Electronic payment provides significant benefit to you and to Bethany:
Benefits to you:
- Convenience. No more searching for your offering envelopes and checkbook on Sunday mornings. No more writing out checks during the children’s sermon.
- Reduced recordkeeping burden. No more need to keep track of your record of giving and to factor in catch up Sundays when you miss services.
- Eliminate the Fourth Quarter “True Up”. We’ve all been there. We receive our 3rd Quarter Statement of Giving and we have some catching up to do during the time of year when holiday bills begin to mount. If only we had kept current during the course of the year, we wouldn’t be in this bind.
- Cost Savings. You probably don’t think about this much, but writing checks isn’t free for most of us. In fact check orders run about 25 cents per check. If you are writing out weekly checks to Bethany, that’s $13.00 in checks per year.
Benefits to Bethany:
- A more reliable cash flow stream. Not surprisingly, the summer months are a time of lower Sunday worship attendance and weekly contributions fall off in a similar manner. “Special Sundays” such as the All Church Retreat and the Church Picnic also offer special challenges for offering. Utilization of electronic payments can help to offset these challenge by providing a more steady stream of contributions. Recurring weekly payments keep coming in regardless of whether or not the contributor attends services.
- Contributors who stay current with their weekly giving are more likely to keep to their annual commitments. Contributors who fall behind in their giving are more likely to find themselves in a situation where it is difficult to catch up at the end of the year and may fall short of their annual giving commitment.
Bethany encourages electronic payment processing that take advantage of the services already available through your financial institution. This offers convenience and flexibility to the contributor and does not add incremental costs to Bethany.
Electronic payments through the Bethany website are available through the link below. This option allows for automatic one time or recurring payments from either your bank account or credit card.
Q: If I elect to make electronic payments to Bethany, will I still receive offering envelopes?
A: Yes. There are no plans to discontinue the distribution of envelopes to any contributor.
Q: If I make electronic payments, will I still receive quarterly Statements of Giving from Bethany?
A: Yes. You will continue to receive the quarterly statement of giving that will reflect your online contributions.
Q: What if I don’t feel comfortable with not having something to drop into the offering plate on Sundays?
A: Offering envelopes include an “I gave online” checkbox. Simply check the box, and drop the envelope in the offering plate as you normally would.
Q: Can I make special offerings online?
A: Yes. In addition to your recurring General Fund contributions, you can make one time contributions as well. Be sure to specify the name of the special offering (e.g. “Mortgage Reduction”) in the memo field of your payment or select the appropriate fund on the website option.
Q: Can I make payments to Bethany via a credit or debit card?
A: Yes. Bethany has made arrangement to accept payments via our website, listed under option one.
