There aren’t any specific statistics about this, but many church leaders know that most pastors are not gifted administrators — quite the opposite, in fact. This means pastors should be strong delegators, portioning out the work to other leaders and even using good church event registration software to help manage your various church events.
A well-handled church event can draw many new people to your church, but a terrible experience can do the opposite. Mishandling registrations, errors in ticket distribution, or poor communication can easily sow chaos and push people away from your event and even your church.
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of creating streamlined events and how strong church management can help overworked, non-administrative pastors see their vision come to fruition. We’ll then outline a list of some of the best online resources to help you manage your church programs and events.
By the end of this article, you’ll understand why you need help with event management and which service best suits your needs.
Why Effective Event Management Matters for Your Church
Effective event management is crucial for your church to strengthen its church community and impact its neighborhood or city. Well-organized events grow community and a sense of belonging among church members and with everyone else who shows up. Events and church programs are also great outreach tools that attract new community members and should leave a positive impression on them as they leave.
When you draw people to your church, you want to ensure they have a hassle-free experience. You want people to leave satisfied instead of frustrated, fulfilled instead of drained.
Many pastors will put more effort into dreaming up the event or church program and less effort into the practical means of managing that event. Every pastor knows the importance of running an event well but is often too overworked or unsure of how to manage every aspect of event management. Pastors may then try to manage the event themselves or delegate tasks to other church leaders who may or may not be able to manage an event effectively.
If this strikes a chord with you, you’re not alone.
A better solution is to rely on those who know event management well. In recent years, church event registration software has excelled in meeting the needs of any sized event while at the same time being easy enough for the less tech-savvy of us to operate simply.
Some benefits of online church event registration software include:
- Central planning: All your management needs are handled in one space online.
- Registration and ticketing: Automated collection of registration and distribution of tickets if needed, along with receipt distribution.
- Communication tools: Communicate with everyone who registered regarding any updates to the event.
- Financial management: Receives ticket fees and donations easily while providing clear financial accounting for every event you offer.
- Event web pages: Create your own clean and customizable event pages to embed in your website where people can easily register.
- Enhanced event check-in: Guests can check in with a QR code or an event code that streamlines the entry process and lightens the load of volunteers.
These are just a handful of benefits you can find with church event registration software. Most online tools will have these benefits, among others that help with church fundraising. Most of all, you’ll have peace of mind when it comes to event management.
The Best Event Management Software for Churches
Here’s a list of some of the more popular church event management software you can find online.
Donorbox
Donorbox is widely known for serving non-profits and churches with its best-in-class fundraising and donor management services for a decade through its goal of “Helping you help others.” Donorbox’s event management takes that support even further with several benefits for churches, such as:
Key features:
- Tax-deductible calculations for ticket sales.
- Fundraising goals for events and church programs.
- Donation options on top of ticket sales.
- Ask donors to cover transaction fees.
- Unlimited ticket types and deadlines.
- Promo codes for particular groups.
Donorbox meets more needs than just event management. It offers a large variety of ways to increase your donations through things like Live Kiosk, recurring donations, and several easy ways to give, like text-to-give.
Pricing
Best of all, you can sign up and use its services for free, only paying 2.95% on each transaction for its vast fundraising capabilities and event management services.
Planning Center
Planning Center has established itself as a go-to resource for churches of any size, but it comes at a significant monthly cost. Their event management ties into its larger all-in-one Church management software platform, creating an indispensable resource for large and small churches. If you already use Planning Center as a Church Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), you may want to look at its event management product because it ties in easily with everything else in Planning Center.
Key features:
- Room management for small groups and other church programs, allowing you to schedule the use of spaces in church.
- Share upcoming events easily through its companion app, Church Center, or through a link to an online calendar.
- Manage requests from members for church facilities.
Pricing:
If you only have one room to manage, you can do so for free. But the price jumps up from there to $15/month for 5 rooms all the way to their top-tier unlimited plan for $239/month. In addition, each of their other products that make for useful central planning are all sold individually at monthly rates. Planning Center has free plans for each product, so you can try them out and see how you like them before committing.
Eventbrite
While not specifically geared to churches, Eventbrite is often used by churches to manage their events, with a few benefits that church-specific event managers may not have.
Key features:
- Broaden your reach by listing your event on the Eventbrite website along with other events in your community.
- Easily sign up for a free account.
- Marketing and ad services are provided for extra costs if you want to pay to reach even more people.
Pricing:
Eventbrite is free to set up. A portion of your ticket sales, 3.7% + $1.79 service fee per ticket with a 2.9% payment processing fee per order, is taken with each order in place of monthly fees. You can also pay extra for ads and other marketing help.
Breeze
Like Planning Center, Breeze is an all-in-one resource for churches, with event management as one of its tools. Breeze’s strength comes from integrating with its other tools, such as People, Giving, and Messaging.
Key features:
- Print out name tags for children or attendees.
- Schedules volunteers for your events.
- Facilitates rooms and spaces in your church for the many different events and groups using each.
Pricing:
Users pay a reasonably low monthly fee of $72/month for most services, with an additional tier of $119/month that adds some extra services like an app and website. When compared to Planning Center, you will most likely pay less for Breeze. However, Planning Center lets you choose which of the tools you need, whereas Breeze gives you the whole package, regardless of whether you need each tool or not.
RSVPify
Like Donorobox, RSVPify lets you integrate it into whatever system you currently use. You can easily embed registration forms on your website, and it is useful for any event, including your more detailed Vacation Bible Schools.
Key features:
- Collects custom data during registration if you want to ask about t-shirt sizes or ask about food allergies.
- Easy check-in with a QR code.
- Communicate with your registrants and send them reminders.
Pricing:
You can use the basic RSVPify tools for “free” for up to 100 RSVPs for $.90 per ticket, item, or donation + 1.95%. RSVPify also provides a $39/month plan for professional services a church offers, with some added benefits.
These are some of the top church event registration software resources, though you could find others with a quick web search.
Each one has its pros and cons, with some managing a whole slew of church needs (with the added high cost of doing so) to others like Donorbox, which costs a small percentage of each ticket or donation and comes with tools that help you easily implement your event within your existing website and network.
Conclusion
As pastors and church leaders, don’t let the stress of managing your events and church programs deter you from dreaming up new ways to reach and empower your communities. Plenty of services are available to help you streamline your events for a lower cost than hiring someone to do it for you. And, these online registration services are easy to learn. It’s a win-win.
If you are looking for other ways to enhance your fundraising and donor management, check out Donorbox MinistryMomentum. Its focus is on establishing consistent giving to your church through innovative means like Donorbox QuickDonate™ and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk. Check it out to see the many ways Donorbox MinistryMomentum can help your church today.
Here at Church Giving, we pride ourselves on providing accurate information for pastors and other Church leaders on topics like maximizing church offerings, fundraising, church management, and more. Visit our homepage to find more helpful articles like this one.
