We connected with Reaching & Teaching about their experience moving donations processing from external giving links to fully integrated giving forms. Julianne Manning, Customer Care Manager at Stewardship interviewed Chad Ireland, Director of Operations for Reaching & Teaching, who explains how using an integrated approach helped them create a better giving experience for their donors.
“We wanted to create a consistent website experience for donors who visit our website.”
JM: Can you tell me a bit about your organization and your mission?
CI: Reaching & Teaching provides local church leaders with access to theological education and pastoral training so that they can build effective, healthy churches. Because 85% of pastors have no formal theological training, we facilitate and lead Short-term Training Trips where missionaries provide theological and leadership training to church pastors and leaders around the world.
JM: How long have you been processing with Stewardship?
CI: We have been processing with Stewardship for about 7 years.
JM: You recently decided to start processing through our API instead of using our traditional forms. What drove this decision?
CI: We wanted to create a consistent website experience for donors who visit our website. While we integrated ST into our website, we continue to utilize designated give pages for our personnel for a simplified user experience for targeted giving.
JM: What kind of feedback have you heard from your team as far as how easy it is to use the API and documentation?
CI: We contracted with a web developer to utilize the API. Stewardship created a Sandbox environment for our developers to be able to test different API functions so our developers could test their code. Once they understood what information integrated, it was pretty straightforward.
JM: Are you able to create and track Designations as you had hoped?
CI: Yes and no. There were some hiccups when we first launched, but our developers were able to figure out the problem fairly quickly. Now, everything is operating properly.
We can create designations through the UI as we were used to. Then, through the API we can direct the designations to the forms we created.
JM: How has this impacted your reporting? Are you able to pull reports with the same information that you needed before?
CI: Yes, we’re still able to track the same information and designations through the reports we had used prior to using the API.
JM: In what circumstances would you recommend the API to other nonprofits?
CI: I would recommend nonprofits use the API if they want to build a giving platform directly into their website, and if they want to maintain consistent branding and create donor reassurance.
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About the interviewee:
Chad Ireland is the Director of Operations at Reaching & Teaching where he has served since 2016. He is a two-time graduate of Southern Seminary (MDiv & DMin) and has over 15 years of ministry experience in the local church and missions. He oversees all Operations of RTIM and serves on the leadership team. For more information about their integrated payments experience, or to make a donation, visit www.rtim.org/give/