The Flexible Offering Envelope Program
Improve the effectiveness of your offering envelopes...with a flexible approach...
based on giving your members only the number of offering envelopes they'll use.
Cathedral's Flexible Offering Envelope Program provides your members with customized offering envelopes built around each individual family or member's frequency of making offerings.
The Flex Program offers total flexibility to provide the number, type and delivery mode of your offering envelopes, plus the option to personalize, select designs, color and benefit from Cathedral's latest bar coding, dating, numbering and mailing technologies…leading to less laborious processing, higher rates of contributions, and a program that recognizes today's emphasis on preserving the environment.
Example Cost Savings
Cathedral Parish had traditionally provided annual boxed sets, consisting of 52 Sunday envelopes and 8 special collection envelopes, to its 533 members - a total distribution of 31,980 envelopes.
After the parish was surveyed and the Cathedral Flexible Offering Envelope Program was installed, 177 members continued to receive annual boxed sets. However, 255 moved to 12 monthly envelopes and 8 specials, and 131 received 26 weekly biweekly envelopes and 8 specials, leading to a reduction of almost 12,000 envelopes.
The Flex Program enables you to provide exactly the right number of offering envelopes to your church members according to the number of times each of them makes contributions throughout the year - whether weekly, biweekly, monthly or quarterly - whenever!
Providing the appropriate number of offering envelopes to each contributing member has often proved to lower offering envelope costs and actually increase contribution amounts.
This program is also an excellent way to rekindle relationships with your inactive members because it enables them to contribute to the church on their own terms!
It's Easy to Get Started
The first step is a simple survey of your church's membership to determine the frequency of giving preferences of each member.
You can use the sample survey form provided by Cathedral to distribute to your membership, or you can ask your treasurer to review the frequency of past contributions of each pledging family or individual member, including how well they respond to special collections.
You will learn many things about the giving preferences of individual members:
- How often they give
- How many envelopes are too many or too few
- How they respond to special collection envelopes
- Whether they want to contribute electronically
Evaluate Survey Results
It's likely you'll be surprised at the number of offering envelopes which go unused by your parish...when you understand the actual number of times contributions are made during the year.
The most obvious and significant element of the survey data is that the church may be able to reduce its annual envelope consumption. The reduction in envelopes is accomplished by providing an appropriate product to each giving unit. Members will see first-hand the church's efforts to reduce waste, and may respond in kind with increased offerings - renewed in their faith that the church will spend their contributions wisely.
Prepare Your Flex Program Member List(s)
You can build a worksheet that lists each member and the envelope program they will receive. This will give you approximate counts for each envelope program. At this point, we can provide you with a cost estimate.
Typically, we require separate member lists for each envelope program ordered.
Product Options
Each of Cathedral's envelope products offers a unique set of features and benefits. The Flexible Contribution Program allows you to apply any combination of these envelope products to address your church's unique weekly offering challenges. This flexible, "Best Fit" approach pays maximum dividends on your investment.
Mailing Program: Mailing offering envelopes remind members to come to church. Each packet can be mailed monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, or semi-annually. Each packet can contain 1 envelope per week, 1 envelope per month, 2 envelopes per month. In addition to Sunday envelopes, the packets can contain all, some or none of your special collections.
Automatic Contribution Transfer (ACT): For members that want the convenience and efficiency of pre-authorized contributions deducted from their checking account and transferred directly to the church's bank account. Representative offering envelopes can be made available to ACT participants for simulated "plate" offerings during services.
Boxed Sets: Full and partial boxed sets are also available for consistent givers and those who give regularly according to their pay schedules - weekly, every other week, twice a month, or monthly.
But That's Not All...
There are many other benefits to the Cathedral Flex Program.
The Flex Program helps eliminate the waste of unnecessary and unwanted offering envelopes… and provides you and your church leadership with valuable information.
The offering envelope survey affords the opportunity to frame questions which reveal (or confirm) contribution patters and preferences in your parish. You may discover how to increase the awareness of special fund raising and capital projects.
You may uncover opportunities to build or rebuild a new spirit of stewardship. In fact, the more you learn, the better off you are in managing your church's resources in an effective and sensible fashion. And importantly, it's very likely that you'll be able to accomplish this and save funds at the same time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Q. What is the Flexible Offering Envelope Program (Flex Program)?
A. The Flex Program is predicated on the fact that a significant number of offering envelopes go unused because church members make their contributions less (or more) frequently than the number of envelopes supplied. As a result, thousands of offering envelopes are wasted each year. Cathedral's Flex Program provides your members with customized envelope programs built around each individual member's frequency of making offerings.
Q. What are the benefits of switching to the Flex Program?
A. The program offers you the flexibility to provide the number, type, and delivery mode of your offering envelopes…as well as the option to personalize, select designs, colors, bar coding, dating, and numbering, while benefiting from Cathedral's latest mailing technologies.
Q. Can we switch to the Flex Program during the church year?
A. Yes. You can switch to the Cathedral Flex Program at any time during the year.
Q. Are we limited to certain envelope designs?
A. No. You will have the opportunity to select from a great variety of traditional and contemporary envelope graphics. Just call and ask to speak with a Cathedral Stewardship Consultant who will work with you to design a Flex Program to suit your needs and budget constraints.
Q. Can we mix how our offering envelopes are distributed to members?
A. Yes, that's the idea behind the Flex Program. It is expected that your members will opt for various numbers of envelopes, and the way they want to receive them. For example, some members may wish to receive their offering envelopes in a boxed set at the start of each year. Others may want their envelopes mailed to them on a regular basis.
Q. Do minimum quantities apply to the various envelope options?
A. Yes. We require a minimum of 75 members/sets in each segment.
Q. Can we get a cost estimate before we switch to the Flex program?
A. Yes. A Cathedral Stewardship Consultant will be happy to provide you with a cost estimate once your survey is complete and the options and amounts in each category are known.
