Tithing
for the
21st Century
& the
“New Normal”
than credit cards, as credit card donations can cost 3%-5% of the
donation amount to process.
This last point is a big one. Essentially, instead of processing
the payment from a credit or debit card, you’re going through the
giver’s bank and withdrawing the gift as a direct payment from their
account. How does that work? Smith breaks it all down for listeners
in the webinar.
“We have trouble sometimes explaining the ‘how,’ so we created a
slide as an easy way to try to tell you how ACH — and how tithing by
ACH — works,” Smith said. (See below) “You can get this started by
talking to your bank. If you already have a payment processor who
does some of these online donations for you by card, you can talk to
them and start doing some ACH.”
Many church leaders are facing a unique challenge in this new
decade: how do you maintain giving when a global pandemic has
church attendance at an all-time low?
Because we live in the digital age, however, church members have
access to more giving options than ever before. Technology — like
automated clearing house [ACH] payments — makes it possible to
keep giving levels consistent, even in these uncertain times.
How can ACH benefit your church?
To find out, Church Executive recently
partnered with Brad Smith, the Senior Director
of Industry Verticals at Nacha, and Debbie Barr,
the Senior Director of ACH Network Rules,
Process and Communications at Nacha, to host
a webinar: “Tithing in the 21st Century & the
‘New Normal.’”
In it, Smith and Barr explain the data revealing
how ACH benefits churches, how tithing with
ACH works and how to get started, and messaging
tools to encourage your members to start giving
via ACH.
Barr starts off the presentation with some
background information on Nacha, the
private sector rule-making organization that
administers the ACH Network. Nacha came
together nearly 50 years ago when several
regional payments associations joined to create
a national network covering the entire United
States. In 2019, the ACH Network processed
nearly 25 billion payments with a value of more
than $55 trillion — which amounts to roughly
100 million transactions daily. ACH is a payment
method popularly used by businesses, customers,
and even the government, according to Barr.
So what can using this form of payment for
gifts do for your church? Here’s some data to help
answer that question:
Brad Smith, AAP
Sr. Director, Industry
Verticals
Nacha
[ www.nacha.org ]
Debbie Barr,
AAP, CTP
Sr. Director, ACH
Network Rules, Process
and Communications
Nacha
[ www.nacha.org ]
• Research shows that 49% of all church giving is done by card online.
• ACH donors make an average of 8.2 donations, compared to 3.5 donations
by those who use other payment types in a 12-month period.
• ACH donors give more than double ($1,700 versus $650) in a 12-month
period than those using paper check, credit card, or other means.
• 71% of ACH donors authorize automatic donations on a set schedule;
compare this to only 9% of donors using other payment types.
• Members who donate electronically give more per person than those
who give via the offering plate. During a recent Sunday service, the
average check was $235. Of those who gave electronically, the average
donation was $347.
• Donations made via ACH are more cost-effective for your organization
This slide from the webinar presentation uses an example to illustrate the steps
taken to get the money from a giver’s account to the church via an ACH payment.
Barr and Smith encourage you to reach out to your bank or payment
processors and set up ACH so that your church can become another
success story like the two organizations discussed in the presentation:
Mission Hills Church and Capital Public Radio. Both saw significant
increases in donation amounts and frequency after implementing ACH
as method of giving.
Once you’ve made this method available to members, the next step is
to encourage them to sign up for ACH. Barr and Smith discuss how you
can direct your messaging to make that happen. They also discuss a free
toolkit you can access at ACHgiving.org, a website created by Nacha to
help you understand and explain the benefits of ACH for giving.
To learn more, view the webinar on the Church Executive website at
www.churchexecutive.com/webinars.
— Reporting by Skylar Griego
Questions?
Readers ask, experts answer.
How do I, as a church, approach my payment processor or bank to get ACH
offered as a giving option?
Debbie Barr: Basically, every financial institution in the country
has the ability to offer ACH, and many payment processors do also. But
it's not always the first choice they offer, so you’ll want to contact your
relationship manager — whether it's your financial institution or your
payment processor — and ask if ACH is an option they offer. If so, ask how
you can work with them to get set up for it.
How long does it usually take to get ACH started in a church?
Barr: It varies greatly depending on how much work your church
does ahead of time to prepare. How much communication is happening,
not only internally with your admin staff and your accounting staff, but
also, how much communication you do with your members to get them
thinking about it.
If you’re doing all that, the process can go very quickly once you reach
out to your payment processor or financial institution.
26 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | JULY / AUG 2020