Online Giving

Thanks to Tim Bednar for providing some interesting statistics on tithing and the increase of online giving by Americans in 2004. But while online giving to churches reached $3 billion last year, Kevin at Church Marketing Sucks points to a news article that states many denominations and churches struggle with declining overall offerings. Could the focus on giving through a church's web site be supplanting the message of stewardship from the pulpit?

Without getting into that debate, I personally like the idea of giving online. Never having tithed online, I can see how the worship aspect could be preserved through conscious giving each week as opposed to automatic bank drafts. Also the giving is done completely in private and seen only by the Lord.

I know a couple of churches that want to implement this feature on their websites, but are still trying to decide which secure transaction service to use. Always willing to take the baton of tech research and run with it, I did an initial Google search on church "online giving" to see what popped up first among churches that use secure payment services. Out of 10 churches or ministries:

Update: as I get comments from this topic, I'll change the tally :)

3 use PayPal (thanks, Gary)
2 use FellowshipOne
1 uses CyberSource (thanks, DJ)
1 uses Thawte
1 uses jetCHEX
1 uses TransactU by ServiceU
1 uses iServe (New Zealand)
1 uses GroundSpring
1 uses Verisign

And I thought this was going to be a slam dunk. I'll let you know what I find out about each in the days to come.