Today I am pleased to introduce you to Tithe.ly and Dean Sweetman. Many of you know, I’ve pastored a church for years. We were early adopters of online giving because I knew people should be able to give when they were doing bills at home if they wanted. I wish there had been an app like Tithe.ly! In this post, Dean shares why your church should move into mobile giving. He knows. For over 30 years, he’s been involved in ministry and building businesses that support the work of the Church. He’s helped plant over 50 churches and raised millions of dollars to spread the Gospel, equip leaders, and change lives. Now Dean spends his time focused on using technology to advance the Kingdom. When he’s not helping churches grow their giving with Tithe.ly he’s spending time with his family and new grandson!

9 Shocking Stats that Should Convince Your Church to Start Using Mobile Giving Today

by Dean Sweetman

Do you have a smart-phone?

Right, dumb question. Of course you have one. You’re probably reading this post on your smart-phone right now. Either that or it’s sitting on your desk two feet from your keyboard.

Smart-phones are incredible devices. I mean, ten years ago we were still using dial-up on desktop computers that had less processing power than modern day mobile devices. It’s crazy.

Technology advances so fast.

But for some reason, the Church lags behind.

The offering process in churches, when ushers pass baskets down the rows and worshippers voluntarily give their tithe, offering, etc by dropping in checks or cash, has remained basically unchanged since the 19th century…that’s over 200 years!!!

Why is that…and should the Church be looking to modernized and support new methods of giving? I think so. Here are a few staggering stats to illustrate why I think we should come into the modern age of online and mobile giving in the Church.

1. Ericsson estimates that by 2020, 90 percent of the world’s population over 6 years old will have a mobile phone with broadband internet access.
2. According to Pew Research Center, like me, 44% of American adults slept with their phone last night.
3. The federal reserve shows that the number of checks paid continues to decline, falling to 18.3 billion in 2012 — less than half the number of checks that were paid in 2003.
4. Roughly 80% of Americans carry $50 cash or less in their wallet and 9% don’t carry cash at all.
5. 74% of Americans say they write no more than one check per month.
6. Millennials don’t even know what a checkbook is! [Just my opinion :)]
7. 86% of church giving still happens via check.
8. Only 7% of churches in the US offer a way to give via a mobile device.
9. Traditional tithing envelopes don’t seem to work for a generation as mobile as Millennials.

The Apple Effect

If these stats haven’t convinced you to start seriously considering mobile giving for your Church, then think about what the likes of Apple, Starbucks, Amazon, and many others have done to train churchgoers. If Apple makes it simple to purchase something from iTunes, then it better be as simple for them to give to their local church. You see…your members are being shown how simple it can be, and soon they’ll expect the same type of mobile giving experience from the churches they attend.

Your Turn

If you add it all up…in just a few short years nearly every member (and their kids) of your church will be walking in with a smartphone in hand. Checking their social networks, reading the bible, fact checking and commenting on sermons, sharing notes, checking on their kids in child-care, and so much more.

Will you make it simple for members to support the great work you’re doing by empowering them with a simple to use mobile church giving solution. Or will they have to reach into their pocketbooks only to remember that they’ve left their checkbook at home for the third week in a row.

Psst. Tithe.ly can help 🙂