“I cannot enter any information about our church online,” said a pastor in the US.
You might hear that nonprofits and churches are getting better around tech adoption, but for most of them, it was more like one step higher rather than heading to the top. We believe in mobile adoption not because we are tech-centric, but because the younger generations are left out in the many impact-related businesses. The message of the day: “Younger donors need to help educate their church and nonprofit leaders about technology and their lifestyles.”
MercyWallet App is a sophisticated universal giving app made in Silicon Valley. It provides location-based and QR-Giving to help mobile-based donors to donate to churches, nonprofits, and at a fundraising event. The app was made in response to the unwillingness from many organizations to go mobile yet. The App will either send donations directly to a recipient’s bank account or deliver checks to non-registered organizations at a little cost. Our users are mostly Gen-Z, millennials, and older generations that somehow decided to try our app once and got addicted to it.
Gen-Zs are very energetic and have submitted multiple requests to list their churches, schools, or other nonprofits in our apps. Apple’s iOS App Review Guideline demanded that we are not to send donations for organizations that are not verified by Benevity.org. So, part of our business operation is to lobby and help nonprofits and churches to claim their page on causes.benevity.org.
Some dioceses and churches are still suffering from the terror of being sued and paranoid about security to the point that they do not trust Apple, Google, or Benevity. It is somewhat understandable. But the irony is they have decided to accept various online-givings, insecure website presence, and different other outdated IT solutions. How do we know? Because we’ve helped so many of them to get their IT right.
Quotes of the year when talking to nonprofits and churches on behalf of mobile donors have been:
1. I cannot enter any information about our church online, I can’t signup on any websites, including Benevity. — a remote church priest with a website.
2. We understand that donors want it and the situation, but we cannot let you know anything, including any updates, or the right person who can make a decision about this. — IT lead at a major Catholic Archdiocese.
Of course, there are thousands of other organizations that follow the tech need of their donors. They claimed their pages ways a long time ago. A few Google directors and employees in Sunnyvale spoke about the difficulties in asking faith-based organizations to adopt mobile giving. Usually, religious organizations are only moving forward when a crisis or large-amount of money involved; this is a sad but true reality of many organizations.
Does it mean that mobile-giving is too early? No! Big nonprofit enterprises and many leaders that are open about technology are already there, but it takes time to see nation-wide mass adoptions.
