Mobile Giving Apps

Mobile giving apps are good but have limited value.


They really "hit the big time" with the Haiti earthquake when tens of millions of dollars were raised. Since then, mobile giving has been mainstreamed into countless fundraising efforts: Japan tsunami, presidential campaign, Hurricane Sandy relief, etc.

• Here's the good thing about mobile giving apps: you get money pretty quickly
• Here is biggest negative: most apps have a cap of $10 per gift but some will go as high as $25. To my knowledge, at the present time no giving app has a "fill in the blank" amount to give. All have caps. One way around that is for people to give 10 times $10 - but that is a pain.

See these articles about the ups and downs of giving apps. Things may have changed since the articles were written, but I've not heard of any major changes.

• http://mashable.com/2010/02/04/non-profit-texting/
• http://www.asmallchange.net/text-to-give-pricing-costs/

SOLUTION: create a QR code that links to the giving site on your church's webpage. Print that code in your bulletin each week. Smart phone apps scan the QR code and links to the giving page on your website. Then people can fill in the amount of their choice (more than $10, I hope). Here is a link to a QR code generator (it's free).

• http://goqr.me/

Parting comments:

• The national fundraisers bring in the big bucks because of the size of their audience.
• Find ways for people to give what they want to give - not a token amount
• Don't leave money on the table - if all you're asking for is $10, you're leaving money on the table
• Don't train people to give $10 or $25 - from then on they'll think that's all it takes to run a church
• Ask some of your young techies in the church for ideas they've seen; they're more aware than most of us

Lead On!
Steve