How to Use Giving Statements to Save Time and Increase Generosity

Issuing giving statements has always been a frustrating and time-consuming annual church requirement. Even in our digital age, many church secretaries are still printing out paper statements for every donor and then folding, stuffing, sealing, addressing, and mailing them.

It shouldn’t have to be that way.

At Pushpay, we believe that technology can serve both the donor and the recipient. Not only should a church member be able to give in seconds and effortlessly sign up for recurring giving, but church administrators should also be able to repurpose that information to streamline bookkeeping.

Here’s how we’re doing that with digital giving statements.

The Power of Frequent Giving Statements

Most churches prepare giving statements once a year. It often requires so much preparation and work that they try to do it as infrequently as possible. But what if giving statements are tools capable of doing more than reporting on taxable giving?

The truth is that most people aren’t monitoring their giving. Week to week, they give as they feel led and often believe they’re giving more than they actually are. But when churches issue statements more frequently, their donors are more aware of their giving habits and able to track the impact of their generosity. A simple lack of awareness is a significant factor that contributes to low giving.

In addition to scheduling giving statements, Pushpay also offers the ability for churches to email a special thank you message straight from your church to your givers with statements that are branded with your church’s name and logo.

Pushpay supports a church’s ability to send giving statements on the timetable that makes the most sense for your church. Want to send statements twice a year or once a quarter? No problem. In fact, you can set them up to go out on your own custom timeline.

You might be thinking, “Wait a second. This is a frustrating enough task to do annually. Why would we want to do it more often?”

That’s a good question. Even if you generated more income by sending out frequent giving statements, would the ROI be worth it? Yes—especially if you set up automated emails. But here’s where it begins to be even more helpful . . .

Self-Access Giving Statements

What if you didn’t have to send giving statements out unless they were specifically requested? Pushpay’s Self Access Giving Statements allows your members to view and download their current (and historical) giving records. This feature empowers the giver to monitor their giving in the easiest way possible.

All a church has to do is send out a link that informs their members where they can access their information. For security purposes, this one-time link expires after 14 days, keeping your members and church’s information safe and secure. This saves the church valuable time, effort, and resources while enabling faithful givers to be more aware and proactive of their giving habits.

Bringing It All Home

Coming soon, we’re bringing an exciting addition to our Giving Statements feature that will only serve to further streamline administrative processes and give you a clearer picture of your church’s financial health.

With Households, you can group specific church members into a single giving unit (a Household Profile), to aid in data management and reporting. The new Household Profile lists all of the family members in a household, including children and adult-dependents. You can easily view contact information, add/remove family members from a household, or change their family position from this page. And because every family is different, children can be assigned to one main household and a different secondary household.

You’re also able to generate Household Giving Statements. These statements will combine the giving of everyone in the household into one giving statement and will be accessible by both the Primary and Secondary household members.

This setup has two obvious benefits. The first benefit is it provides your church the opportunity to thank and acknowledge the household rather than a single individual in the household. The second benefit is that it offers a more accurate and condensed system of reporting for your admin/finance team. Additionally, statements are emailed in accordance with IRS Regulations, so you’ll save time and money by eliminating printed statements and postage.

“Pushpay has greatly improved the overall giving experience for our church body. The interface is easy for donors to navigate, and the back-end reporting provides my team with everything we need for weekly reports, monthly reconciliations, and annual giving statements.”
— Brett Billman, Director of Finance, Watermark Community Church

We know tabulating and delivering giving statements can be a time consuming ordeal (and that doesn’t even account for thanking and acknowledging your faithful givers), but at Pushpay, we’re here to partner with you to help make this process quick and painless. You and your church staff are probably at their busiest at the end of the fiscal year, and worrying about giving statements can be a thing of the past.

We want to help you nurture and care for your members. That’s why we pride ourselves on paying attention to feedback from churches like yours. We want to make it easier to be generous, and that requires effortless communication. Pushpay’s giving statements is another element of this award-winning software that makes it possible to fulfill this goal.

If you’re interested in learning more about how our software can help you and your staff save time and money so you can better serve your congregation, schedule a call with one of our software experts today.