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Backstage Pastors - Bringing Vision Into Reality
generosity resources

Eight Practices For Effective Online Giving

Eight Practices For Effective Online Giving

I’ve spent a lot of time on church websites recently. Like, dozens of hours on hundreds of websites! Along the way, I noticed some trends about online giving. Having grown by 21% in 2020 alone, this is an area of leadership that deserves our full attention. Here are eight online giving practices that effective churches are doing right now. 

  1. The giving link must be easy to find. In the early days of the internet, churches were hesitant to put a big clear “GIVE” link at the top of their website. It felt too pushy. But as online giving grew to 40%, 60%, even 80% in some churches, and web developers started looking deeply at the pages on your site that people actually spend time on, they made an interesting discovery. Lots of people are just clicking around until they find the giving page. They also discovered that when you make the online giving button easy to find, overall giving goes up! The great thing is that many online giving platforms will work with you to add a giving button to your site. 
  2. Cell phones must be considered first.  If you only check how your giving link looks on your nice 15-inch MacBook Pro, you are serving less than half of your people. That’s because nearly 55% of all web traffic happens on mobile phones these days. Most websites built today look different based on the device you are on. That beautifully planned out menu structure sprawling across the top of a computer screen becomes . . . a hamburger style menu in the top right corner on a cell phone. And that shift in screen size requires that hard decisions be made. This is not the time to relegate the GIVE button to a sub menu. Even on the smallest iPhone, GIVE should require one click only. If I have to scroll or search, my likelihood of giving goes down. I wanted to give, truly! I just couldn’t figure it out, so I gave up and figured I’d ask someone later. But then I never did. And then three months passed by. 
  3. Have a “text-to-give” option and make it memorable. I like to start with the end in mind, and often the end is the ‘out loud communication’. So, it’s the end of your Sunday gathering, and the Executive Pastor is doing announcements today. The “offering moment” comes and he does a great job communicating the churches values and vision and celebrating generosity. And then he says, “and if you want to learn more about giving here at our church, just go to this website, click on giving, scroll down, etc. etc. etc.”. You’ve lost them. But if instead you can just say “and if you want to learn more about giving at our church, just text this word to this number”.  Done. Any online giving platform worth a look is going to have a text-to-give option. Usually, you can work with the company to choose what word people will text to give. This choice is critical because lots of people are going to be saying it from the stage all the time. So if you choose “rvr_church.give” and you have to explain what an underscore is, and that it’s like River, with the vowels taken out because the creative team rebranded last year and apparently vowels aren’t cool anymore. Well, you just lost people again. But if you can say “just text thisisriver to 797007” then people can actually remember that and do it. So, brainstorm some ideas, practice them out loud, make a wise choice up front. 
  4. Communicate your generosity language on your giving page. So, once people get to your giving page online either through the website directly or via text, what will they find? If it’s just a place to fill in data on ACH or credit card, you’ve missed an opportunity to share your heart. Don’t make the long-time giver dig too much, but at the same, don’t miss the chance to reinforce the language that your church uses to talk about generosity. A simple phrase like: “Here at River Church, we believe that giving should be . . .” A small amount of carefully crafted text is the minimum, but you could also consider a very brief 60-90 second video of a Pastor sharing the heart behind giving at your church. Not everyone will click on it, but those who do will really appreciate it and have a better sense of the big picture. 
  5. Link to your most recent teaching on giving. Most generous churches are doing some kind of giving sermon once a year or so. Often, the teaching pastor will put a ton of effort into crafting that language well because (truth be told) many pastors are a bit nervous about the generosity and stewardship sermon. Why let all that work get buried in the sermon archive? Take the YouTube or Vimeo link and get your web person to drop it right onto the giving page with a sentence above it that says, “Here is our most recent sermon length teaching on giving if you’d like to go deeper”. This is especially helpful for the new people at your church, and even more so if they came from an unhealthy giving culture. 
  6. Make it clear where people can go to ask questions. Often, the giving page isn’t just for giving. It’s also where you post last year’s annual report, or you talk about the one-story campaign that you are in the middle of. If your people have a question about how the finances work at the church, they are likely to check the giving page for follow up info. All you need here is one sentence like: “If you have further questions about the financial side of our church, just email . . .”. The interesting thing based on my experience is that hardly anyone will ever actually email that person with questions, but the very offer of a follow up method demonstrates transparency and gives people peace of mind. BTW, the follow up contact person should be someone who has a clear and detailed handle on how the churches finances are being stewarded and be a strong enough communicator to explain it well to someone. 
  7. Integrate online giving into your church management software. Again, any online giving platform worth a look will be well informed on how to have online giving talk to whatever platform you use for your database, kids check-in etc. This will make generating giving statements way easier throughout the year. Fair warning, this can get a little snarly on the back end as you try to make various things work together. Before you sign up with an online giving platform, find out what kind of tech support is included during the implementation phase and beyond. Trust me, you’ll have questions. 
  8. Finish well and thank the donor. After a person completes an online donation, what happens next? If it ends with “Your transaction has been processed”, you’ve just missed a massive opportunity to express thankfulness and remind them what they just gave towards. In most cases, a good online giving platform will have customized options available for the confirmation text or email. The person who set up the online giving may not think to tell you that you have options to make it a little more warm and fuzzy. So make sure you ask “How much space do we have for text to include in the thank you? Could the thank-you be a 30 second video from the Pastor that is embedded in the email? Could the creative people make a new video once or twice a year talking about recent ways that your generosity is having an impact?” This is a moment where you want to make sure you really get the language right. It’s the last thing your people experience after having just taken a step of faith with their finances. Make it a good moment that strengthens that faith and points them to a greater dependency on the cross of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

by Phil Taylor

Phil’s life mission is to help bring vision into reality. He’s spent 20 years serving the local church in Executive and Lead Pastor roles of all sizes while simultaneously serving Pastors around the country through leading cohorts, individual coaching and teaching at conferences. He is the author of Defining The Executive Pastor Role and Eldership Development: From Application to Affirmation. Phil can help you call your people up to a higher level of engagement with a lifestyle of generosity. Email him at phil@elevategroup.us 

This Article originally appeared on ElevateGroup.us

November 22, 2021by Phil Taylor
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Audio Resources

Interview on “The Common Good” show.

Recently, my friend and fellow author Aubrey Sampson asked me to be on her radio show in Chicago called “The Common Good”. Yes, people still listen to the radio! I got to talk about the importance of generosity in the church and the importance of cultivating a generous lifestyle personally. I had exactly 9 minutes! And the producer for the show let me know that it would air at exactly 4:19PM. (Man, live radio is stressful!). If you feel like listening to my rapid fire interview, you’ll find it here. And if you’ve never seen Aubrey’s books, you should look her up on Amazon! Enjoy!

November 12, 2021by Phil Taylor
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Building Projects

Executive Pastor Thwarts Hacker From Stealing 300K

Recently, I was on a coaching call with a great Executive Pastor that I have the privilege of coaching. He’s working on a building project for his church and as such, he’s moving a lot of money around. 300K almost got moved into a hackers account!

At the end of our coaching call, I said “Hey, can we take 5 minutes and record this story? I want to share it with others so they can learn from you.” I hit record on Zoom. Please forgive the bad lighting and productions skills. This is just meant to be a quick thing to help you out.

August 23, 2021by Phil Taylor
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News

Phil’s New Job

Hey friends, I wanted to share some big news in our family and my work, and I’d love to frame these changes in the bigger context of a couple decades of ministry. Skip to end if you don’t feel like reading it all. I posted a shorter version of this on Facebook and Instagram, but I felt like my blog gives me the freedom to unpack things a bit more for those who might care.

Not long after finishing seminary in 2002, I remember sitting in my new church office in upstate NY where I was serving as a Lead Pastor at the time and coming to the realization that I might be in the wrong role. That maybe, ‘Lead Pastor’ was not the right seat on the bus for me, at least at that time. Over the next six months, I spent a lot of time praying, seeking wisdom, and getting input from others. I felt like God slowly but clearly revealed my life’s mission saying “Your job—for the rest of your days—is to help others in the church bring vision into reality”.  That new life mission ultimately led us out of that great church (King’s Chapel) as we helped plant Terra Nova Church in New York’s capital region. Those 9 years as the Executive Pastor with that team were an absolute blast, as together, we saw vision become reality at our church as well as in the northeast region for Acts 29 Network. 

And then that season at Terra came to an end through super clear guidance from the Holy Spirit (I have a whole sermon about it) that ultimately led us to central Florida where I became the Executive Pastor at Mosaic Church and began helping a growing team bring vision into reality. What a wild and action packed ride these last 8 years have been. I will always look back at the projects I got to be involved in with great fondness. But more importantly, each of those projects involved an incredible team of people for whom I was deeply privileged to work with and will miss greatly. 

Now, as our 8 years at Mosaic come to an end, and I round the corner on two decades of serving on staff in local churches, I’m excited for this new season of helping lots of church leaders bring vision into reality throughout the country as I join the team at Elevate Group! For the last 20 years, I’ve given the bulk of my efforts to one church at a time, and then served other churches with my leftovers. Now, I get to the bulk of my time into all sorts of churches and I can’t wait to do so.

I first met Chris Willard, (co-founder at Elevate) in 2015 when we brought him in to help with a major new initiative at Mosaic. Along the way we became great friends and I guess it was only a matter of time before we started working together in a more formal capacity. He and Greg Morris’s new organization is already having a massive impact on churches all over as they help “increase engagement and multiply results”. In so many ways, their companies mission aligns so clearly with the calling language that has guided me personally—“helping bring vision into reality”. This is really just the next step in that journey.

As a side note, I’m equally excited for the freedom this work will give me to put even more time into some of the other ways that I have loved serving pastors, leaders and churches in the last few years. If all goes according to plan, I’ll eventually find myself putting about 60% of my time into helping churches work through Generosity issues for major initiatives, building campaigns, or just looking deeply at their overall approach to giving. I’m committed to putting up to another 20% of my time into coaching Executive Pastors. In the past I’ve always had to limit the amount of time I invested in that to balance it out with my main church job. And the last 20% of my work time will hopefully find a home on the pages of new book projects I’m dying to work on as well as short articles here and there that benefit the church at large. My wife Aimee also has some ministry goals and I want to press into some of those dreams for the future. Stay tuned for more on all that down the road. 

If you read this far, thanks! Please pray for us. This has been a crazy year for sure, but this new step of faith feels really right for Aimee and I at this time and it flows out of many months of prayer.

August 5, 2021by Phil Taylor
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Leadership General

Executive Pastor Coaching with Phil Taylor

For many years, I’ve had the privilege of coaching Executive Pastors who were new to the role, or just needed a second set of eyes during a season of personal growth. I’ve also helped a number of pastors during a construction project. With a heart for new church planters, it’s been my privilege to find ways to provide this coaching to you for practically free. For others, I’ve offered myself up at a nominal cost to offset the time borrowed from my family. Since coaching is not my main gig, I’ve been able to provide Executive Coaching for much less than those who do it full time. If this is something you are interested in pursuing, keep on reading and then reach out to me. It would be my privilege to help you grow in your ability to lead your church and staff well. Send additional questions or customized requests to backstagepastors@gmail.com. 

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July 22, 2021by Phil Taylor
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Courses and Workshops

Building Your Eldership Development Process-Starting August 18th

So you’ve read my book on Eldership Development. Maybe you even read a few other books on Elders in the church. They sit nicely on your shelf but you haven’t yet built out your churches process for Eldership Development? What happened? You got busy. You hit a wall. You had too many unanswered questions. Coronavirus happened. I get it. Sometimes, we just need a little extra push and a little extra coaching along the way.

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July 10, 2020by Phil Taylor
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Measuring ROI

New Dissertation on Executive Pastors Impact on Church Performance

Last year, I took part in a students academic research on the correlation between the presence of an Executive Pastor and churches success. I recently received a copy of that research and wanted to share it more widely. With the authors permission, enjoy this well researched document. You’ll find it at this link below. Enjoy!

BOSCH_L29456821_Dissertation_Signed

July 2, 2020by Phil Taylor
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Ministry Ideas

Three-Year Bible Reading Plan

Have you ever tried to read the Bible in a year? How’d that work out for you? I tried it once. I got behind after a few weeks, got discouraged, and stopped. Then I found a two-year plan. I stuck with that one a little longer, but still found that it left little time to wander into other passages that were not in the plan. Finally, I decided to look for a three-year plan and I’ve been doing it for almost ten years!

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May 5, 2020by Phil Taylor
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Leadership General

A Year In The Life Of Staff Development

Recently, I was asked to describe briefly what staff development looked like at our church. After taking a few minutes to sketch out a response it seemed like something that might benefit others so I took a little more time to do this well. I don’t believe this is perfect. I’m sure that there is more that I could and should be doing, or things that I could be doing more effectively, but here is what it looks like in general right now. I’m 100% sure it will change. Here is a year in the life of staff development for me at Mosaic Church . . .

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April 20, 2020by Phil Taylor
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Executive Pastor Leadership

What Type of Executive Pastor Are You?

Throughout my years in the Executive Pastor role, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know many of my peers in ministry. At the risk of oversimplification, I have noticed that most XPs (shorthand for Executive Pastor) fall into one of two categories.

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March 10, 2020by Phil Taylor
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Ministry Ideas

Can You Practice Silence and Solitude with 1200 people?

Recently, I had the opportunity to preach the sermon in between Christmas and New Years. One of our pastors refers to this as “Youth Pastor Sunday” and there is some truth to the fact that it is rarely the Lead Pastor preaching that week. At Mosaic, we tend to take turns doing it and let’s be honest, nobody really wants to do it. While everyone else is enjoying some extra time with their families at the holidays, the person who draws the short straw has to be prepping a sermon. So, since I knew that I’d be doing this particular Sunday a couple months in advance, I started my prep early and I did something really different. I attempted to practice silence and solitude in a room full of people. And it actually worked rather well!

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January 11, 2020by Phil Taylor
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Elder Development

Teaching on Elders from 1 Peter 5:1-5

Recently I taught our church on the subject of Elders from 1 Peter 5:1-5. As someone who has written a book on developing Elders, this is a topic that is close to my heart. I share this sermon with you in hopes that it might benefit your church somehow. I’m also totally willing to send you my manuscript if you email me for it. backstagepastors@gmail.com

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July 11, 2019by Phil Taylor
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Church Planting

Five Systems Every Church Planter Needs

(This article is essentially the session notes from a breakout session I did at the “Advance The Church” conference in November 2018 in Huntsville, Alabama. As soon as the audio is available, I’ll update this post. Come to ATC 2019, our church in the Orlando area is hosting the next one!)
Let’s be honest, the typical church planter is not known for being a systems thinker. You’ve got a great vision. You know exactly what you hope your church will look like. It’s all there in your mind. And if you think it’s going to just happen naturally, you are wrong. As organic and free spirited as you might be, a few systems are non-negotiable. Let’s talk about five of them. 1. Communication Systems 2. Connection Systems 3. Leadership Systems 4. Reputation Systems 5. Soul Care systems.

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November 11, 2018by Phil Taylor
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Ministry Ideas

When A Mini-Series Has Maximum Impact

We recently finished a four week series at Mosaic called “Only Jesus”. In the early planning stages, it was a catch all for a few different things we wanted to unpack with our church. But then it morphed into an incredibly succinct look at what our church is all about. As the communications team joined together with the teaching team to hear from our Lead Pastor on his heart for the series and discuss the felt needs of a congregation whose collective head was spinning from rapid growth, we began to brainstorm on the story that threaded it all together. Pretty soon,

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October 4, 2018by Phil Taylor
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Communications

Building a Video Set On The Cheap

We have some pretty talented story tellers at Mosaic in the area of video. Recently, we tasked them with creating some new videos to use in our Chapter One Class (for new people at Mosaic). It involved a lot of filming over multiple weeks in an effort to catch multiple staff and congregants. As such, it made sense for them to build a little film set that we could use for this and other projects down the road.

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October 1, 2018by Phil Taylor
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Recent Posts

  • Eight Practices For Effective Online Giving
  • Interview on “The Common Good” show.
  • Executive Pastor Thwarts Hacker From Stealing 300K
  • Phil’s New Job
  • Executive Pastor Coaching with Phil Taylor
  • Building Your Eldership Development Process-Starting August 18th
  • New Dissertation on Executive Pastors Impact on Church Performance
  • Three-Year Bible Reading Plan
  • A Year In The Life Of Staff Development
  • What Type of Executive Pastor Are You?

MEET OUR WRITERS

Phil Taylor

My name is Phil. I am the Executive Pastor of Leadership and Development at Mosaic Church in west Orlando, FL where I live with my wife and three kids. I’m into running and kayaking.

Antone Goyak

My name is Antone. I serve as the Executive Pastor at Redemption Hill, a gospel-centered church in Kingsford, MI. I am happily married and have three kids and grandson. I love to mountain bike and backpack.

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