Solutions

"There is a distinct difference between setting up electronic funds transfer through your bank and setting it up through Egiving Systems.  The Eustermans have a deep desire to see your ministry grow, and they will bend over backwards to help make that happen.  Your bank won't do that."
 
– Emily Schaap, Pregnancy Choice Director

Take a look at the CheckFree EFT Web tool that Egiving Systems provides at ministry rates (see brochure). This processing tool will be the technological core of your electronic monthly stewardship funding and online giving.  Use the bar at the bottom of the slide show to manually overide the automatic presentation.

Processing Tools

The second component to successful egiving is your processor. Take a minute to read and understand this a little.

The two main electronic payment processes are bank accounts (ACH-- Automatic Clearing House) and Credit Cards (Merchant Accounts), which process through the card companies. There are specific "languages" written into software and intermediary processors that speak the language (banks, processors, software) and they are the "gateways" to the processing. These "languages" speak to the clearing house computers allowing the transaction to take place between your giver's bank or credit card company and your bank. You need a processor that speaks the languages and can access the clearing houses in order to give and take electronic transactions. It will cost you a little to use a "utility" to move funds electronically.

While there are probably hundreds of processors, including "ecommerce" processors, many have come and gone and will continue to. Because we like to sleep at night, the most important issue here is choosing a processor with the integrity and experience to support you indefinitely in a flawless manner. Secondly, one that can handle any form of donation to keep the process simple for you and accommodate your giver's needs. While prices between processors vary, it is not by much. The real issue is how much you get for what you pay. Integrity and infrastructure to perform with a history of performance is worth much and it is not worth the stress or damaged relationships to save a few bucks.

While integration and marketing strategies are the first important element in electronic fund development, Egiving Systems knows the value of quality processing. Based on twenty years of processing experience and over $100,000 in actual costs for errors in choosing processors improperly, we believe Providence brought CheckFree and Egiving Systems together. CheckFree (1981) processed 78% of America's electronic checks last year ($24 trillion) and is the global leader. You can rely on their integrity and infrastructure to protect your organization and your giving partner relationships. It is an excruciating experience to have your processor fail you as it not only affects your finances but your relationships with your support base. Because of Who we serve we are each held to higher standards and must remain above reproach in all of our affairs. CheckFree is the best. We sleep at night.

As a ministry to ministries we provide our tools at significantly reduced ministry rates (see brochure) with approval from CheckFree. To see more on CheckFree, Click Here.