Donorbox + Rock RMS: An Innovative Integration to Grow Your Church

We’re pleased to introduce you to Donorbox + Rock RMS, a new native integration that combines our industry-leading fundraising platform with an effective, easy-to-use church management system to help you grow church giving.

6 minutes read
Donorbox + Rock RMS: An Innovative Integration to Grow Your Church

Connecting with others and building relationships is a large part of serving as a leader in your church. After all, the primary reason many people go to church is to join a community. 

Another important facet of leading a congregation or parish is raising funds to support your church and its ministries. Whether through weekly offerings, tithing, or special one-time gifts, these donations enable you to better serve Christ and His people. 

Luckily, there are several tools available to help grow your church through relationship-building and fundraising. And you can now combine two of the industry’s top platforms to create an innovative solution that does it all! 

We’re pleased to introduce you to Donorbox + Rock RMS, a new native integration that combines our industry-leading fundraising platform with an effective, easy-to-use church management system to help you grow church giving. 


What is Rock RMS?

Rock RMS is an open-source church management software solution that empowers churches to better track and engage their members, build better relationships, and bring in more funds to support their missions. They offer several tools within their system, including member check-in, donation and attendance tracking, event registration, and more, plus they make it easy to collect members’ contact information.

With Rock RMS, you can add detailed notes on each individual, including various activities such as if and when they joined the church or were baptized. You can also form connections by grouping individuals together, from families to bible study groups to church choirs and beyond. And Rock RMS makes it simple to track members’ actions and involvement with engagement patterns and milestones.  

Plus, Rock RMS is free to use! They are a nonprofit organization and ask for a donation – the suggested annual gift is $3 for each weekly member – so that churches of all sizes can access and benefit from their incredible tools. 


The Benefits of Donorbox + Rock RMS

Donorbox offers several features perfect for churches through our MinistryMatters pillar, including:

  • Customizable online donation forms that encourage repeat gifts through up to six recurring donation options as well as designated funds, tribute gifts, and more.  
  • Donorbox Text-to-Give, which enables supporters to give with a simple text message by sending the link to your secure giving form to their mobile phone.
  • The Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app that turns any iPad or Android tablet into a giving kiosk that accepts gifts via credit or debit cards and digital wallets. 
  • Donorbox QuickDonate™, which makes it possible for donors to save their information, log in to their account in the future, and give again with just the click of a button. 
  • Customizable QR codes, provided with each campaign, that can be used around your building, in the church bulletin, and more, enabling supporters to access your giving form by simply scanning the code. 

With Donorbox + Rock RMS, donor data flows directly into Rock RMS from your Donorbox campaigns, automatically updating existing member profiles and creating new ones as needed with every gift. These profile details include name, donation amounts, contact information, and more. 

Screenshot of a sample profile within Rock RMS.

Donorbox + Rock RMS saves you time and makes it easier to build those longer-lasting relationships that encourage growth for your church. How? Well, by storing your data in a church management system like Rock RMS, you improve your engagement with churchgoers in several ways: 

  • Keep track of giving history: Use Rock RMS – and the integration with Donorbox – to see every gift made for every member of your congregation and supporter of your ministry, enabling you to find patterns, see which outreach efforts brought in the most funds, and segment supporters based on the ministries they prefer to fund.
  • View attendance patterns: With Rock RMS, you can have your members check in each Sunday, later using this data to track attendance trends across your congregation.
  • Take note of outreach, connections, and more: In each member profile, you can make an unlimited number of notes that will enable you to keep track of outreach – such as when you talked to Sally about volunteering in Sunday school or Tom about joining the church choir – as well as key milestones like baptisms, confirmation, and more.
  • Turn visitors into members: Use Rock RMS’ tools to create a structured program for welcoming visitors, encouraging them to attend again, and eventually turning them into members that regularly attend services. 
  • And much more!

How to Integrate Donorbox and Rock RMS

Integrating Donorbox with Rock RMS takes just a few steps. And, once you’re set up, every new donation made via a Donorbox form will automatically flow into your Rock RMS platform!


1. Set Up a Donorbox account

If you haven’t already, start by creating a Donorbox account. You can sign up for free or get started with a Pro or Premium plan to access additional features and lowered fees. The Rock RMS integration is available as an add-on to all plans for $50/month. 

Already have an account? Click here to log in! 


2. Sign up with Rock RMS

You’ll also need to create an account with Rock RMS here. You can choose to either have Rock RMS hosted on Rock’s servers or self-host on your own servers. 


3. Add a REST Key in Rock RMS

Once both accounts have been created, you’re ready to start the integration process. 

First, you’ll need to create an API Key in Rock RMS, also known as a REST Key. 

Log in to your Rock RMS dashboard. Navigate to Admin Tools and select ‘Security.’

donorbox and rock rms integration steps

Select the REST Keys tile.

Adding a rest key to rock rms to integrate with Donorbox

Click the ‘plus’ icon to create a new REST Key.

creating a new rest key in rock rms

Now, select a name for your new Key. It can be any name, but we recommend using a name that is descriptive and helps you remember where the Key will be used. 

Once you have added the name, click ‘Generate Key’ and then select ‘Save.’ You have now created a new REST Key.

creating a new rest key steps in rock rms


4. Create a new Security Role

Next up, return to the ‘Security’ page under ‘Admin Tools’ and click on the Security Roles tile.

Here, select ‘RSR – Rock Administration’ by clicking anywhere on the row except the red ‘X’ icon. 

Select the ‘plus’ icon to create a User to Role, then search for the REST Key name that you just entered in the previous step. Click ‘Save.’

creating a new security role on rock rms for donorbox integration


5. Activate the integration on Donorbox

Now, return to your Donorbox account. Under the Integrations & Add-ons drop-down in the sidebar, click ‘Rock RMS.’

Once on this page, simply click the ‘Activate Add-on’ button and the integration will be turned on for your account for $50/month.

Rock RMS + Donorbox integration add-on page in the Donorbox org account.

From here, all you need to do is enter the Rock RMS Web URL in the first field and then the REST Key that you generated in the second field. Click ‘Save’ and you’re all set up!

data mapping for rock rms and donorbox integration

As soon as these steps are complete, the integration starts working. This integration takes care of all required standard mappings, including the name of the campaign, donor name, contact details (email, address, etc.), payment type, and financial transaction details (date, time, amount, recurring gift info, etc.). 

After the integration is active, you’ll have the option to map additional fields on the ‘Rock RMS’ page. These field mappings will show up after successfully connecting to Rock RMS, and you can map any of these fields to the corresponding attributes on the Person or Financial Transaction entities. Just make sure to click ‘Save’ after every update!

map the fields on donorbox to connect to rock rms

You also have the option to map Donorbox campaigns to specific Rock RMS accounts on the integration page. If you do not map them, the integration will attempt to match the campaigns based on name and will create a new account in your Rock RMS system if there is no existing account with the exact same name as the campaign.

campaign specific mappings for donorbox and rock rms integration


How the integration maps data from Donorbox to Rock RMS

The below entities and attributes are auto-synced by the integration:

Donorbox Object Rock RMS Entity
Supporter People
Campaign Accounts
Recurring Donation Financial Batch
Donation Financial Payment Detail
Donation Financial Transaction

And these attributes for the above-mentioned entities are mapped in Rock RMS by default:

Accounts (Campaigns)

  • Name
  • IsActive
  • Public Name

People

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email
  • isEmailActive
  • GUID
  • Address Data (Location object linked to People)
    • Street1
    • Street2
    • City
    • State
    • PostalCode

Financial Payment Detail

  • Payment Type (PayPal, Credit Card, Other, etc.)

Financial Transaction

  • Summary
  • Transaction Date Time
  • Authorized Person Alias Id
  • Financial Payment Detail Id (foreign key)
  • GUID
  • Transaction Detail
    • Amount
    • Account Id (foreign key)
  • Financial Batch (in case it is a recurring donation)
    • Name
    • Batch Start Date Time
    • Status

Whenever a donation is made through Donorbox, the integration searches for the corresponding person and account in Rock RMS using the mapped fields above. If the account already exists in Rock RMS, the integration simply updates it. If it does not, a new account is automatically created. The same holds true for recurring donations – a new financial batch is only created for a new recurring donation, and will then create financial transactions linked to that batch on subsequent payments made in the same plan.  


Final Thoughts

Engaging with members of your church and forming strong relationships is critical for church leadership, as is fundraising to support your mission. But it is often time-consuming to keep track of every congregant, their connections, and their contributions.

That’s where the Donorbox + Rock RMS integration comes in. By combining these two powerful tools, you can access all of the important information about your church members as well as critical data that can help you raise more funds and grow your church, all in one place. 

Launch this innovative integration today to start flowing data directly from your Donorbox campaigns into Rock RMS. 

Learn more about Donorbox and our industry-leading fundraising tools on our website. Find ideas, tips, and more to help you raise funds for your mission and grow your church on the Nonprofit Blog.

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Kara has several years of experience in communications and marketing for nonprofit organizations, with knowledge in social media, email, public relations, event promotion, appeal writing, and more. She specializes in writing and enjoys sharing her expertise and advice with others.

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