How to Digitally-Transform Your Place of Worship’s Finances

Digitally collecting tithes, offerings, and donations is a smart move that all places of worship can make. Not only is it easy to set up and inexpensive (or free!), it opens the door for new opportunities for giving. While a collection basket may still be valuable and symbolic, it's essential to give digitally-savvy parishioners a unique and simple way to donate.

What's the best way to collect money digitally for churches?

There are so many different donation methods out there, so it's crucial to think about how your parishioners want to donate. Most are happy to give — they just don't carry cash or checkbooks wherever they go. Therefore, an online platform may be the best way to go. According to Vanco Payments, churches that accept tithing online see a 32% rise in overall donations — and 71% of Millennials and 89% of Gen Z report having donated through online giving.

Churches and places of worship need one central and dedicated place to collect money for tithes and offerings, mission trips, service projects, church fundraisers, repairs, supplies, and more. That's where Pool comes in — it's a safe and secure way to pool money and allow your congregation to donate online quickly.

Here's how Pool works in a few easy steps:

1. Sign up at Poolmoney.com
2. Create a Pool dedicated to your place of worship
3. Invite church staff, volunteers, or contributors to join the Pool.
4. Once they've signed up and joined, they can contribute directly from their linked bank accounts.
5. Spend from the Pool — fund church events, repairs, service projects, mission trips, and more directly from the Pool

Now, let's cover some specific ways where Pool can come in handy for your place of worship's operations and financial goals.

Easily collect weekly church tithes & offerings

Regular donation collections are often called tithes. Most churches promote tithing, whether it's a percentage of an individual's income or a set donation dropped in a basket passed around during the service.

Collecting church tithes and offerings is something your church's staff does every week. And in the case of Sundays or important holidays, depositing cash and checks can be a cumbersome, time-consuming, and overall inefficient way to fund your church.

Churches are increasingly looking for digital ways to organize contributions and manage shared funds. With Pool, church leaders can create a dedicated Pool for tithes, offerings, or ministry initiatives and invite trusted members to participate.

Once members have signed up and joined the Pool, they can contribute directly from their linked bank accounts. Contributions are organized in one place, making it easier to track activity and manage church-related expenses.

Transform the Church Treasurer role to digital using Pool

The role of the Church Treasurer revolves around helping the church maintain a solid financial footing. Here are a few of the responsibilities of a Church Treasurer:

• Collecting weekly tithes: Tithes are usually collected through a basket passed around during the service or online.
• Donation receipts: Some churchgoers donate through checks and need receipts, so it's the role of the Church Treasurer to prepare them.
• Money handling: Any handling of money, especially cash, is usually done in the presence of another person, such as a Deacon. Then, they must deposit cash into the church's bank as soon as possible.
• Bank reconciliation: Bank reconciliation is key to financial accuracy, so Church Treasurers must do bookkeeping tasks regularly.
• Payroll: Church Treasurers often handle payroll for the church's full-time or contract employees. They also need to handle reimbursements for things like mileage or supplies.
• Fundraisers: Many places of worship have a fundraising chair, but Church Treasurers are still heavily involved in important fundraisers. They mainly help with planning, budgeting, money handling, and depositing.
• Financial reports: Church Treasurers are typically responsible for running financial reports detailing expenses and income, as well as budget presentations.
• Taxes & year-end: The Church Treasurer is in charge of arranging audits, preparing tax forms for employees, providing tax statements to donors, and submitting statements to the IRS.

As you can see, there are a lot of tasks on the Church Treasurer's plate. Using a platform like Pool helps to streamline financial operations and digitally transform the role of Church Treasurer for 3 reasons:

1. One central place to gather contributions Members who have joined the Pool can contribute funds directly from their linked bank accounts. That means all your Millennial and Gen Z members who don't carry around cash or checkbooks can easily donate to the Pool, straight from their phones.

2. No more tiresome reimbursements Church staff members can easily use Pool to spend from the Pool instead of gathering receipts and requesting reimbursements. Church Treasurers will spend less time paying staff members back for supplies, repairs, fundraising efforts, and more.

3. Set permissions and roles within the Pool Assign admin roles and permissions to staff members within the Pool. For example, you can assign an admin position to the Fundraising Chair to make purchases for fundraising events straight from the Pool.

Raise money for church fundraisers

Churches thrive on fundraising events. Whether it's silent auctions, direct mail appeals, bake sales, or community events, fundraising is essential for a church's operations. Here's how to set up your fundraiser using Pool:

1. Create a Pool for the fundraiser — Add a name, photo, and a brief description of your Pool
2. Invite churchgoers, volunteers, and fundraising team members to join the Pool so they can contribute and participate according to the permissions you assign.
3. Collect contributions and pay for future church-related purchases directly from the Pool.

What makes Pool different from other online donation platforms?

Other money collection platforms have long setup processes, high transaction fees, and rigid recurring donation options. They also tend to be slower to receive the funds. All in all, other platforms provide a more disjointed donation experience, with the place of worship having to foot the bill for processing fees.

None of those issues are relevant when you use Pool to collect contributions. Pool's services have no fees, so your church won't be charged processing fees when you collect money from parishioners. It also has no cap on donations, and setting up a Pool account takes minutes. If you're looking for an easy tool to collect contributions for church expenses, look no further than Pool.