If your church regularly offers its members the ability to pledge to specific funds, like a building fund, for example, giving them a way to pledge online is a wonderful option. It's a wonderful new feature offered by Bellevue CMS that makes the back-office work so much easier, it's easy to say “yes!”
Whether or not you are using online giving at your church, you can still use Online Pledges. It works very much like other online Registrations. Here’s how it works behind the scenes:
When the first person makes an online pledge, a new Bundle gets created in Contributions within BVCMS. As long as you leave the Bundle open, all subsequent pledges will be added to that Bundle automatically. Once you close that Bundle, the process starts all over with a new Bundle getting created the next time a person makes an online pledge. I would probably close the Bundles at the end of the week, but it is up to you. The pledge is assigned to the correct person in the database without your staff having to do anything!
Here’s what else happens when a person makes an Online Pledge through BVCMS:
- the person making the pledge receives a Confirmation email (see sample below)
- the designated Online Notify Person gets a notification email
One more nifty feature is the ability for a person to return to the online pledge page if they want to increase their pledge. They will see their current pledge and any contributions that have been made toward that fund. The system will capture both pledges but will combine them on their giving statement with all contributions applied against the total. You might want to mention that in the confirmation so they they would have the link handy.
Here’s how if works for the person making the pledge:
If they do not login with their BVCMS username/password:
- they enter the information requested to find their record/profile in the database
- once they hit Submit, they will be emailed a one-time link to make their pledge
- when they click the link, they will see a box in which they can enter a dollar amount
- then they click Submit and will receive an email Confirmation
NOTE: We send the link in an email (instead of taking them directly to the pledge page) as a security precaution. You do not want someone to be able to pretend to be you and make pledges on your behalf. Also, if a person does not have an email address on their record, they will see a message telling them to call the church.
If they login with their BVCMS username/password:
- they select the family member making the pledge (if the family has joint contribution statements, it doesn’t matter if it is the husband or the wife)
- then they see the page where they can enter he dollar amount of the pledge
- they then click Submit and will receive an email Confirmation
Sample confirmation (notice the code to display the amount pledged):
Hi {first},
Thank you for your total pledge of ${amt} toward this year’s pledge fund. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs.Greenbucks in our Finance office: greenbuck@yourchurch.org.
You can return to the pledge website at any time should you wish to make an additional pledge.
Click here if you would like to make an online contribution at this time.
What a great solution and offering for church members! Thanks to the folks at BVCMS for adding this feature.
[BVCMS is a valued CTT site sponsor.]