ST. JOAN OF ARC

SPOTLIGHT
APRIL 2015
ST. JOAN OF ARC
HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA
Best Practices for Church Development
with
Online Giving
Stewardship and development aren’t new
initiatives at St. Joan of Arc Parish, but the
church’s strategic planning and best
practices exemplify a new approach to
other churches looking to nurture growth
in giving.
Leading the charge is Jackie Abel, who
serves as director of stewardship and
development at the 2,900-family parish.
Abel joined the church staff in April 2013,
where her 11 years of experience in
nonprofit development complements her
gifts for understanding stewardship as a
component of the faith journey and
communicating that message with clarity
and gratitude to the church community.
She relies on ParishSOFT’s ConnectNow
Family Suite with its integrated Offering &
Pledges and Online Giving modules to
support that effort.
First, the Website!
St. Joan of Arc’s Online Giving presence
at stjoanhershey.org caught our eye. Their
entire website is fabulous! Current,
beautifully designed, and comprehensive,
members and visitors alike will find the site
welcoming, informative, and easy to
navigate. St. Joan of Arc intentionally built
a website to support the constant demand
for good communication—whatever your
interest, stjoanhershey.org helps you find
St. Joan of Arc church, established in 1920 in the Diocese of Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. Photo by Christine Chardo.
Culture of Tithing
While many churches take a that’ll have to be
good enough approach, repeating the same
efforts year after year, this parish
what you need quickly.
recognizes that to do development right,
churches must continuously improve what
they do and how they help people feel
more connected with the many
It’s a mission-oriented representation of
the St. Joan of Arc family that instills
components of discipleship. Strengthening
the culture of giving takes time, planning,
and the proper tools.
confidence—an essential ingredient for
any organization that seeks member
participation and financial support.
The parish’s ConnectNow Family Suite
data show that while overall giving at St.
Joan of Arc has increased over the past two
years, 53% of the total membership
contributed in 2015. The goal is to
increase that by 10%.
“If you continue to do things the way you
have always done them, you’ll get the same
results,” said Abel. “Our philosophy is to
evaluate how things are or are not working
and then work to improve them.”
PUBLISHING THE FINANCIALS
When Jackie Abel researched how to
present church financials in St. Joan of
“Our philosophy is to evaluate how things are or are not
working and then work to improve them. ” Jackie Abel
Arc’s annual Year In Review report, she
visited many church websites only to
discover a lot of outdated information. In
Dollar amounts, reported in the context of
the church’s work, establish the logical and
emotional connections between the money
why they’re a tithing parish, explain what
that means and who benefits, and spell out
how you can participate. It’s not a one-time
many cases, it was difficult to find any
annual reports at all. “From a development
perspective,” said Abel, “that’s a big no-no.
Churches have to have their financials in
and the ministries. Noting the ministry
accomplishments (e.g., the parish assisted
55 grieving families, married 27 couples,
baptized 73 members) affirms members’
announcement but an ongoing
conversation about discipleship.
proper order and should make them easy
for donors to find online.”
ownership in the mission, reminds them
how they benefit individually and as a
community, and keeps a message of faithful
SETTING CONTEXT FOR GIVING
discipleship at the core.
St. Joan of Arc’s financial report is on the
website’s main Stewardship page within the
Year In Review document, which is a
BUILDING CONNECTIONS
compilation of annual reports from the
parish’s five commissions: Liturgy &
Worship, Community Life, Pastoral Care &
Outreach, Evangelization & Faith
presented across multiple channels,
including the Year In Review, blend succinct,
impactful writing with graphic elements
that make the tithing message appealing,
Formation, and Stewardship &
Development. The report compares
income and expenses for its church and
mission-centered, and easy to digest. As the
words of tithing have steadily become
integrated into parish life, they have helped
Well developed, quality communications
school from year to year, with notations to
members see their giving through the lens
explain assessments, endowments, bequests, of the Gospel.
and any special circumstances. It’s easy to
It helps that St. Joan of Arc is a parish that
see at a glance where the money comes
knows how to tell its story. In practice, that
from and where it’s been spent.
means they don’t just say they’re a tithing
parish and ask you to give. They tell you
Director of Stewardship and
Development Jackie Abel, St. Joan of
Arc Parish.
St. Joan of Arc parish, founded by
immigrants who worked at Hershey
Chocolate Factory and local quarries.
Part of that effort involves not assuming
what everybody knows and highlighting
facts, such as the differences between the
general operating fund and special
campaigns. With each giving option, the
parish presents a clear, consistent message,
so donors can make informed, thoughtful
gifts with a full understanding of the
impact they are making.
MAXIMIZING THE DIGITAL
St. Joan of Arc also knows when to change
things up to meet people where they are.
Direct mail campaigns alone are no longer
enough of an invitation—successful church
development requires a digital strategy. St.
Joan of Arc supports its development
efforts through social media, email
campaigns, a mobile app, it’s website, and,
of course, tools that let people give the way
they want.
The parish’s patron saint, Joan of Arc.
Photo by Christine Chardo.
Online Giving
Logistics
Before St. Joan of Arc began using
ParishSOFT’s Online Giving in late 2013,
they already had 120 families making
electronic gifts through two other systems.
One was an electronic check service that
offered no donor interface. The other was
a credit card service that, despite having a
donor interface, resulted in half of the
donations being input by the parish staff.
Neither system was designed with church
stewardship in mind. No alerts were
available for expiring credit cards, so
regular gifts just stopped without any
donor notification. Neither integrated with
the church’s offertory software, which
contributed to the church’s struggle with
recording donations accurately. End-ofyear contribution statements were hard to
compile and often inaccurate.
The parish saw the opportunity to solve all
of those issues with the ConnectNow
Family Suite and went for it.
TRANSITIONING GRACEFULLY
Each current EFT donor was contacted by
letter and phone about making the switch
to Online Giving. Many had been
frustrated by incorrect tax statements in
the past. “When I’d say ‘You can print your
own statements!’ they saw the benefits right
away,” Able said.
Some donors with expired credit cards
weren’t even aware their planned gifts to
the church had stopped. “One guy felt so
bad he wrote a check for the previous
year’s tithing before setting up his giving in
the new system,” said Abel. “That’s speaks
to a strong connection between giving and
discipleship.”
Now, Online Giving keeps donors
informed with proactive alerts to
approaching expiration dates and
transaction confirmations. They can give
to any fund using their choice of bank
account, credit card, or multiple accounts.
Because Online Giving and Offertory are
cash, online, or a combination of methods
can see their total giving history from their
secure login any time they like.
TACTICAL BEST PRACTICES
The parish office appreciates that Online
Giving is self-serve for members and
doesn’t require lots of administration from
staff. They have enriched the site’s donor
experience and maximized the benefits for
the church through good processes and full
use of the system’s tools.
• Customize the system’s standard
email notifications to put a personal
touch on the messages donors get for
payment receipts, account issues, etc.
• Review reports regularly. Staff
check the system’s failed transaction
report weekly. “I’ve contacted donors
who didn’t know their credit cards had
been put on hold due to suspicious
activity. They heard from the church
before they heard from their bank. That
builds trust,” said Abel.
integrated, donors who give by check,
FROM THE YEAR IN REVIEW REPORT
A sampling of the 16-page annual report on the ministries, school, and finances of
St. Joan of Arc Parish, published on www.stjoanhershey.org/stewardship.
What’s in St. Joan of Arc’s Toolkit
• Turn on the quick give option.
“Quick give has been good for memorial
donations,” said Abel. “It’s also worked
well for the school parents who aren’t
parishioners. They can get in and out
fast without setting up a login.”
• Send thank-you cards. Staff check
memorial donation reports at least once
a week and send two personalized cards:
one to notify the family of the person
• Spell out the benefits. Put donors
at ease by stating how Online Giving
helps them and your church be better
stewards. St. Joan of Arc’s About
Online Giving page presents these
issues and addresses common
questions nicely.
• Use your data. ConnectNow
provides data analysis and
communication tools to support
memorialized and another to thank the
donor. Donors also receive a message of
gratitude in the automated email from
Online Giving and overall
development goals. Accurate
contribution, pledge, and member
the system and, of course, with their
end-of-year giving statements.
records (all in a single database) will
help Abel get a clearer picture of
what’s working and where she can
• Be PCI-compliant. Online Giving lets
churches manage giving on behalf of
members who don’t want to or can’t do
it themselves. Abel enters bank or credit
card information while she’s on the
phone with the donor. “I don’t have to
write any account information down or
worry about shredding it,” she said.
“There’s no reason for us to retain that
info once its encrypted in the system. It
makes PCI Compliance a piece of
cake!”
• Orient your donors. St. Joan of Arc
has prominent Online Giving buttons or
links wherever electronic payment is an
option: offertory, special collections,
religious education fees, or gifts to funds
like Heart of the Parish and memorials.
Online Giving is always easy to find.
improve. From there, she can move
forward with strategic planning,
segmented appeals, and personalized
outreach to specific segments of the
parish demographics.
Long-term Strategy
St. Joan of Arc Parish makes
development and stewardship look easy
with good planning, faith-filled
messaging, beautiful presentation, and
smart use of information and tools.
The generous disciples who make up
this parish community today are
certainly in good hands, and it’s clear
that future generations of parishioners
will one day look back in gratitude for
the gift of ministries and facilities made
possible today. ◆
MORE CUSTOMER STORIES
PARISHSOFT
St. Clarence Powers Religious Education with
ParishSOFT (North Olmsted, OH)
825 Victors Way, Suite 200
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
866.930.4774
ConnectNow Tools Power Census, Pledge
Drive at St. Patrick (Portland, MI)
St. Thomas More Doubles Online Giving
(Darien, CT)
Visit: http://www.parishsoft.com/stories
www.parishsoft.com
CN Family Suite:
Family Directory
with My Own Church
Religious Education
Offering & Pledges
with Online Giving
Ministry Scheduler
“We’ve gotten a lot of po
sitive
feedback from parishion
ers who like
the Online Giving and My
Own
Church tools.”
- Jackie Abel
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SPOTLIGHT ON
ST. JOAN OF ARC PARISH
Hershey, Pennsylvania
April 2015
www.stjoanhershey.org