AppleInsider Staff
Starting this Friday, Catholics in San Francisco will be able to donate to their local church by using an iPhone app, bringing modern technology to the millennia-old practice of tithing.
The so-called "digital collection plate" stems from a partnership between the Archdiocese of San Francisco and Evergive, as detailed by NBC on Wednesday. Beginning with this weekend's masses, parishioners will be able to donate through the free Evergive app, which is available for Apple's iPhone, as well as on Android.
The partnership with the Archdiocese of San Francisco and its 433,000 members marks the largest agreement yet for Evergive, which aims to assist "mission-driven organizations" in collecting donations. Much like with a standard credit card transaction, Evergive keeps a small percentage of each donation it processes.
Father Anthony Giampietro, interim director of development for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said the arrangement is justified as a benefit of convenience on both sides. He noted that Evergive not only makes it easy for churchgoers to give, but also simplifies creating new donation categories for special causes.
"The ease with which we could set up a campaign for Nepal or a youth group was astounding," Giampietro told NBC.
The app goes beyond donations, and will also serve as something of a digital community for members of the Catholic Church in San Francisco. Through the app, users will receive updates, can join groups, share messages and prayers, and more.
After spending a few months in beta, the partnership in San Francisco marks the formal launch of Evergive. The application is now available to faith-based organizations anywhere in the U.S.
In the future, Evergive plans to support nondenominational organizations such as parent-teacher associations, relief funds, alumni groups, and city improvement projects. Mission-driven organizations are invited to contact the company.
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22 Comments
Will it work for non Catholics too?
Will it work for non Catholics too?
“The application is now available to faith-based organizations anywhere in the U.S"
Or can’t you read? Or are you just trying to be cute?
I'm not sure who's foolish enough to give 10%, but I get the point. Now if church officials (Catholic or otherwise) can use an app to give away money, that'll be great.
Our church and hundreds of others have been doing this for years now. This is not news.
I'm not sure who's foolish enough to give 10%, but I get the point. Now if church officials (Catholic or otherwise) can use an app to give away money, that'll be great.
Nota Bene*: you're not required to give 10% (in spite of the word "tithe")... you can do more, you can do less. I think only the Mormons (LDS Church) require a specific percentage to be given from its membership (and even then, it's only a requirement to be 'temple-worthy').
* see what I did there? That's Latin, darlin' ;)
Oh, one other bit: The Catholic Church is IIRC the largest charitable organization on the planet - the vast majority of their income goes right back out in charitable causes and activities (education, medical assistance, food banks, disaster relief, etc). For instance, CRS (Catholic Relief Services) is usually the first group of folks to arrive on-scene at any disaster, often before the Red Cross/Crescent can do so - the most recent of these examples was right after the recent Nepal earthquakes.