No Cash? No Problem.
Walk into any church and ask this question of the people around you: "Do you carry cash?" For those who are younger than 40, I'm guessing you'll find that a large percentage either don't carry any cash--or they carry very little. I became more aware of this in a conversation a few months ago with a guy in the church. He loves the church, has been coming for several months, but never participates in the offering. He says, "It is always frustrating when the offering plates come around--I want to help the church, but I don't carry cash." I replied, "Well you know you can give online." And he says, "Yeah, but that means I need to remember by time I get home. If I don't do it right when I'm thinking about it, it's not going to happen. It won't cross my mind again until next Sunday and then I'll be frustrated again."
So this weekend we are introducing Giving Kiosks to our church at all sites. These kiosks (from SecureGive) look and work just like an ATM machine...except for one small difference: It doesn't dispense any cash. It uses your debit or credit card to make a donation to the church.
Currently about 18% of our total giving happens digitally (online). We are planning to increase this to 25% by year-end (and 33% within a year) through the addition of Giving Kiosks and a renewed emphasis for online giving.
Download funny audio file: Download Kiosk