Why Mobile Is Your Best Bet for Recurring Giving

Getting your church to transition from weekly giving to recurring giving is an important step towards growing your church. But what’s the best way to get people to give automatically? One of the best tools available is a mobile giving app—but not just any mobile app. Adoption is the key to mobile giving that leads to recurring giving.

How a mobile app empowers recurring giving

1. A mobile app is user-friendly

In 2013, 63 percent of smartphone owners used their phones to go online, and 34 percent primarily used their phones to surf the web. In two years, the number of people predominantly using their phones for online media climbed to 51 percent—and it’s still going up.

This means that churches need to prioritize mobile-friendly solutions. Have you ever tried to fill out an online form on your phone’s browser? It’s a pain. If your recurring giving solution is a form on your website, it’s just not going to get used by many givers.

An app that’s intended to help with the giving process (and designed with the user in mind) is going to be infinitely easier to train people to use—and to get them to want to use—than web forms or text-to-give solutions.

And, with a mobile app, you can sign up for recurring giving in seconds.

Churches without a mobile app for giving are behind the curve. In fact, people prefer digital giving so much, they give $17 for every $10 given in cash and check and tend to give more often. Without a mobile app, encouraging recurring giving will be difficult long-term.

Talk to a church technology expert at Pushpay today to learn how your church can use mobile technology to grow recurring giving.

2. Mobile giving makes giving part of a believer’s lifestyle

Ask anyone what they can’t live without and their mobile phone will be at the top of the list. In less than a decade, smartphones have become a necessary part of everyday life. People use their phones to buy airline tickets, book hotels, rent cars, and check their bank accounts. When you give them a mobile giving option, you’re integrating their church giving with the platform people use to pay for nearly everything.

In the 80s and 90s, you could expect people to drop checks in the offering plate. Checks were the tools they used to pay every bill. It made sense. Back then, people pulled out their checkbooks to pay for everything. But things have changed. People are carrying less cash and fewer checks.

Since a majority of your church is already using mobile to organize their finances and pay their bills, it only makes sense to incorporate giving there as well.

3. Mobile giving paves the way for spontaneous giving

When you get your congregation signed up for recurring giving, they won’t have to ask themselves: “How much can I afford to give this week?” Instead, regular giving will be a completely natural part of their lives. When they’re not approaching all giving as spontaneous, they’re prepared to respond with open hands to other giving opportunities.

With mobile giving, you can give anywhere at anytime. And that giving can be done in fewer than 10 seconds. It’s so simple that it facilitates giving as an almost reflective act.

Increasing Your Monthly Budget with Mobile Giving

It might be hard to fathom that changing the way that you collect funds can have a dramatic impact on your budget. And it might seem silly to think that your church of occasional givers would ever sign up for recurring giving.

Don’t tell that to Sojourn Heights! Thanks to recurring giving through a mobile app, 90 percent of their congregation are giving, and nearly 100 percent of those givers are giving through a mobile app. This is in a culture where only about 20 percent of a church does 80 percent of the giving!

It’s Time to Go Mobile

If you’ve been on the fence regarding mobile giving, it’s time to make the jump. You’ll be surprised at the difference it can make—especially when your mobile giving solution is part of your own church app. Imagine all of your church engagement—sermons, blog, bulletins, church calendar, and more—all together in one app.

You can have all of that and more with a custom church app with Pushpay. Talk to one of our church technology experts today to learn how you can drive more long-term recurring generosity with technology that works for and with your church.