QR codes are found everywhere these days – on menus, in businesses, and yes, even in churches! If you're wondering how your church can use QR codes to effectively engage and connect with your congregation, you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll outline the best ways to use these square codes to share important information about your church services, collect tithes and offerings, and grow your church.
Invented in the early 1990s, these little squares called QR or Quick Response Codes are popping up everywhere these days. From accessing menus at restaurants to filling out health forms at the doctor’s office, they are a big part of our world. They’re also a big part of the fundraising world, too – and should definitely be a part of your church!
A QR code is a kind of multi-dimensional barcode that holds more information than a traditional barcode. All someone has to do is scan the code with their smartphone to be directed to a website.
Churches are one area where QR codes are particularly useful…but might not be as common yet. There are tons of ways your church can incorporate QR codes into your materials to make life easier both for you and your congregation.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of QR codes for churches, including how to create a QR code for your church using Donorbox.
Let’s first look at why you should consider using QR codes for your church.
QR codes are only going to get more popular. In fact, the number of smartphone users scanning QR codes is projected to increase from 83.4 million in 2022 to 99.5 million in 2025. That’s a lot of QR code scanning!
QR codes are quick, secure, and effective ways to get information to your church members. Instead of asking someone to type a clunky URL in their smartphone’s browser, they can quickly scan a code and seamlessly visit your landing page, donation form, and more.
Plus, they’re easy to generate, so creating them doesn’t put any additional strain on your church staff or volunteers. For example, Donorbox gives you a free QR code for every campaign you create on it. It is automatically generated and you can customize it further to match your church’s needs. Read more on this later!
The uses for QR codes are really as endless as your imagination. Here are 5 ways to incorporate QR codes in your church.
In an increasingly cashless world, collecting in-person tithes only is not enough for your church. That’s where online tithing and QR codes can help. Instead of relying on the spare change in your congregants’ pockets, create a QR code that links directly to an online donation form where they can give with cards and digital wallets.
When you use Donorbox’s free QR code, you can simply download it and put it up at your church or on marketing materials. This code will redirect donors to your Donorbox donation form. Check this example of a fundraiser flyer helping direct people to the church’s donation page via the Donorbox QR code.
Get QR Codes for Your Fundraising Campaigns!
Donorbox’s donation forms enable donations through popular digital wallets like Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, and Venmo with UltraSwift™ Pay. Your donors can quickly choose a digital wallet to make a donation or proceed to use other methods like credit/debit cards, bank transfers, direct debit, etc.
Our donation forms also enable your one-time donors to save their precious information and later log in to their donor accounts to use QuickDonate™ and repeat their donations without having to re-enter their information.
You can also easily encourage recurring giving by linking your QR code to your Donorbox’s recurring donation form where you’ve both preselected a donation interval and shown your recommended interval with a heart. You can customize your donation form to accept things like love offerings and honorary donations, too.
Pro tip: Include the QR code in multiple places around your church, as well as on your church connection cards and fundraising flyers.
QR codes are great for helping your church community quickly connect with content like audio prayers, recorded sermons, group discussions, and more.
For example, if you have content on YouTube, you can create a QR code that links church visitors to your YouTube channel.
The best thing about the Donorbox QR code is that you can customize it – even the link! So, in case you want to use it to redirect people to a different landing page, you can just add the link and download the code to use it.
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A fantastic way to recruit more volunteers is to make it as easy as possible for them to sign up.
Instead of having a volunteer sign-up list posted around your church – where people might feel too shy to publicly share their information – you can post a QR code that takes them directly to an online sign-up form.
That way you can collect more detailed information privately and securely.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, virtual events became a common occurrence for churches. Because they’re so convenient and can reach a wider audience, they’re still a popular choice these days. Make it easy for attendees to access your virtual fundraising events with handy QR codes. Add these codes to your email communications and digital tickets.
You can also use QR codes to redirect your church visitors and members to your online event page to buy tickets to your upcoming events. Customize your Donorbox QR code to add the link of your event page and redirect people to buy tickets. You can share this code via your email newsletters, church lobby, flyers, and more.
And for your church events (in-person or virtual!), we have a simple and powerful solution – Donorbox Events. It’s an easy-to-use and highly efficient event ticketing system that lets you create customized event pages and ticketing forms. You can add unlimited ticket tiers, highlight tax-deductibility information, set deadlines and ticket quantity, accept donations, and even embed the ticketing form on your website.
QR codes are great for sharing information around your church. For example, if parts of your church have historic significance, you can create a QR code linking to an online explanation of the history.
For another example, if your church is undergoing a capital campaign, you can post QR codes explaining the proposed changes to your church. It will help church visitors envision what the project will look like and feel compelled to give!
No matter how you decide to use QR codes around your church, they’re easy to generate and customize with Donorbox.
Generating a QR Code for your church is easy using Donorbox. Let’s walk through all the steps.
First, you’ll need to sign up for an account. This is quick, easy, and entirely free.
You’ll just need basic information to get started.
Once you have signed up, log in to your new account. If you already have an account on Donorbox, you can directly come to this step.
Read our step-by-step guide to learn about all the steps in detail. You can also watch our quick video tutorial to easily get started.
Under “Fundraise” on your Donorbox account, you’ll find the option “Campaigns”. Click it to go to the Campaigns page.
Here you’ll be able to create a campaign. Just click the button as shown below and get started.
Once you’ve clicked that, you can decide which type of campaign you’d like to create. Your options are Donation Form, Crowdfunding or Fundraising Page, or a Membership Form. Select whichever works for you.
From there, you’ll be prompted to enter your campaign name and goal, and then create and customize your campaign. Before you go live, you’ll need to connect your payment processor.
For a full guide, check out the step-by-step instructions in our article – getting started with Donorbox.
As soon as you create your campaign, you’ll see your campaign dashboard.
You can find the QR code generated for your account at the top navigation bar, as shown below.
Once you click the QR code drop-down, you’ll see the option to download it or customize it.
You have the option to customize your QR code before you download it.
To do that, click “Customize.” You’ll be taken to a different screen where you can change the link for your QR code to whatever you’d like.
You can also change the size and the download format.
You can download your church QR code directly from the customize page. Just click the orange “Download” button at the bottom of the page.
If you don’t need to customize your QR code, simply download it from your main campaign dashboard.
Select your preferred file type from the drop-down. PNG or SVG are your options.
Then click “Download” and voila! You have a downloaded QR code.
Once your code is downloaded, you can add it to a variety of materials to increase your campaign’s visibility.
QR codes are popular – and they’re here to stay. Getting your church up to speed with this handy tool is as easy as generating your first QR code and deciding how you want to use it.
Whether your focus is making weekly tithing easier or connecting your congregation with online events, generating a QR code takes only a few steps with Donorbox – and it’s absolutely free.
Thousands of churches trust Donorbox to update their fundraising to suit our modern world – and what modern donors expect. With online tithing through recurring donation forms, selling event tickets to diversify revenue, launching peer-to-peer fundraising pages, and more, Donorbox can help boost your church fundraising, no matter where you’re starting.
Learn about Donorbox’s powerful fundraising tools on our website. Ready to modernize your church fundraising? Get started today in minutes.
Learn more about church fundraising, get tips and resources, and find leadership best practices at the Donorbox Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a collection of our best resources in your inbox every month!
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower