In San Francisco, Catholic Church takes collections via iPhone

“In San Francisco, where technology is almost a religion, the Catholic Church is moving beyond the collection plate and weekly newsletter,” Keith Wagstaff reports for NBC News. “The Archdiocese of San Francisco is partnering with Evergive, a service that starting on Friday will let Bay Area Catholics donate money, share prayers and more from their computers or smartphones.”

“The Catholic Church has already embraced social media at the highest (well, nearly highest) levels. But this technology could help local churches, where money still is dropped into collection plates and announcements come in neatly folded newsletters,” Wagstaff reports. “‘It helps our parishes, especially those with limited resources, get access to a level of technology that they never could have afforded,’ Father Anthony Giampietro, the interim director of development for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, told NBC News.”

“The Archdiocese of San Francisco has around 443,000 members, making it Evergive‘s largest and most important customer. The company charges a small processing fee on each donation, similar to credit card transaction fees,” Wagstaff reports. “It’s an arrangement that Giampietro finds fair, noting that Evergive only prospers if the Church is prospering too. The ability to create donation pages around new projects was also a big draw. ‘The ease with which we could set up a campaign for Nepal or a youth group was astounding,’ Giampietro said.”

Read more in the full article here.

“Evergive is just ‘one more way’ faith communities can give to the church, including writing a check, donating online and using the collection basket, Basilian Father Anthony Giampietro, the archdiocese’s interim director of development, told Catholic San Francisco. The Palo Alto-based Evergive is targeting a new generation of Catholics who occupy digital communities and use their smartphones or computers for social and financial transactions. ‘We know many of our young parishioners don’t even have a check- book anymore,’ he said,” Christina Gray reports for The Archdiocese of San Francisco.

“The free Evergive app, which can be downloaded to any smartphone or accessed online, offers users a digest of daily inspiration and information, including daily Mass readings and prayers, communications from the Archbishop, Pope Francis’ Twitter feed, headlines from Catholic San Francisco and, naturally, fundraising appeals,” Gray reports. “Father Giampietro said that several parishes in the San Jose diocese are using Evergive with success, with one pastor posting his homilies and receiving feedback from his congregation on the app.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Holy tech!

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dennis” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]

14 Comments

      1. The Bible is Truth, and it condemns the actions of the RCC. If you ignore that obvious fact, you do so at your own peril.

        And by the way, people who support the church of the Inquisition do not get to play the victim card.

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