EFT Giving: On This Rock We Built Campus Ministry
By Greg Gorman, Development Director
St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M University
The Lord had Peter. At St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M University, we have an electronic recurring gift program. Our rock, our financial foundation was built on a special donor base of monthly consistent supporters who are committed to supporting our mission through EFT Giving. So committed is this special class of benefactors that they allow us to automatically draft their banking accounts or credit cards, month in, month out – for years.
As our programs have grown over time, so has the need to increase revenue to support our ministry. Like almost every campus ministry program in the country, we too have a gap between how much money is raised by pew collections and diocesan support, and how much money it takes run an effective campus ministry program and provide for the many needs of our students.
We are proud to offer many effective campus ministry programs to our students, however when facing a new idea or suggestion for expanding our ministry, one question is quick to surface. “How are we going to pay for it? How can we generate additional support?” At these moments, I sometimes feel like I am not looking across a gap, but a canyon. I wonder how on earth we will be able to make it to the other side.
Over many years, St. Mary’s has built a solid foundation that allows not only for growth and expansion, but some sense of stability during and these uncertain financial times. After many years of hard work, approximately 35% of our budget needs will be met this year via automatic electronic drafts. That is support we can – and do bank on.
At St. Mary’s our monthly supporters are called the Living Faith society. Without their financial support, the gap between our budget and actual revenue would be so wide that the finance board would most likely be planning cut backs and ministries would be forced to downsize. Instead, planning for expansion can continue. With the regular support of the Living Faith Society we are able to build and grow our ministry programs.
If you are just beginning an EFT program or want to increase monthly support for your existing electronic giving program, I suggest you take some time to read the full transcript of an online discussion Making It Easy for Donors to Give Monthly: Advice for Small and Medium-Sized Charities and listen to an interview on EFT Giving about our experience at St. Mary’s.
Sponsored by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Peter de Keratry, Managing Principal at Petrus Development, and I were asked to serve as panelists and provide advice on this topic of concern. Participants asked some great questions allowing us to provide direction and advice for establishing and enhancing your EFT Giving program. Together, we addressed some of the most common questions, concerns and misconceptions of starting and growing an electronic giving program, such as:
• What is the best way to create a culture of monthly giving? We have annual donors who give less than $1000 a year, but we want to move these annual donors to give more frequently and at higher amounts. How do we frame that message?
• Our fundraising software is antiquated and will not interact with outside vendors or programs. Would this be a problem when setting up reoccurring EFT payments?
• We have a relatively mature yet small monthly giving program now. One of our strategic focuses for next year is to put more into growing the enrollment. Q: Is there a particular giving segment or demographic that would be more apt to enroll or should we focus promotion of the program more widespread?
• We are in the beginning stages of establishing our monthly giving program. From your experience what type of response rate can we expect during the first year? second year?
• Have you compared donors’ giving before and after implementation of online given/EFT and, if so, has total dollars increased?
Our responses to these and many other questions are available at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
St. Mary’s has a better campus ministry in part because of the support of our Living Faith society. I thank God for the commitment and generosity of so many people. Because of the backing of such a faithful group of supporters, we are able to maintain momentum and faith that we can excel in our mission.
I hope someday your program can be backed by such a strong group of supporters, standing side by side with you helping you provide the best ministry possible.
P.S. While writing this article, one of our monthly supporters switched from mailing in their regular support to joining the Living Faith Society. She instructed us to increase her monthly support from $50 to $85 per month and since we asked, go ahead and start drafting her checking account. This was a nice increase of support especially when we discovered that in 2008 she made 8 monthly gifts and so far this year she has make only 4 monthly gifts. This next year, we will have 12 monthly gifts we can depend on. She is one more example of what can happen when you intentionally build your monthly gift program.
Greg Gorman has been the Development Director at St. Mary’s Catholic Student Center at Texas A&M University since April 1999. To hear more about monthly giving, listen to an interview conducted by Peter Panepento from the Chronicle of Philanthropy following Greg’s presentation at the 2009 Association of Fundraising Professionals Conference in New Orleans.