What Makes Sense?
My beliefs on how church software can help have changed since joining the Sunago team a little over two years ago. Initially, I felt the newer community/social features would grab people’s attention and sway speedier adoption. That was not the case! Fundamentally churches (with member sizes of 50-500) really need an integrated membership, children check-in, and giving system accessible from the web, — anytime and any place. The first need is access to organized team lists ( volunteers, members, sponsors, givers, kids church groups, hospitality teams, you name it; next a list of fundamental capabilities:
- easily assemble these teams/communities/lists
- an ability to find people
- bulk email messages to select teams
- event planning
- a process to follow-up with people – don’t drop key follow-ups through the cracks
Next on list of major features is Giving – administration and on-line. Three factors drive this requirement: (1) the need for ONE, consistent people database accessible by key church staff members to include the part time financial coordinator; (2) the ability to track and report on all giving; and (3) on-line, regular giving to reduce barriers and encourage giving. Ok, cloud based financial systems (like QuickBooks) don’t really support non-profits. This is where a good giving administration system becomes essential for compiling the individual giving transactions, creating weekly or monthly reports, and entering these balances into their accounting system.
Even the smallest of church-plants have found an immediate need for an inexpensive, secure-children’s check-in capability. We added a MAC/PC based capability to our kiosk check-in as these smaller churches simply didn’t have the resources to buy the kiosks. Ask why this was so important? Security, regulations, attendance records……..
Finally, extended community. Many churches struggled with how to ask members to take on but yet one more social network. What we’ve found is that community is really a secure extension to ongoing church organizations, volunteer teams, a place where people can seek out missional opportunity, and yes a place to share.
The Sunago Integrated Solution.
We were very excited to announce the Sunago 5 release in early July. This release of Giving Administration completed our fully integrated solution.
What Should it Cost?
We truly believe that Sunago is the most inexpensive, fully integrated solution available to churches today! Most churches can get started for less than the cost of a cell phone plan. We do not hockey stick/ ramp our costs as your church grows. Please check out our pricing and compare. Remember, training and start up are free. Children check-in printers and labels are equally inexpensive.