Why Not to Use Other Online Giving Apps
We at Jewel Church Accounting System are aware that some churches are using peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps such as Zelle and CashApp to accept donations from their members. More recently, some are using online giving platforms like Tithely. However, there are some very real and important issues involved with substituting these apps for AdventistGiving, an app specifically designed for the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Please encourage your members to use the AdventistGiving app. Most donors, if they know what’s easiest and best for you, will be happy to switch.
While P2P apps do include an optional memo, they do not require donors to specify the funds they wish to donate to. This puts an extra burden on the treasurer to verify and track the donors' wishes, and opens the door for miscommunication, misunderstanding, and accusations of misappropriation. P2P apps are NOT designed for the purpose of making church contributions. For the protection of our Treasurers and Donors, we recommend that churches NOT use these apps.
Online giving apps are a definite improvement over P2P apps, since they require donors to specify the fund(s) they are donating to. However, the local church treasurer is responsible for setting up all funds, while AdventistGiving comes with all Conference Funds already set up, in addition to the common Local Funds, all arranged in a format that's easy for donors to use. Also, these apps charge fees which the treasurer must enter separately from the donations, while AdventistGiving is free to the local church. And other apps do not produce reports that can be imported into Jewel.
Only AdventistGiving is set up specifically for Adventist donations, automatically collects all the necessary information about the donation, and passes it on seamlessly to the Treasurer to be imported directly into Jewel, saving time and virtually eliminating mistakes and misunderstandings. Our advice is that Adventist churches use only the AdventistGiving app/website to receive funds electronically. We suggest that you periodically place the following or a similar announcement in your church bulletin to inform your church members:
Online giving: AdventistGiving is the official giving app of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Please make every effort to use this app for your giving, as it saves steps for you and your hardworking treasurer. AdventistGiving seamlessly transmits your fund designations and imports directly into our Jewel Church Accounting program, saving time, effort and errors in entering donations and maintaining church records. Use AdventistGiving, and your treasurer will thank you!
Here is a more detailed list of reasons why we do not recommend apps other than AdventistGiving:
Increases and Complicates the Work of the Treasurer
Accepting donations through other platforms greatly multiplies and complicates the work of the treasurer. Literally. Multiplies. We have seen situations where entering donations and reconciling takes many hours longer than it would have if the church was only using AdventistGiving. Most of our treasurers are volunteers, and unless your treasurer is keeping track of their hours, you will not know what you are asking them to do in exchange for the benefits of using these apps. We are very mindful of our treasurers' time, and will always advise against anything that makes their work harder or more complicated unless there are legal or policy reasons to do so.
Difficulty Finding the Next Treasurer
Finding, training and retaining a competent treasurer can be a challenge. In fact, we have yet to see a church that has a waiting list of potential treasurers. And the more complex the job, the harder it is to find someone to fill it. Multiple income streams mean more monthly online activity, more passwords, more manual data entry, more deposit entries at bank rec time, more details to keep track of, and more support time to fix it when errors occur (and they will). Even if the current treasurer is capable and agreeable, it may mean that finding a competent and available future treasurer may be virtually impossible. If your church ends up having to hire a treasurer to fill the position or pay them for the hours they spend, the extra app income might not even outweigh the cost.
Security Issues
Each new donor platform gives another outside entity access to your bank account. And this increases the potential for security issues. Data breaches are increasing in frequency. And since banks and credit card companies are, for the most part, good at identifying fraudulent charges and limiting the damage, it is not so much about risk of losing money to fraud as it is about the extra time and inconvenience when it happens. As more and more churches use debit and credit cards, the number of Adventist churches having to transition to new bank accounts because of fraudulent activity is increasing, and changing bank accounts midstream is not an easy task.
Data Entry Complications
What if your church receives a donation from “$greenfrog15” with no detail of tithe or particular offering? With some apps, it can be difficult to sort out who the donor is and where they want their donation to go. So your treasurer has to take time to track down “$greenfrog15” in order to properly enter the donation. Also, app donations must be entered into Jewel manually, which is tedious, and adds to the treasurer’s monthly load. (Remember, AdventistGiving is imported directly, requiring no data entry of individual donors and donations!)
Complicates Bank Reconciliations
Bank reconciliations can be daunting under the best of circumstances. With the extra deposits created on the statement by these apps, your treasurer can end up investing more hours than would normally be needed. And if mistakes are made, it can be many more.
Support Problems
If you have problems with a donation app, will there be someone you can contact for assistance? From our experience, it may take a while. Which can delay entering offerings and closing the month, to say nothing of the time on hold or spent creating emails. Some apps, like CashApp, offer very little or almost no support if problems arise.
Fees
Some apps may be free to non-profits, but most charge a fee of anywhere from 2-4% to process a donation. Unless the donor voluntarily pays this, it is probably going to be passed on to your church. All AdventistGiving fees are covered by the your conference, your union and the North American Division so the local church receives the service totally for free!
Counting the Cost of Access
We have heard it said by some that it is important to give donors access to giving in whatever way is easiest for them, and using various donation platforms accomplishes this.
Let's ask a question that may give some perspective on this. If the board decided that 24/7 access to your church building was all-important, and every time someone wanted to enter your building to pray they called the pastor, who had to drop everything or get out of bed and go unlock it for them, day or night, multiple times each week, how long would the cost of access seem all-important?
Your board will have to decide if easy access to various payment processing apps for donations is worth the cost to the treasurer. Once that door has been opened, it is rarely ever closed. And as more and more donors begin to use a certain app, then another donor asks to use a different app, and the board says “Why not, this seems to be working fine.” And before you know it, the treasurer is doubling or tripling their hours.
Our Jewel team has worked to support our treasurers during the ever-increasing technology demands of the last few years, many of which have been unavoidable, while also working to protect them from complications that are not absolutely necessary. We will always advocate for the treasurers, and in doing so, we are also advocating for your church’s future as well.
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