Digital Strategy

Regular Giving One-Off Giving

Regular Giving One-Off Giving

Regular Giving One-Off Giving

Regular Giving One-Off Giving

Card readers – a national trial I’m going to talk - 5 min Trial headed up by Nick Jenni, National Procurement Officer and member of the National Stewardship Team. The aim is to eventually sell the readers on the Parish buying website. We’ve had a lot of coverage in the press – Financial Times front page Subsequently been in the Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail, and Church Times… You hopefully all received information from John or myself. We were overwhelmed with the responses from Parishes, and very grateful to the work you did in recruiting churches for the trial

My colleague Nick and I met with 4 companies. Chose two based on who came up with the best overall proposals, looking at usability and price Animate. With the huge response we had when we asked for volunteer parishes, we then decided to expand the trial to three companies. For the trial we’ve got 20 card readers for free from each company, so 60 in total. Normally a church will have to buy one – thye’re not expensive though, either £19 or £29 depending on which company. The only expense for parishes on the trial will be the transaction fees. They will loose a very small amount from each payment they take, between 0.8- 2%, depending on the type of payment. The transaction fees are usually higher but Nick did some good negotiating. Overall, the companies have made a big effort, offering the Church pricing between 45% and 55% lower than their published rate, through Parish Buying. The trial will probably run for 6 months in total, but will be broken down into different stages along the way. We may not continue with all three card reader companies after the first phase.

What is a card reader? The reader is a small device. It works alongside a smart phone or iPad. With Bluetooth. They are all slightly different, but basically the same. For SumUp, I would download the app onto my phone. Create an account for the church - categorised as a charity. Bank details are entered. I create products - £10 donation, £20 donation, can also put things like coffee, tea, wedding fees, concert tickets, with pictures. There is also the option to input the amount- specific donation or one-off price for something. When someone wants to donate, I would open the app, select what it is they want to pay for, then my phone will talk to the card reader using Bluetooth, The customer or donor can then either pay by contactless – tap their card onto the reader – or insert their card and type their pin into the reader. On my phone is then the option to send them a receipt either by text message or email.

Aims and Objectives How easy is the setup? How useful is the reporting? What does the church use it for? How do the different card reader companies perform? Feedback from the churches How easy is the setup? Is it easy to download the software Is it easy to set up the bank account (or in some cases multiple accounts) Are the instructions for using the card reader easy to understand? Is adding products easy? How useful is the reporting? For treasurers, is it easy to record the income? And to assign income to different accounts such as donations, fees, hall hire and so forth Does it help with enough information for Gift Aid purposes? Each company has slightly different ways of delivering the information. What does the church use the card reader for? The press we gained has talked mostly about contactless donations (Guardian article = ‘dig deep and beep’) actually potentially the most tricky way to use the reader. So, we’ll be asking if churches are using it for donations, how are they doing it? - More obvious ways to use the reader are for wedding fees, hall hire, perhaps concert tickets, cafes How do the different card reader companies perform? As already mentioned – 3 companies – SumUp, Square, and iZettle Which of them are willing to adapt their products for our use? Animate. Questions around Gift Aid. For any donations that are under £20 they can be counted in the Gift Aid Small Donations. But any above that amount at the moment it is looking to be an offline process to collect gift aid information – paper forms next to the readers Will any of the companies adapt their apps to include a Gift Aid declaration? If successful – sell card readers through Parish Buying, provide guidance on Parish Resources Sell card readers on Parish Buying website Provide guidance on Parish Resources website

How can you help? You can support and encourage those parishes who are taking part in the trial. Once we have the final list of churches, we’ll circulate it so you know who from your diocese is taking part. One of the creative aspects comes in if they are going to try and use it for collecting donations, how do they go about that? Animate These are some ideas for how to make a payments station visible, to create a donation station Will someone be stationed at the back of the church? They will need to be seen. I’ve already had conversations with some diocesan communications departments who have been approached by the local press – newspapers and radio stations – so your communications people might need your support too.

Alongside the trial of hand held readers, we are running a second trial for cathedrals and larger churches with a company called Goodbox. I don’t want to overload you with information about this second trial, and it’s still subject to agreement, but I think it’s important you are aware it’s going on.

If you’ve visited the Natural History museum recently you might have seen some large donation units. The plan is to trial the same model of unattended units in 8 cathedrals and two larger churches around the country. The Goodbox units are freestanding Each unit will be branded to suit the cathedral it’s placed in. They can be set for a standard amount or for self-service donations, and they shouldn’t need anyone to manage them to receive payments. They therefore suit places with lots of visitors who are not regular givers. If you’re wondering why we can’t place units in every church – the units are a lot more expensive to purchase and run than the hand held readers. We will roll out in 3 cathedrals at a time, starting in the summer, to give Goodbox the chance to learn as they go and to stagger the setup.

GoodBox is a start-up company, well-funded, and they’re very ambitious. They have come up with a line of suggested donation products for the church. If the trial of the large units is successful, the images will give you a rough idea of what may be possible in the not too distant future. We’ve often joked about the church collection plate with the contactless reader embedded, but it may not be so far away.