradually lose interest in your church and its causes.

Relationship management isn’t just about engaging donors so they keep donating, the real goal is help every one of your congregants realize the power they hold and the impact their donations and active involvement with your church is making.

Proper relationship building techniques will have a ripple effect by keeping newcomers coming back, encouraging long-term visitors to invite new attendees, and turning loyal donors into advocates for your organization.

Reduced Administrative Strain

If you’re already trying to do donor follow-up or tracking at any level and you’re not using the right software, there’s no doubt that it’s putting unneeded strain on your administrative team.

With a modern software solution, you’ll find that relationship building and church management in general isn’t a hassle at all. In fact, the right dashboard and reporting software will unlock brand new views into your congregation. This will help you identify opportunities around every corner — all while automating much of the process.

Choosing The Right Donation Software for Your Church

As a church, you should carefully evaluate any software you’re considering. Make sure it checks all the most important boxes. For donation tracking software, you should be seeking the following:

• Versatile donation collection: A simple online giving form won’t cut it. Your donors have many different preferred ways to give and you need to address as many of them as possible. That means collecting donations online, through an app, through text, and even in-person at a giving kiosk.
• Customized interfaces: Without the ability to brand your donation pages and other forms, you’ll ultimately end up costing yourself money. Studies have shown that branded donation pages collect substantially more. This makes it important for the software you choose to seamlessly integrates with your brand.
• Advanced follow-up: Your software should offer data enrichment to help you personalize your donor outreach and communicate more effectively. This enrichment will also help you get to know your donors better. That means you’ll be able to identify the folks who are in the best position to give.
• One-on-one coaching: While critical to success and sustainable growth, very few solutions actually offer one-on-one coaching. This is essential for getting you setup and running with the software you choose. It should also continue far beyond the setup phase to help you engage congregants better. In the end, this results in higher financial wellness at your church.

Think it sounds too good to be true? DonorWerx does all of these things and more. We can even prove to you how effective our strategies are just by getting you on a 30-minute Discovery Call. Just give us a few minutes of your time. If you do, we’ll share strategies to increase your donations by 10% in the next six months. Click here to get Get started