Many churches are now recognising that they should offer their congregation, wider community, and visitors a variety of ways to support their church. It is not uncommon that someone wishing to support a local church comes up against barriers to do so, for example only accepting in person cash gifts or needing to contact the treasurer for bank details.
It is likely that some may wish to continue to give using cash in person, using a contactless machine (if available), or by standing order, but others will be happy using their phones to access your giving site (via a QR code), or by clicking a link on your church/benefice website or via a donate button on your A Church Near You page. An online giving facility is also ideal for those attending zoom/Facebook services and is free and easy to set up.
Advantages:
Sum Up/Stripe Express
- Easy to set up and manage through Give A Little and Sum Up.
- Donors can give a one-off donation or set up a monthly donation.
- No need to contact a treasurer or visit church in person to give.
- Parish Buying members using 'Give A Little' for their contactless and/or online giving will continue to receive free Premium membership for the duration of 2022.
- Premium membership allows givers to make a Gift Aid declaration when they are making their donation and comes with lots of other features like the ability to customise campaigns with images, videos, and reporting.
What to consider:
-
There are now two payment providers: Sum Up and Stripe Express. You should consider which is best for your needs and below is a comparison
- facilitates both contactless and online donations
- can be used with the SumUp app to take payments
- transaction rates for online: 1.95%, and for contactless donations: 1.1% debit cards, 1.3% credit cards
- Does not accept Apple Pay and Google pay for online donations.
- facilitates only online donations (not contactless)
- better transactions rates than SumUp. Online 1.1%
- accepts Apple Pay and Google Pay for online donations
- has a high donations threshold (up to £1m) in a single transaction.
How to set up:
- Through Parish Buying. Click here to register.
- Search for online giving on Parish Buying site or click here. To use the service you have to create accounts with Give A Little and Sum Up or Stripe Express. SumUp and Stripe Express are a mobile payments companies and GiveALittle is a point of donation software, together they make the online giving service. Follow their easy set up guides at the bottom of this page.
- If you need an excepted charity certificate and church code, go to your A Church Near You page, choose More Information from the left tab, scroll to the bottom this page and you will see your church code and ‘Download Certificate’.
- Promote your online giving link and QR code in the following ways: parish magazines, newsletters, social media platforms, email campaigns, letters to wider community, online services, A Church Near You, QR code displayed in the church. More ideas here.
- Integrate your 'Give A Little' account with your 'A Church Near You' page. To find out more visit the parish buying website here.
For more information
- Visit Parish Buying here.
- Email: julie.podd@cofesuffolk.org to arrange a chat.
Resources
QR code poster | DOCX
Sum Up How to Guide | PDF
Stripe Express How to Guide | PDF