How Carmel Church boosted their giving and impacted their community

Summary

Church: Carmel Church | San Diego, CA
Type: Protestant
Using Pushpay since: Pre-COVID
Products: Pushpay Giving

Through a pandemic and a devastating diagnosis, giving never dropped. Then they used that generosity to put missionaries in local schools.

KEY RESULTS

• Giving remained strong through both COVID and their lead pastor’s cancer battle
• Raised $500,000 for the “Move Forward” community outreach program
• Reaching ~300 young people per week through campus missionaries in local schools
• ~125 students have transitioned into attending Carmel Church, many bringing their families

The situation

Most churches will tell you the pandemic tested their giving. Carmel Church in San Diego was fighting something far heavier at the same time.

Nic Schneider, Operations Pastor, described what happened: “During COVID, our Lead Pastor was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We circled the wagons. We shut everything down.”

The church prayed. And their pastor recovered fully. Even his doctor told him, “You’re the best cancer patient I’ve ever treated. Whatever you’re doing, we need to tell other people to do it.”

But through months of uncertainty, shut doors, and a congregation holding its breath, one thing held steady: giving. Nic was direct about why: “One of the things that remained really strong through COVID and through his cancer battle was giving. It would not have stayed strong if it wasn’t digital through Pushpay.”

That’s not blind loyalty to a vendor. Carmel evaluates their giving platform every year. Nic said plainly, “If it wasn’t the best system, I don’t think we’d be using them still, because we do look at other giving solutions every year.”

The solution

Carmel Church uses Pushpay Giving as the backbone of their digital generosity. But what makes this story worth telling isn’t the platform itself. It’s what stable, frictionless giving made possible when the church was ready to dream again.

After their pastor’s recovery, Carmel’s leadership took a breath, then looked outward. And what they saw in their San Diego community was a generation of young people in crisis.

The church had been running campus clubs in local schools for twenty years, always fighting for permission to stay. Then COVID flipped the script. School principals started calling the church. Nic recalled the shift: “Principals actually met with our church and said, ‘Please, can you come to our campus? Can you come help? Because our counselors are overwhelmed and kids are really struggling.'”

Carmel took that message to their congregation and issued a bold ask: raise half a million dollars to fund a program called “Move Forward” that would put campus missionaries into middle and high schools from Mira Mesa to Rancho Bernardo.

The congregation said yes.

The results

The numbers speak for themselves.

What started as campus clubs that had to fight to stay open has become a program that schools actively invite. Parents and volunteers now partner with Carmel to keep it running. Students are being fed, mentored, and connected to a church community, many for the first time.

Nic framed the church’s philosophy simply: “The greatest thing is that we’re not trying to sell anybody anything. We’re trying to give people Jesus. So we want to use the best tools available to the utmost of their ability.”

And the ripple effect is still growing. Those 125 students aren’t just attending. They’re bringing their families. As Nic put it: “We’ve done that through Pushpay.”