Even in this time of COVID-19, churches, synagogues and faith groups are still giving to their members and community, keeping in touch in new ways and continuing their charitable missions as best they can. But while the giving goes on, the receiving end is more challenging. With in-person worship services a thing of the past, there is no more passing of the offertory plate to receive pledge checks and loose offerings — the traditional income stream.
So what is a church to do? Plenty, it turns out. The Rev. Kelly Gallagher, Associate Conference Minister, Mass. Conference, United Church of Christ, directs UCC-member churches to the association’s website, where they can review four options for receiving gifts: 1) Encouraging people to mail in donations; 2) promoting auto-bill pay; 3) setting up online giving, and 4) inviting annual givers to make their donation in April.
“(Churches are) doing a lot of things,” said Gallagher. “The same church can have a Paypal account and be receiving checks (through the mail) and receiving direct deposit, so they’re doing all kinds of things.”
The Rev. Dr. Candice Ashenden, family and outreach pastor at Athol Congregational Church, reported, “Athol Congregational Church is receiving most of its donations by mail right now, but we have also set up suggestions for online banking options for our members, as well as created a PayPal account for donations. We have sent these links out in an all-church email blast and posted the links on our Facebook page and our church website.”
Pastor Judy Jones of the Orange United Methodist and South Athol United Methodist churches, said both churches are relying on folks to mail in their tithes and offerings. “Our congregations are small and ‘older’ populations. We don’t feel that enough of the congregation would use on-line giving or Paypal to warrant the costs of these programs.”
Similarly, the Rev. Dr. Megan Leary of Central Congregational Church of Orange said, “We are asking the congregation to mail their donations in to the church and our treasurer takes care of it from there. At this time, we do not have an online or electronic giving option, but may consider moving in that direction.”
The Rev. Dan Dibble of the Trinitarian Congregational Church of Warwick said, People are being very supportive and mailing or dropping off their offerings at the Chapel. We do not have any online presence for collecting funds, but this pandemic is making us look into that option as well as how to connect the community through online services and Facebook.”
Increasingly, faith groups are scrambling to set up online giving platforms and encourage tech-shy members to use them.
At Holy Trinity Parish in Greenfield, Administrative Office Assistant Monique Richardson is comparing online giving platforms for the church to use, with guidance from the Springfield Diocese. “There are different companies,” explains Richardson, who has her own business that takes online payments and thus brings a degree of familiarity to the process. “Let’s say, you’re a business and you take credit cards. Well, it’s not only one company. This company’s going to charge you so much a percentage plus a transaction (fee). Another one will have no transaction fee but a little bit higher percentage. It’s a payment plan. Somebody has to process this and they’re paid to process it.
“The Diocese has done research and they’ve given us a list and so we will go through that and decide which one works better for Holy Trinity.”
Lead Pastor Jason Beamon of the Greenfield Alliance Church said, “We do have a lot of people who aren’t tech-savvy. They’re just mailing in their tithe checks to the church.”
The Alliance Church has also had success using tithe.ly. “It’s an online giving format designed specifically for churches,” explains Beamon.
“We put a link to the tithe.ly giving app on our church website. When you click on the link in the top right-hand corner, it will take you to an off-site app where you can enter in debit card information and what you want to delegate the giving to, whether it’s just the general fund or we have specific projects or a benevolent fund that people can give to.
“They don’t charge a yearly or monthly fee; you pay based on the amount of giving. We pay, I believe, 3 percent per credit transaction and 1 percent for bank transactions. So if somebody gave us a $100 donation via their debit card, we would pay $3 to tithe.ly.
“We saw a big dip (in giving) the first week, as people weren’t sure what was going to happen next. People, I think, are now realizing, ‘Well, we’re just going to have to contribute in whatever way we can.’ I’d say we’re right about on par now.”
The Rev. Marguerite Sheehan of Trinity Church in Shelburne Falls says, “As for financial support, we continue to ask, via letters, for members and friends of the congregation to send their giving to the church during this time.
“We will also be adding a PayPal donation button to our website so anyone might easily donate now and in the future. We now have a larger ‘web presence’ due to our YouTube worship services and soon we will add a grateful ‘thank you’ for offerings to those broadcast messages.”
Churches that are conducting online services through internet platforms such as Zoom are incorporating giving into the service. Pastor Mark Ellis of the Shutesbury Community Church reported, “We have been having a time of offering each week on our live broadcasts of our Sunday services, during which I request that people mail in their offerings and give the address, or go to our newly established Paypal account.
“So far, we have only received checks by mail. We are working on getting donation links on our Facebook and YouTube pages and our church website, but have not figured out that process. We do not have anyone in the church who is adept at such things. We, of course, have had an appreciable decrease in giving but we are trusting in God to carry us through this.”
The Rev. Jon Reardon, pastor of Holy Family Church in South Deerfield, added, “Many folks also participate in automatic withdrawals from their bank account to the church’s. We have this set up through Greenfield Savings Bank in town.”
Robert Doty, Greenfield Branch President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Greenfield, shared that “Each member has a personal membership account that enables them to submit donations directly from their bank account. Some members prefer to hand submit their donations directly to their bishop/branch president, but at this time they are instructed to mail or hold it until we are able to meet together again.”
Similarly, Rabbi Andrea Cohen Kiener of Temple Israel Greenfield said, “Temple Israel and most synagogues have a membership/dues model. Dues are paid annually or by arranged payment plan,” adding, “Observant Jewish people don’t handle money on Shabbat. That is part of the reason that dues is a better model for us.”
The Rev. Vicki Ix, communications director of The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, said, “We have asked our folks to mail in their pledge or to set up direct deposit through their banking institution. Our treasurer has been very helpful in assisting with the online option. Given the uncertainty of how long we’ll be apart, it’s been helpful to be proactive in this regard.”
The Rev. Heather Blais of the Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew in Greenfield, said, “We have folks using online bill pay through their banks to make donations, mailing in their donations, and several folks use our account with tithe.ly, an online giving platform. Taking things one day at a time and grateful for the ongoing generosity of church-goers.”
Most faith leaders hope the new habits of giving stick.
“In the electronic age that we’re in,” said Beamon, “it’s good to have some sort of online giving format. Especially the younger generation, they just want to set it up and be done with it. And anything electronic you can do (is good) because we’re so connected to our devices now.”
The UCC’s Gallagher said, “We’re learning how to ‘be church’ in a new way. I hope we try to figure out how to make giving more accessible and in line with how people pay their bills.
“It is my hope that it won’t be jettisoned when this is over. I hope that we learn something from this.”