A lot of churches are still making the switch from paper systems to computer based applications to help manage their church membership. You might already have a church membership solution, but you aren’t as happy as you hoped you would be. Or if you’re one of those still sitting on the fence and just can’t seem to make a decision, consider these 5 things as you’re looking around at different options, or as a guideline to help direct you to the right solution.
Member Information Tracking A good church membership software with help you track more than just basic information, but actual member steps and important dates (baptisms, retreats) that you want to keep track of and on file. Some software applications may not have all the fields you want to record data, but if you find a solution that allows you to add and customize your own fields then there’s no limit to the kind of information you want to keep track of on your members.
Visitor Follow-up Your Follow-up process with visitors is one of the more crucial elements in church membership software. Make sure you have a wide range of capabilities when it comes to recording visitor responses and dates of contact. Being able to assign follow-up sponsors, who can reach out to new visitors, greatly increases the chances of return visits.
Contribution Tracking/Reporting For Contribution tracking, you want to have the ability to look up to see who has given, how much, and to what account – at any time. Another important aspect of contributions is being able to manage amounts pledged separate from amounts given toward a particular campaign. When you have all the contribution information in front of you, being able to organize it and produce reports is a top priority. Make sure your church membership software allows you to analyze contribution graphs as well as meeting the needs of your government’s reporting requirements.
Custom Reporting (getting the exact info of what you want to report) Reports are a must in order to show all your church membership information in a clear easy-to-read format. Some companies will make reports for you, but often you’ll find yourself waiting with a support ticket. Having the ability to create reports yourself quickly and easily will help save you a lot of time. Custom report editors can help you get even more precise in the information you wish to represent.
Leader Development With a detailed account of your members’ spiritual growth/leader development steps, you can follow-up with members to help them pursue a leadership path in the church. Make sure you find a church membership solution that doesn’t just focus on the members, but also helps to grow your members into leaders of their families and the church.
Excellerate Church Management provides all of these features and for many more. To get more information you can check out our Church Membership Quick-tour video that shows some of the other features Excellerate has to offer.
