How to Build a Fundraising App For Religious Organizations?

There are many good reasons to create a fundraising app for a religious organization. A fundraising platform can assist in updating your religious organizations by publicizing events and accepting donations online. 

Creating donation platforms for religious groups is now simpler than ever. You can use the instructions in this guide to make a useful app for your church’s fundraising efforts. Here we have also discussed the finest ways to solicit funds and implement those funds into your religious app. 

What is a Fundraising App?

To raise money for their causes, charitable organizations and churches might use fundraising apps. These campaigns allow them to solicit monetary contributions or tithes from online followers. Once downloaded and installed, these apps allow users to donate directly to the religious organization or churches of their choice from their mobile devices. 

There are built-in donation tracking and management capabilities in most fundraising apps. Additionally, some apps include specialized capabilities that go beyond the norm to aid your cause. Selecting fundraising platforms that lack the tools you need to increase donations is a bad idea.

How can a fundraising app help a Religious Organization? 

It is impossible to ensure either the reliability of an out-of-the-box solution or the depth of functionality in an app built with an app builder. The only option to maintain a high-quality user experience and provide users with what they need is to build a bespoke app. 

Let us examine the benefits that a church donation app can have:-  

 

1. Taking Conversations to the Next Level 

If church leaders and members are looking for a way to stay in touch and talk to one another, developing a church app is smart. In addition to delivering event invitations, the app may keep users abreast of recent church happenings. 

Furthermore, such apps bring the congregation together into a dynamic virtual community. They might allow you to carry on a conversation in the app or take you directly to the user’s social network profile. 

2. Broad Reach 

With the help of Church donation apps, people may easily and quickly have access to a wealth of religious content, including sermons, movies, and sacred texts like the Holy Bible, whenever and wherever they like. Clergy and religious leaders can spread the word of God to people worldwide using innovative OTT systems that provide high-quality video streaming. 

3. Secure Login 

The reality of the aftermath of the epidemic highlights the need for churches to become more adaptable and online. Pastors and priests can use church-giving apps to conduct services and meetings anywhere and whenever they would like, rather than being tied to a physical location. 

4. Donation 

One of the most practical ways to donate is through a mobile app. Church Donation apps could therefore incorporate a means of giving and allow members to spread the word about the app’s donation page via social media. 

5. Live Streaming 

Since there will always be people who are unable to physically attend events, the option to stream videos can be invaluable. In addition, research shows that 54% of Christian millennials watch religious or spiritually themed movies online. 

6. Charity and Volunteering 

One benefit of creating a fundraising app for a religious organization is informing the congregation of upcoming opportunities to give back to the community through volunteer work. Inviting more people to an event is aided by push notifications. The addition of an event photo archive complete with commenting capabilities and charitable giving options is also appropriate. 

7. Overcoming challenges Online 

Members of the congregation regularly share their struggles with one another and offer mutual support. Having a mobile app available can make this process much easier. Christian Web Trends revealed that 57% of users place significant importance on the ability to interact with others inside religious apps, with 75% ranking push notifications as a crucial component. 

These are just a few examples of the value of donation platforms for church apps designed specifically for your congregation. On top of the uses, databases can also be used for keeping church records, designing interactive elements for youngsters, etc. 

Read Also:- How to create a branded app for any membership

Step-by-step tutorial – How to Build a Fundraising App for Religious Organizations? 

The next step is to consider the major processes involved in creating a fundraising app for a religious organization. To simplify things, we have broken down the full procedure into a series of steps, and we will go through each in detail below. 

1. Contact App Development Organization 

Search for app development organizations and submit a request through the vendor’s website. Once the business development manager reviews your application, the organization will contact you to set up a meeting and discuss your app’s requirements. 

2. Discovery Phase 

During the Discovery phase, a business analyst will meet with you to learn more about your company, objectives, and project vision. At the end of the data analysis phase, the business analyst will draw a project specification outlining all the features and technology stack. Additionally, UI/UX designers build wireframes for each app screen. 

3. UI/UX Design 

Create full-fledged app mockups that reflect the final look of the app based on wireframes generated in the previous phase, project requirements, and modern UI/UX design methodologies. 

Keep in mind that your fundraising platform should reflect the surrounding area. Incorporating your church’s logo and colors is easy; just use the ones listed above. 

• Identifying information (name and logo) 
• Your organization’s graphics 
• Belief declarations 
• Sermons and other multimedia 
• holy book reading schedules 

The people who download your church-giving app should feel connected with your specific group, not with a generic one. 

4. Development 

Programmers take mockups and make them into a social networking platform. Sprints are periods of two weeks in which developers focus on building a certain feature of the website. Numerous approaches can be used at this point. 

5. DIY Construction Buzz 

To get an app out there, it can be tempting to work with a do-it-yourself builder. It means not having to look for and coordinate with a programmer. In addition to saving money and time, this method can produce an item more rapidly (depending on how complex the chosen tool is).

In my experience, these kinds of programs are useful for making prototypes to explore new concepts and get feedback. However, they do not provide the best results over time. You will be dissatisfied unless your software is basic and requires minimal tweaking.  

Most of the time, these tools need to generate the best code, which can affect performance. In addition, they are not always easy to keep up with. However, there are costs associated with avoiding a developer. Many times, customers come to us with a concept, only to find out that what they really needed was something else entirely. However, the thing is, you have no idea what you do not know. You may fill those blanks by teaming up with an experienced app developer. Plus, they can advise you on building a fundraising platform to be intuitive for the largest possible audience. 

What About Working with An Agency? 

So, what should you do instead of using an app builder to create your white label donation-tracking application? Contact some app creators! There are benefits to working with a company: 

1. Stay Focus 

Choosing this app development company helps address a need while allowing you to focus on improving your strengths. 

2. Bring Expertise 

You, like everyone else, need to become an expert on everything. Businesses only work with reliable providers who have the experience and skills to realize their goals. Given the rapid pace at which technology develops, outsourcing is frequently preferable. 

3. Share Risk 

Risks can be reduced by dividing them across multiple parties. Is your company preparing to embark on a potentially dangerous endeavor? Risk sharing might be beneficial when one vendor possesses the necessary skills and knowledge that the other lacks. The partnering company takes on some of the financial burdens in the event of a risky event. 

4. Free Time 

It is likely that everyone in your organization already wears several hats. In-house resolution of this issue may be challenging due to a lack of available resources. Hiring a company from the outside can free up your resources for more pressing tasks. 

Here at JumpGrowth, we employ Agile practices and the Scrum framework for our project management. Scrum facilitates our customers’ adaptability and allows them to respond rapidly to project changes. 

5. Maintaining High Standards of Quality 

It is not enough to have a wonderful app; it needs to be bug-free. Therefore, quality assurance (QA) engineers carry out tests to guarantee the church app functions as intended and conform to the testing strategy. If problems arise, they document them in the bug report and forward them to the programmers in charge of fixing it. 

6. Release 

The software engineers finalize the app for the church and make any necessary changes before it is released. After testing and polishing are complete, developers provide the final product to the customer along with any additional materials needed to complete the project.   

Which features should be included in your app? 

It is important to determine which functions will be necessary before beginning development on a bespoke fundraising app for a religious organization. As soon as you are satisfied, jot down every thought so you can give specific instructions to the firm developing your app. It will facilitate better memory and speed up the time it takes to build an app. Let us move on to discussing capabilities. 

Essential Functions for Fundraising platforms 

Let us look at the fundamentals of a parishioner-friendly church app: 

1. Details on a religious institution 

That should be the starting point for the app’s features. Details about the church’s past, present, and future can be shared with members. 

2. News 

The broadcast will keep the congregation informed about upcoming activities. Developers of church-specific apps can implement push notifications. 

3. Push Notification 

Churchgoers should be alerted to a critical development immediately. In addition, GEO fencing can be utilized to customize alerts based on a user’s physical location. 

4. Sacred Books 

There is a sizable audience for the Bible on tablets and smartphones. And your unique church app can give them just that chance. Not to mention, allowing for handwritten notes is a nice touch. 

5. Donation 

Financial support Donations are crucial to the success of any nonprofit. Donations are solicited at several church functions. If you want to make it easy for parishioners to contribute, you can notify them by email or text message when the opportunity arises. 

6. Social Network Integration 

At this point, you and other users of your church app solution can promote various events via social media. 

7. Media Library 

You may import films from sources like YouTube and Vimeo straight into your media library. Include audio sermons from iTunes or other audio retailers or make your own podcasts and downloadable audio files. 

8. Streaming 

Live broadcasts from your church app are possible thanks to services like Live Stream and Ustream. Those congregation members who cannot physically attend services or other events would appreciate this option for staying informed. 

9. Communication tool 

Users of your app may ask church personnel questions via chat, phone calls, or any other means you see fit. 

Read Also:- How To Build An App For Your Charity Organization?

Advanced Features of Donation Platforms for Religious Groups 

Additional features for the church donation app could include the following:-

1. Gallery 

With the built-in gallery, users can share photos from church activities and select images with encouraging words from the Bible or other religious texts. 

2.  Map 

Because of the difficulty of navigating huge churches without this capability, it is a must-have for churches with many buildings. An address alone is insufficient. Everyone who enters your building must know precisely where they are. 

3. The App’s Own Camera Function 

With this new feature, users will be able to capture images using the app’s camera and store them within the app itself. Customers can effortlessly share photographs taken during prayer gatherings with one another. 

4. Real-Time Metrics 

The app’s developer will be able to better understand its users’ preferences thanks to this function. The app’s success and global reach may also be monitored with analytics. 

Top Fundraising Platforms used by Religious Organizations? 

I do not know how to get started with online giving or even if that is your best option. For more information about online fundraising platforms that assist religious organizations, see the list below featuring six options.

1) Sodality

When it comes to church fundraising, Sodality is an all-in-one solution that offers a simple implementation and numerous appealing options. Sodality is trusted by over 50,000 organizations worldwide. Plus, there are no hidden costs, contracts, or initial or recurring payments. 

Sodality facilitates quick, simple, and secure online contributions to religious organizations. In just 4 simple steps, you can have a contribution form up and running on your website. 

Let us look at what makes Sodality the best church-donating app available. 

• Donors can designate which fund or project their gift will support, and members of the congregation can give in honor of or memory of a loved one.  
• Regular giving can be set up to collect weekly tithes and monthly, quarterly, and annual gifts.  
• Donations can be collected via text message, which is ideal for use during worship services. 
• Donors can choose to cover processing fees; donations can be made via Google Pay, Apple Pay, credit card, PayPal, and bank transfer.  
• Donations are acknowledged with automated receipts. 
• There are no setup fees, monthly fees, or contracts; a focus is placed on security and safety 

Sodality has provided religious organizations with the greatest donation online platforms for churches by providing innovative fundraising tools and a donor management system. 

2) PayPal 

Millions of people worldwide utilize PayPal, a prominent online payment provider. Despite being a reliable and popular choice, this has some significant limitations. 

To set up an account, for instance, you will need to reveal a lot of personal and company data, such as your SSN. Additionally, PayPal does not allow contributors to cover processing fees or set up recurring gifts. 

There are a few other drawbacks to using PayPal, some of them are as follows: 

There will be a transaction fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per donation if you use PayPal. Nonprofit organizations that meet the 501(c)(3) requirements can qualify for a lower rate of 2.2% + $0.30 per donation. Explore this page for further information.  

3) Tithe.ly

Tithe.ly is an online church-giving platform for religious organizations and charitable causes. Tithe.ly provides digital tithing options and integrations with Church Management Systems (ChMS). Moreover, developing a church-specific app is available as an add-on. These resources are not cheap, but they may be well worth the extra monthly cost for some larger churches.

4) Continue to Give

Churches, charities, and other organizations with a mission can use Continue to Give to accept donations online. They provide a church management system, a fund accounting system, and online giving capabilities. 

Unfortunately, Continue to Give has certain extra monthly costs for free things on competing platforms. Donors can choose to cover contribution processing fees or use the text-to-give feature. 

5) RebelGive 

RebelGive is an alternative to traditional online giving platforms for churches. Those looking for a no-frills option may find the platform’s fixed charge and straightforward design appealing. There are no hidden fees or extra costs while using RebelGive. 

However, RebelGive allows you to add a logo and choose a color scheme for your donation form. Therefore, churches that place a premium on individualization and uniformity of brand image may not benefit the most from this strategy.

6) Mogiv

To facilitate the collection of online church donations, Mogiv provides a cross-platform solution for NGOs and religious groups. Their goal is to strengthen the bond between nonprofits and the donors who support them. 

According to Mogiv, your church can start taking donations with their service in less than 24 hours. They are especially proud of its reporting features, which make it easy to access information like donation patterns, fresh donors, and average gift size. 

Want to make a Fundraising App for a Religious Organization? We are here to help you. 

Making an app for your nonprofit has several benefits, like boosting donations and productivity and providing more entertainment for donors and supporters. 

Creating this new software should be a thrilling and enjoyable experience; if it seems daunting, try to push through it. Do not hesitate to contact us and ask for assistance. 

With our extensive background, we can assist you in developing your ideal app and deciding precisely what needs to be designed to address your specific issues. We can assist you in any way, whether you need to increase functionality, streamline the layout, or accomplish the impossible. 

Read Also:- How do Nonprofits Make Money through Mobile Apps