Online Donations Confusing for a Church School

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Hey Fletch … Our school is owned by our church. They are the umbrella. All online donations are being completed through the church. For example, if I want to donate to our school, I press the ‘donate now’ button on our website but get redirected to the church website in order to donate. How can I get around this? Folks who wish to donate to our school get confused when they get redirected to the church website and think their donation will be supporting the church and not the school. Please help.

DRF—You can put a “donate now” button on another website. The funds can still go through your church as designated funds for the school. I would suggest clear wording on the page saying that the donation is a restricted gift to the church and can only be used for the school.

The technical issue is the software piece. This is generally pretty workable, to have a “Donate Now” button on another site but there may be some complications. One way to get around this is to have a specially branded page on the church’s website, one that specifically helps people see that they are making a designated contribution to the school. When a donor makes a designated contribution, it can only be used for that purpose. It cannot be redirected, unless the page explicitly says “for the school and church use.”

About the Author: David Fletcher

As an experienced pastor, Fletch knows church life. As a professor, he delivers insightful material. As a seasoned coach, he helps you grow. Dr. David Fletcher is often called "The Dean of Executive Pastors." Fletch was a pastor for 35 years in churches from 1,000-8,000 members, single and multisite, churches with mergers, camps, schools, apartments and cafés. He founded XPastor in 2003 and its 1,300 free articles from over 350 authors have become a principal resource for leaders in a complex church world.