You’ve heard about the benefits and value of mobile giving — how it tends to increase giving overall, how it benefits those in your church who aren’t present during the offering, and how it offers a higher level of convenience. However, something keeps holding you back.

You’re sold on the benefits, but you’re worried that implementing mobile giving in your ministry could bring safety concerns. Is it really as safe as people claim? The answer is yes. In fact, mobile giving is just as safe as buying groceries.

Groceries? Really?

Yes, groceries. Or golf clubs, or new dinner plates, or any tangible good that you would purchase using a debit or credit card. The vast majority of the risk people worry about in commerce is inherent to the method of payment.

The problem is just as much what you’re using as where you use it — whether that’s at the checkout line at the grocery store or on an app on your smartphone. In both cases, it all comes back to your credit or debit card.

So It’s My Credit Card’s Fault?

Well, not exactly. Credit and debit cards are generally very safe, and according to one industry player, no major credit card company has had a significant data breach. Using credit and debit cards at all does open you up to a small amount of risk, yet we all use them every day, and we rarely — if ever — run into security problems.

If you’re already using a credit or debit card in other areas of life, you have nothing to fear about using one for mobile giving.

How Much Safer is Mobile Giving?

By using mobile giving, your members will actually avoid many of the small risks attached to credit and debit cards completely:

1. No one can attach a skimmer to a smartphone.
2. Your smartphone itself is not at high risk of suffering a direct attack (especially if you use an iOS device).
3. Donations are made over a secure, encrypted connection.

Is My Information Really Safe?

Givelify works hard to keep all information safe:

• Secure Payment Processing: Givelify uses current, advanced fraud protection
• Enterprise Level Encryption: This is a big deal. Military-grade encryption standards mean your data is protected at point of collection, during transmission and while at rest.
• PCI Compliance: In partnership with Vantiv, Givelify’s payment processing is PCI-DSS-Compliant.

There’s more where that came from. In the end, mobile giving is actually safer than buying groceries! If you’ve been interested in mobile giving but holding out due to safety concerns, this should set your mind at ease.