Cashless giving in church is on therise, from hand-held card machines to permanent donations points there issomething for everyone. Pershore Abbey has been giving its visitors the chance to pay at a contactless giving point. The Verger, Robin Hancox tells us all about it:
"Pershore has been following with interest the development of thevarious donation facilities now becoming available. We took part in the initialCofE trial last summer of the iZettle and have been waiting for a simple systemthat offered more. We wanted something that would give us a new source of fundsand not just an alternative way of paying for wedding fees etc.
"We have a big building with a steady trickle of visitors. Oftenthe building is unmanned and we know that many visitors do not donate. When weare manned we know that visitors often do not carry cash and we have lost salesfrom our bookstall because we did not have a card facility. We knowthat collections at weddings and baptism are often low because people at theseservices do not carry cash but virtually everyone carries a smart phone orcredit/debit card.
"We were delighted when the Donations Station from gwDevices wasincluded in the CofE list. We took delivery in July - its a good solidunit.which we've fixed the unit to an old table while we experiment withlocation. It's been a learning curve for me - my knowledge about touchscreens was zero. gwDevices Customer Services have been very patient with me.Credits are made to the Bank daily - and we get a monthly report giving Gift Aiddetails. It's a time of experimentation now - location is going to restrictedby availability of mains and broadband and visibility coupled with it notgetting in the way of worship. We are in good company with our trial -Coventry, Derby and Sheffield cathedrals. It's very early days, but our experience has definitely been positive so far."
Could a cashless giving system work for your church? For more information visit https://www.parishbuying.org.uk/ or talk to Alison Maddocks, Stewardship Officer on 07930 853433.
