Recently I have been having many conversations surrounding how well on-line giving providers work with church management software (CMS).  There are many of each in the marketplace but they don’t all necessarily play well together in the sandbox.  I recently posted a conversation with a pastor I have worked with and we discussed some of the issues they have had with their current on-line giving provider not being compatible with their CMS.

I am learning that many church administrators, treasurers, book keepers, etc. are often times frustrated with the on-line giving process their church uses because instead of streamlining processes on-line giving is causing them more work.  I don’t think that is what we are looking for do you?

I have heard more than once from clients and prospective clients “Shouldn’t an on-line donation automatically be recorded in that person’s profile in our database?  Isn’t there a way for that to happen and for me to get a notification that a donation has been given on-line and recorded in their profile without them having to go to great lengths?  Is that too much to ask?”

I’d like to begin a conversation.  I’d love to hear from you about the following:

What CMS is your church using?

Does your CMS have a built in application for on-line giving?

If so, are you satisfied or would use another on-line giving provider if you knew one would work better with your CMS?

Regardless, what is the level of satisfaction with how your church’s on-line giving option syncs with your CMS?

I have created an anonymous survey to receive the answers to these questions.  Will you participate?  I plan to use this information to begin a conversation with CMS providers and on-line giving providers to see what solutions are out there or potentially out there to make on-line giving a more viable option for our churches.  Most churches are now coming to the reality they need to provide on-line giving as an option but many are a little intimidated by it all.  Many have gotten over the hurdle of the processing fee.  Many are even beyond the issue of “to have a credit card option or not”.  However, many who have been using on-line giving are frustrated with the process.  Let’s make it easier for them.