Make Easter Really Work for Your Church Giving

Easter Sunday is around the corner. Many people attend church just twice a year: at Christmas and Easter. Contrary to popular belief, though, Easter is the biggest single church giving day of the year, as attendance goes up 50% nationally. This is an even larger increase than Christmas (25%). So what does this mean for giving in your church?

Be prepared for spontaneous donations

The inspiration to give beyond tithes—and the size of gifts—will be shaped by the wonderful Easter experience you’ve planned. Be prepared to turn that inspiration into instant donations. When it comes to spontaneous, instant church giving, not all electronic options are created equal. Text-to-give codes are difficult to memorize, and donors don’t like long website donation forms that add unnecessary friction to giving.

The Givelify app was built specifically for moments like this. It’s the fastest, easiest, and most beautiful way to give spontaneously.

• Create a special Easter envelope in the Givelify app so you and your members can track Easter giving.
• Announce Givelify in your newsletters leading up to Easter and again during services. You can find a sample newsletter announcement here.
• Fundraise from right within your email newsletter and social media: include the Givelify online giving button in email communication, Facebook and Twitter.

Broaden support for special projects

Easter is less commercialized than Christmas. People tend to give more on Easter as they’re not spending such a large portion of their income on gifts and decorations. With more people in your pews, now is the perfect time to tap into their emotions. Let them know about a special project your church is working on like a mission trip, capital campaign, or a local community outreach program. Show your members a cause they’re passionate about, and they’re more likely to support it.

Here are some tips for creating awareness and excitement for these projects this Easter:

• Visuals and testimonials
  Anything you can do to connect with your members and make an emotional appeal will go a long way toward increasing stewardship. People will emotionally connect with photos from mission trips, renderings of a new church building, and video testimonials from lives that have been touched by your community outreach programs—and they will be motivated to support ongoing efforts.
• Launch a Givelithon
  After you’ve appealed to their emotions, launch a Givelithon. Show attendees real-time results of their generosity and they’ll be inclined to give more.

Turn visits into stewards

With the influx of visiting and infrequent attendees, Easter is a great time to re-introduce Givelify. While your regular worshippers already know about the joys of anytime, anywhere church giving, for others this will be a new concept. Use your increased attendance to help instill the spirit of giving wherever they are—even among those who might only attend twice a year.

You can also use the next couple of weeks to remind those members who will be traveling that they can still support your church even when they’re hundreds of miles away. While they will no doubt give to the church they’re visiting, they can make donations to their home church as well using the Givelify app.

Leave the record-keeping to us

Visitors might be hesitant to give because they won’t get a receipt. Let them know Givelify keeps track of all their donation records no matter where they’re giving, and access to those records is just a tap away in the app. Plus, Givelify automatically delivers an annual giving summary to each donor’s email inbox at the end of the year, so they don’t have to worry about tracking down their giving records.

Prepare for the summer slump

Not long after Easter, many of your members may be vacationing, staying home with the kids, or snow-birding, taking their offerings with them. Easter donations can help sustain you through the slow summer months–the dreaded Summer Slump.

Leveraging the increased attendance and giving of Easter Sunday can make a huge difference not just right now but for the coming months when donations are in short supply. This is another reason why it’s critical to stress church giving with Givelify.

More resources

If you haven’t yet introduced Givelify to your church or you have questions about how to make the most out of it, visit the Givelify Launchpad for more tips and resources to make the most out of Easter (and every other day). You’ll learn about including Givelify in your email newsletters and social media, find videos and even sample email and social media posts to share with your members, and much more.