The first quarter of the calendar year is a busy time for church staff, especially in the development office. End-of-year and Christmas contributions are still being processed and recorded; in addition, some churches are kicking off the annual parish pledge campaign. Parishioners begin asking when their giving statements will be ready so they can file their taxes. To complicate matters, most bishops are launching their annual appeals and the day-to-day tasks of these appeals generally fall on the parish staff to manage.
With all of this activity taxing the church office already, no development director looks forward to receiving a phone call or email from a donor to report inaccuracies or ask questions about their giving statements. Taking early action by sending quarterly statements to donors for accuracy review can help mitigate seasonal chaos.
At ACS Technologies, we know how important donor relations are for our ministry partners, which is why our software offerings make it possible to quickly generate giving statements whenever you need them. Realm goes one step further, allowing community members to download their giving history at any time–no need to call the church office! Even better, you can save the paper and postage costs by emailing these statements directly to donors with just a few clicks.
With churches and their ministries being heavily dependent on parishioners’ generosity, the giving statement is a powerful tool for ensuring positive donor relationships. When paired with a letter of thanks from the pastor, these statements can often build vital trust and transparency between church staff and the congregation. They help ensure that donor intentions are honored and data entry errors are caught, saving time and stress later.
How often is your development office sending giving statements?
For additional information on giving and growing giving, please visit Church Growth.
A cradle Catholic and former pastoral staff member with the UNC Newman Catholic Student Center Parish, Kaitlin understands the challenges our ministry partners face every day. 4 years of utilizing Realm to overcome those challenges inspired her to join the ACS Technologies family in 2020. As a Market Strategy Analyst for the Catholic market, she draws on her “church lady” experience to address our Catholic clients’ unique needs.
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