Simplify Donor Management using Church Inventory Software

Running a church is not like running a business owing to its unique needs. There are many elements to consider in order to run a church properly. Its nature is quite different compared to businesses as the latter is to achieve profit while the church is not. However, both have divisional components with a hierarchical setup. Businesses have the privilege of keeping their money to themselves while churches depend on contribution and donation of its members. This makes it even more important to handle church resources, activities and finances efficiently along with managing and expanding memberships.

With time the church is going to grow along with the general congregation. When the members increase, so does the administrative and management work. This means important funds, relationships, and pursuits of the place of worship can become a mountainous task to manage. With technology evolving at a fast pace, all hope is not lost. It is here that the church inventory software comes in and saves you from all the trouble by catering to the unique needs of the church.

Partnership of church and church inventory software

Church and technology may not seem like a likely match. Churches may have been a bit behind to be technology-friendly but that trend is changing. Churches are now using technology like the social media, devices, apps and the internet because of the benefits it offers. Did you know 77% of churches use Twitter, 99% use Facebook, 75% read bible via tablets or smartphones and 99% use sound equipment?

With church inventory software, churches and other struggling nonprofit organizations can easily organize, manage and automate their day to day operations keeping track of their valuable inventory. It also gives churches a helping hand in different activities like managing communication, membership databases, finances, report generation, fundraising, religious events, worship presentation programs and many others.

Inventory software for churches contains a number of extremely useful optimizations for any faith community which eases out the collective load of all the processes and promote efficient management. It maintains a centralized system that handles all the intricate tasks like event organizing, inventory, and congregation tracking.

Did you know studies have shown that 80% of newly formed faith-based communities fail after the first year and begin losing their members after five to seven years? The reason is obvious- lack of resources and tools to manage the growth of the church and its diverse administration. Below we have garnered all the things asset management software does for a non-profit organization like church to keep it running and growing well.

1. Fosters connection and communication

The most valuable church inventory to be taken care of is its members. A church is thought to be one family but if family members don’t talk to each other, it certainly won’t feel like family. The church consists of visitors, members, staff, administrators and ministry leaders. A streamlined inventory software provides features that foster communications and informs everyone about church updates, development and news.

better communication via church inventory software

Having latest updates of the church happenings further strengthen the bond between the church family members.

Being informed about the latest updates helps members not only be informed but also helps to make them feel a part of the church family. This is particularly great for people who are new to the church. For instance, someone just got diagnosed with brain tumor and he wants others to pray for him. All you have to do is send out the email to all the members of the church asking them to pray for the sick member. You just created and fostered a bond between the members of the church. Such a connection allows the church family to grow even more.

You also have an option of customizing emails before you sent out to members. It is always more appealing to readers to see personalized messages rather than generic emails. Emails with a personal touch foster a more profound impact on the members by making them feel like a valuable member of the church family.

2. Manage contributions and keep a check on fraud

Church collects contributions and donations to maintain itself and grow its reach. This is the reason it needs to track and monitor its collections, contributions, and donations as accurately as possible. You can easily keep tabs on donations as they arrive along with generating reports of collections using asset tracking software for churches.

This software enforces accountability which strengthens church’s finances. Nobody wants fraud and embezzlement of funds in the church and it stands out to be one of the harsh realities. Reporting and accounting feature in church asset management software has an option of setting up traceable audit trail and mandatory double-entry procedures. To practice more internal autonomy, you can configure access control, define a process to monitor users and have multi-level passwords.

3. Finance reporting and statistics

With this solution, you also get to receive accurate and precise reports that you can give to any donor on demand. It is only natural for people who donate to demand quarterly statements and a yearly receipt to use them for their income tax.

Receiving financial reports can help manage church operations well

Church usually prints it and mails it to every donor. Fortunately, church inventory software can automate the process and lets you send this as an attached PDF file to the donors. This saves you time, money, stamps, ink, envelope and all the paperwork involved. Having access to targeted statistics and reports can be incredibly valuable for managing church operations as it cancels out all the guesswork and fosters accuracy. You can easily take a look at financial reports and get membership insights in order to figure out the bottleneck areas and growth factors so you can make improvements and conduct informed decisions.

4. Monitors and manages congregations

A congregation is an important part of the church that needs to be monitored and managed. Churches look for systems that are more community-oriented. Church inventory software contains a host of utilities and tracking options that help to remain updated with the special events.

This software solution helps to manage contacts, membership, and attendance. It enables you to reach out to people who might want to become the church members via social media and emails. It contains a database of all the members with their information and details that are updated automatically.

5. Event management and generating interest in upcoming events

It is not at all easy to put together a major community event. You need to properly plan and effectively schedule everything. With inventory management software for churches, you can monitor your assets like reserving rooms and musical instruments, track contributions for special occasions and facilitate booking.

It also comes with integrated communication features that help to generate interest in upcoming events. Most of the time, churches have a weekly bulletin to inform people about upcoming events but the sad part is very few people read it cover to cover. Public announcements are also made during worship services but there is very little time for all the announcements you want to make.

You can supplement this with personalized emails making more and more people know about the event, and increase the chances of more people attending it. It also contains a nifty functionality of check-in which is of great importance particularly for large events and gathering where all the members need to be accounted for especially children. It also helps to keep track of rest of the congregation and makes sure that the event is properly organized and participants are well-documented minimizing chances missing members.