Best Practices for Easter Giving in 2021
Easter 2021, one of the largest Christian holidays, will take place on Sunday, April 4. What’s different about this year? Easter is during a time when churches across the U.S. find themselves in new situations:
- In-person services with social distancing
- In-person services with filled pews
- Limiting number of worshipers in-person
- Online services only
- Both in-person and online services
In the past, we’ve seen giving increase on Easter Sunday. This year presents a unique opportunity for churches to engage multiple audiences – physical + digital or phygital – and inspire their generosity on one of the biggest days of Christian giving.
In this post, we will share with you the best practices for Easter giving.
Why Easter Giving is So Vital
Christmas and Easter are known to be holidays that bring in a large crowd. That will be no different this year. People who only go to church on the “high holidays” are often referred to as “Chreasters” (Christmas + Easter Church Goers).
Whatever the reason — to join the family for holiday gatherings, to acknowledge a heritage of faith, or to celebrate the resurrection — Easter church goers often leave a sizable donation in the offering plate. As a church leader, your mission is at the front of your mind. Spreading the gospel message, making disciples, growing the faith of your congregants, and caring for those in need, widows and orphans all takes funding. This is the time to gather enough funds to accomplish your mission.
And many churches, the article “Easter Most Important Holiday for Church Donations,” Coffers explained, “rely on the Easter donations boost to help them through the summer time, which is traditionally a very slow period of giving. For some churches, their donations do not see a spike until Thanksgiving, when cash and item donations start pouring in.”
“Those extra donation(s),” an article in Southern Living states, “can make all the difference for a church trying to replace railings, buy a van for their youth group, get new microphones for the pastor’s sermon, or eager to make a difference in their community in the form of food pantries, soup kitchens, hospices, and community centers.”
Best Practices for Inspiring Easter Giving
Whether your members, guests, and new potential members will be attending Easter service in-person or online, your church wants to be ready to receive their gifts. So how do you inspire giving for this year’s phygital Easter?
First, you’ll need to make sure you understand these important factors of any successful campaign this year:
- Giving has to be easy.
- 1 out of 5 Givelify donors give to multiple churches.
- High attendance is an opportunity to re-engage with existing members and potential new members both in-person and online.
Next, you’ll want to achieve on the following objectives:
- To develop a campaign that sparks generosity, speaks to your phygital audience, and encourages all to give, whether in-person or online.
- To seize this unique moment. Whether in-person and online, attendance is sure to increase.
- To remind people of your unique mission and how their response to the resurrection will directly affect the church’s impact.
Finally, you will need to be equipped to receive money virtually. With Givelify — an online giving platform, giving is easy. Now, generosity can be shared from anywhere, at any time – from church or the comfort of your home. Because of online streaming, your Sunday service may reach even more people. You may reach the more than one million givers already on Givelify’s platform!
How to Prepare for Easter Sunday
Your mission depends on the success of your Easter giving. The Givelify app was built for moments like this. It’s the fastest, easiest, and most beautiful way to give.
- Sign up by Wednesday, March 31. It’ll take five minutes to get ready to receive gifts in time for Easter Sunday!
- Make sure you remind your congregation that Sunday, April 4 is the first Sunday of the month. This is when many people give their monthly “first fruits” offering in addition to their love offering.
- Create a special Easter envelope in the Givelify app so you and your members can track Easter giving.
- Instruct your congregation to download Givelify during service and in any emails you send leading up to Easter and again during services. Congregants can download Givelify from the App Store on Apple or from Google Play on Android.
- Fundraise from your newsletter and social media. Include your Givelify giving link in email communication, Facebook and Twitter.
No matter how you celebrate the phygital Easter, we wish you a very happy one!
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