Offering envelopes have been a staple in church funding for years and many churches include offertory and regular collection envelopes as their main method of fund raising. While the global pandemic certainly increased modern and digital giving methods, offertory envelopes remain a long-standing tradition that still offers many benefits for the churches that utilise them. This article will explain offertory envelopes, how they are used and the reasons why your church or charity should use them.
What Are Offering Envelopes?
Offering envelopes, also known as tithing or regular giving envelopes, are paper envelopes used to collect donations or tithes from church members or non-profit donors. Offering envelopes provide the benefits of convenience, privacy, and also serve as a donation reminder. Perhaps most importantly, offering envelopes have remained a long-standing and recognised staple in supporting finances.
How Are Offering Envelopes Used?
Offering envelopes have been a longstanding tradition within church communities. While offering envelopes have many benefits such as providing members a sense of donation privacy, they more importantly, serve as a physical weekly reminder for the church community to give back. By making custom offering envelopes a part your church traditions or even storing loose envelopes in the pew for visitors, members are further called to be a part of the offering.
Weekly Envelope Boxed Sets are ideal for weekly or monthly churchgoers and can be customised to match the specification and details of individual churches. With 52 weekly envelopes provided within a box or booklet set, a church member can keep a running total of contributions throughout the year.
Church envelopes are ideal for parishioners who donate to the church on a weekly or monthly basis. Some examples of information that our regular collection envelopes can be customised with are:
- Church name, district, diocese, registered charity number
- Church images, logo or design image (see our stock designs)
- Verses or customisable text, parishioner numbers and dates
Many churches also choose to store Loose Envelopes or Gift Aid Envelopes in the church pews. This can be ideal for church visitors who are not regular attendants or members that may have forgotten their own envelopes and still want to participate in the tithe. Loose envelopes can additionally be used within bulletins or for other fundraising events, such as giving campaigns.
Reasons to Use Offering Envelopes
Churches and parishes are commonly funded by community donations and it is therefore important that churches find ways to not only appeal to donors, but also ensure that resources are being used in a way that prompts further support. Below are further details regarding how church offertory envelopes help drive their community to donate:
Call-To-Action:
Offertory envelopes serve as a physical reminder of the financial responsibility members have to the ongoing work of the church. Outside of directly asking the community for donations, using offering envelopes keeps the concept of giving in front of donors, whether it is at a weekly service or a seasonal fundraising event.
Donation Consistency:
Incorporating church envelopes into the giving process of a church community will prompt members to give on a consistent basis. The more members that take advantage of envelopes and feel a duty to give, the more the church can count on the likelihood of donations to support the church.
Support The Future of the Church:
Leaders that teach the act and habit of giving are securing the future of their ministry. Using contribution products on a consistent basis can help drive donations and increase a willingness to give so that your church community is, and can remain, financially sound.
For over 60 years, Lockie has been an long serving manufacturer and supplier of competitive priced church and charity collection products. For competitively priced collection products, Lockie Limited is your go-to experts in church collection products.
You can customise and order your envelopes online or send us an e-mail via: https://www.lockiechurch.com/contact-us/. You can also call us via our telephone sales line on 01942 402 510.
Three Benefits of Regular Collection for Your Church
Maintain an Organised Giving Scheme
Implementing a structured and organised approach to regular giving schemes can help simplify life and leave you with a clear head. When your collection routine is organised, it is less likely for parishioners to skip a week or lose track of their donations. It will also make it easier to record and report on your donations for tax and Gift Aid purposes.
Regular Collection Provides Privacy and Individuality
If someone is reliably using envelopes to donate, rather than donating online, there is a good chance they also are a slow adopter of online transactions that involve personal and/or financial information. Offertory envelopes offer consistency and peace of mind for those who aren’t yet comfortable with online giving or digital collection methods.
Regular collection products can also be fully customised and printed with individual parishioner numbers and information that relate to their church. This connects parishioners with their church community as it gives a more personal approach when they see all of the details related to their church on their collection envelopes.
Keep Members Informed and Connected
Aside from offering envelopes helping to keep donors consistent with their giving, they can also double as a source of information on upcoming events or newsworthy items. You can get creative with the printed information that is included on the front (or back) of the envelopes, which can help maximise the value and provide patrons with information on what their donations will be helping to fund.