Did you join a group in Realm last week? I know many of you did because I got the requests. I hope you are using it now to reach out to your friends in the parish. Today we are going to talk about giving using Realm. I should start by saying that if you have given online in the past, you have been using a system called Qgiv. Qgiv is how we set up online giving shortly after I arrived 7 years ago. That giving system will remain for now. If you have giving set up with Qgiv, and you are pleased with how that works, you may continue to use it. The main drawback to Qgiv is it is a different system and provider. Meaning, someone must take that information and manually enter it into our financial management system. That typically happens about once a week, so if you made a gift there and have signed into Realm to see it, it will take a week or so to show up. If you haven’t yet set up online giving, or if you simply want that immediate gratification of seeing the contribution on your record now, follow these instructions to use Realm. This is our preferred system and means of giving going forward, and we encourage everyone to consider using it.
Once you have your Realm sign in, making a recurring or one-time gift is easy. I have prepared a video tutorial which you can access by clicking here. The first step is to sign into Realm. If you don’t have your Realm sign in yet, what are you waiting for? Call our Realm help desk at (561) 853-0969. When you sign in, as always, you arrive at your news feed.
On the left click on the word ‘Giving’. This takes you to the giving page. Here you can see your giving history. The default view shows your ‘Year to Date’ contributions for the current year. You can see more of your giving history by clicking on the filter icon. You can also print a contribution statement for any date range you want. Filter for the date you want, and when you have time frame you want showing on the screen, click the print icon at the top. This will generate a statement, with the language necessary for the IRS included. The top of the Statement will tell you the date range that you have printed.
On the right side of the screen you can see your giving number, your current or past pledges and if you share this giving record with anyone (most married couples do this). You can also ‘manage your payment methods’. If you haven’t made a pledge click ‘+Pledge’ near the top in the middle of the page. Enter the pledge amount in the first box, make sure the Annual Campaign shows in the second box, and choose what frequency you want to make the gift. A $1,000 pledge given ‘once a month’ for a year is a $12,000 pledge but a $1,000 pledge given ‘as can’ is $1,000 pledge. You can choose to ‘save Pledge’ or ‘Save & Set Up Online Gift’. The second choice takes you straight into setting up the gift online with the fields already filled in.
If you already have a pledge set up, or you just want to make a one-time contribution, click the ‘+Give’ button near the top in the middle pane. This will take you to giving. Enter the amount, fund, the frequency to give. You can also choose a gift date if you want the gift to post at a later date. You can also choose an end date if you are making a recurring gift. Now click ‘Continue’.
The next screen is where you choose your payment method. If you have a payment method set up (remember ‘Manage your Payment methods’ from the giving screen?) that payment information will display here. You can choose to use one previously set up or add a new payment method. You can also choose to contribute an extra amount to cover the processing costs charged to the church by banks and processing companies. We incur transaction fees on every contribution, and this gives you the opportunity to cover that cost for us. Now click the ‘Give $XXX’ button at the bottom. Wasn’t that simple? If you need more complete instructions, click the video link. The process is very simple and will take less time than reading these instructions. We would appreciate everyone taking advantage of this new tool, and if you need help, call our help desk at (561) 853-0969.
Fred Staley
Associate for Administration