If you have ever gone to a church service on a Sunday morning, you are familiar with the passing of the collection plate. Regardless of how much you could give, you were encouraged to put at least something in the plate. However, churches may need more than what they collect after a service. How can they utilize apps for donation purposes?
Apps Can Help People Find Ways to Find Spare Money
An app called Charity Miles allows an individual to earn a donation in their name each mile that they exercise bike, run or walk. A church may wish to use that specific app or create ways in which residents can find sponsors to make donations for similar types of efforts. This can encourage healthy living within a local area while helping the church earn money to send to a disaster area or to help rebuild a home in town.
Apps Allow Donations Without Making Purchases
Let’s say that your are running a bake sale or some other event to raise funds for a church. There may be people who want to donate but can’t because the line to buy a cookie or to sign a silent auction sheet is too long. With the Venmo or Paypal app, it may be possible to let donors send money to your charity without having to make a purchase. It also gives the church an opportunity to keep track of who has donated and how much each donation was.
Apps Allow for Social Sharing
Almost all charity apps allow individuals to either spread the word about a fundraiser or to spread the word about their donation. Social sharing may help raise more money because it will increase the number of people who hear about it. It may also help increase the amount that a person is willing to donate because he or she can brag to their social circles about how great their donation was.
Use Apps to Collect Data for Future Use
Getting the names and email addresses of your owners makes it easier to determine who your core donor is. Having the email addresses of your donors allows a church to compile them into a list, which makes it easier to spread the word about a future fundraiser. Typically, those who are willing to give their personal information are more likely to be interested in giving. Therefore, those are the people who a church would want to target first.
You Don’t Need to Be a Technology Buff to Make an App
Going to websites such as the one for InspireHub may help you create an app for your nonprofit. Using mobile apps for charity may be a great way to keep a project organized or allow for a free flow of information from department to department within the nonprofit. This allows churches to keep track of how much they are taking in, what their expenses may be and how they can keep donors motivated going forward.
Churches run almost exclusively from donations that they receive from the general public. Therefore, it is critical that they understand how to maximize their fundraisers and other efforts to acquire money. Through the use of a mobile app, it may be possible to engage the community in ways that best fit the needs of those who want to give.
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