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Today’s Role of Fundraising in Religious Organisations
October 2024
Fundraising is an ongoing and essential part of running a Religious Organisation.
Funds are used to support:
· Day-to-day operational costs
· Achieving the mission
· Buildings, renovations or expansion
The balancing act:
Finances vs Mission – Fundraising efforts need to align with the core values of your organisation and be in line with achieving your overall mission. An organisation could be criticised for being greedy, not spending wisely or making purchases that do not seem to align with their core mission.
This can be avoided by ethical transparency so donors can clearly see how their donations are being used. This also applies to reducing costs and making sound business decisions. A donation portal with strong reporting features is key to sharing the valuable contribution made by donors. Reports can be drawn up and the key successes of the marketing campaigns shared with the congregation through email, in person or a physical newsletter.
Encouraging Regular Donations in Religious Organisations
Communicating the impact is key – tell the story of how the fundraising campaign is going to impact your donors, others in the community and the benefit for the future.
The religious significance of giving – this is not only monetary. It can be acts of service or helping others.
https://www.ministrybrands.com/church-management/type-of-giving/
https://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/resources/knowledge-base/charity-in-islam/
Show how previous donations have helped to achieve updated or modernised areas for worship. Restoring ancient parts of buildings, paintings, stained glass or even hymn books.
Being open and honest about the financial situation to donors is crucial for them to feel part of the congregation. A culture of shared responsibility for maintaining buildings and traditions for the future instils a great sense of belonging.
Keep donors updated on progress – regular updates in person during gathering, email newsletters or parish news magazines are all great ways to show the progress with hitting fundraising targets.
Practicalities:
Recurring donations – offering recurring donations is a great way for donors to show support regularly without the need to keep cash or cards available each time they attend to worship or for an event.
Flexible amounts – Donors circumstances can change, they might be able to give a little and occasionally more, so being flexible in the options is essential.
Lots of ways to give – Contactless donations are a quick and easy way to donate to your Religious Organisation but you might also offer a webpage, direct debit or cash.
Gift Aid – Having contactless donations means it is so much easier to gift aid if your donor is a UK taxpayer meaning their donation is also worth so much more for the recipient.
How can Religious Organisations make it easier for people to donate?
Donation terminals – Using these by your church or mosque entrance is ideal. As your congregation arrives or leave, they can use the donation machines as they wish. There is no need to have staff on hand as the terminals have easy-to-follow instructions, and large fonts mean they are perfect for those with accessibility problems too.
Clear signage – Ensure your card machines are clearly visible and remind donors they are there after each service.
Full range of card options – sometimes you might use a credit card, another time a debit card, with online contactless donations you can choose your preferred card each time.
How does Dona Donations make it easier for Religious Organisations?
1.Open and transparent costs – easy to understand with no hidden extras. Each organisation has its own unique needs and demographic of donors. At Dona Donations we pride ourselves in working to meet your donors’ needs and show them how quick and easy it is to support your organisation.
2. Easy reconciliation and administration of donations through the online management portal. This saves time, makes charity staff more productive, and reduces the likelihood of theft or fraud.
3. The Dona Portal has features that allow charities to see graphs showing their total donations, count of donations and average donation by week/month/year. The graph below shows a breakdown of Gift Aided and non-Gift Aided donations. The graphs can also be filtered by device or fund.
4. Charities can see how much donors give to different funds/campaigns. A fund could be “Roof Repair” or “Priest Offering” – any cause the charity may collect for.
5. The portal also allows the option to download the full set of donation data to a spreadsheet, where charities can run their own analysis in Excel or import the data into a 3rd party analytics tool.
6. The “Donors Report” lists all registered donors (i.e. those who have registered for Gift Aid or registered to “keep in touch”), their emails and opt-in status and how much they have donated. This is useful for carrying out targeted campaigns.
7. Long-term relationships are vitally important to Dona Donations. Our Support is offered for the staff and volunteers who are using the terminals or management portal. The support team are UK based, passionate people looking to help raise donations for the organisations using the terminals.
Learn more about how Dona Donation can support your missions with contactless card donations for your religious organisation.