Greetings from Digital Giving Advisor
My name is Lucia Miller – I am Liverpool Diocese’s new Digital Giving Advisor and my role has been generously funded by National Church. My role involves supporting and encouraging churches in Liverpool Diocese with digital giving mechanisms such as; contactless donation systems, social media and website strategy and developing generosity through digital streams.
One of my first projects is delivering the rollout of 30 contactless donation stations to successful applicants of the program. In just over a month of being in post, it has become evident to me that expanding contactless giving options is a necessary step in encouraging generosity and sustaining giving in order to see a bigger church make a bigger difference. Because of this, I am anticipating a high uptake of applications to the project and therefore, the Liverpool Diocese Board of Finance (LDBF) have graciously awarded up to £1200 towards purchasing contactless donation stations for a ‘Try Before You Buy’ scheme, enabling churches to try out how they might implement their own donation unit into their regular worship setting.
As part of the resources team at the diocese, we are keen to iterate these main points about contactless giving:
- Contactless donations as part of a worship service are an extension of that worship, not a separate item. They should be presented as part of the church service, not a transactional anomaly at the back of the hall with no instruction or context.
- Contactless donations will radically cut down the work treasurers have to do in order to reconcile gift aid and count up cash donations
- Contactless giving stations are here to partner with the likes of the Parish Giving Scheme, not replace regular committed giving. Both projects come under the umbrella of ‘Digital Giving’
- Contactless donation machines give non-churchgoers, like those attending occasional offices and civic services, the chance to show generosity towards the church in a way that is convenient, familiar, and safe for them to do so.
- Contactless giving is the new ‘envelope’. Providing too many options for giving can be confusing for the giver and for the church to reconcile. We would suggest giving people 2 or 3 giving mechanisms (ways of giving) to use for both regular and one-off donations.
I am looking forward to working with you and seeing the Kingdom of God expand through this work and the generosity of the people of Liverpool. Please join me in prayer that this project encourages a new generation of generous givers, begins to sustain current and future ministry and creates a bigger church that makes a bigger difference.
If you have any questions at all, please reach out to me through the resources team or by my email address: lucia.miller@liverpool.anglican.org