With the launch of its new website, The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church now makes it possible for members and friends to pay pledges and make other financial gifts to the church online.

In providing this new way to donate, NYAPC has contracted with an outside company, Memphis, Tennessee-based ServiceU, for the web-based system that takes and processes donations. ServiceU specializes in working with churches and offers the highest available level of security for online giving. NYAPC members and friends can designate the funds to which they wish to contribute and select the payment method—either e-checks (direct bank account drafts) or credit cards. Donors who establish an online profile or account can make recurring gifts and keep and view a history of their online giving. In addition, anytime you log in to make a donation, you will save time because the system will automatically fill in known fields, such as name, address, and city.

Most opportunities to contribute electronically to NYAPC can be found in the “GIVE” section of the church website. Paying pledges differs from other online gifts in that a donor must establish a profile or account, and payment may only be by e-check. All other gifts to the church may be made either by setting up an account or as a guest, and gifts may be made by credit card as well as e-check.

How to Make and Pay Pledges Online

Step 1: Make your pledge. Making an annual pledge to NYAPC still requires the completion of a pledge form or card or some other written notice of your intention to contribute to the church on a regular basis for the year ahead. The church website offers you a pledge form that you can complete online and email directly to Kathryn Smith, NYAPC Manager of Administration and Finance. The electronic pledge form is found on the Annual Stewardship page under the GIVE tab from the website home page. Please scroll down the Annual Stewardship page and click on “pledge form,” which is highlighted in blue and bold type. The form can also be found directly under the picture of the Annual Stewardship brochure cover to the left of the Annual Stewardship page. You may, of course, also obtain a printed pledge card from the church entryway, office, or sanctuary, and complete and mail this form to the church or put it in the collection plate.

Step 2: Establish your account. Once you have notified Kitty Smith of your pledge for the year, you may pay it electronically on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. First, though, you must establish your account. When you select the “Pay Pledge Now” button, you will be transferred to ServiceU’s secure website and will see the following screen:

Select “Don’t have an account? Sign up now!” Next, you will see the screen where you will enter your information to create your profile or account:

Step 3: Enter your “Payment toward pledge.” Once you have created your account, you will be directed to the Annual Pledge Giving Form. This form will display information from the account you have established, including your name and address. At the bottom of the form, you will be asked to enter your “Payment toward pledge.” Please enter the amount you wish to pay each time you make a payment toward your pledge. Please do not enter your pledge total for the year on this screen.

Step 4: “Give Now” or “Schedule Giving.” Now you may pay a portion of your pledge or schedule a recurring gift. If you choose “Give Now,” you will be directed to a screen that asks you to provide banking information, including the routing number of your bank and your account number. ServiceU will only store information about one bank account for each donor.

If you elect to “Schedule Giving,” you will see the following screen where you can set your “giving frequency”—either once or twice a month, or every number of days, weeks, or months you specify. You then set the date you want your regularly scheduled gift to begin and when you want your gift to end. You will also have the option on this form to “make a one-time gift today.”

Step 5: Enter your payment details and save your giving schedule. Next, you will be asked to enter your banking information (routing and account numbers) and to save your giving schedule. You will see a summary of the dates and amounts of your scheduled giving on this form and may edit this information before finalizing it.

Step 6: Receive your receipt. Once you have saved your giving schedule, you will see your receipt displayed and may request that it be emailed to you.

How to Make Other Gifts to NYAPC

For all other gifts to the church, you will have the option of contributing without setting up an account or logging in. In addition to being able to contribute as a “guest,” you will be able to make your donation using either an e-check or a credit card.

The church has set up and posted on its new website several giving forms for different purposes. In each case, you will have the option to “Give Now” or “Schedule Giving.” These forms are:

• Other Contributions: Includes gifts to the annual operating budget, an initial offering, a prior year gift, the annual Presbytery per capita payment, a donation for the cost of the parking garage, a contribution to the capital campaign, and offerings for Holy Week, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. This form can be found on the main “GIVE” page and on the “CAPITAL CAMPAIGN” page under the GIVE tab on the website homepage.

• Memorial and Special Gifts: Includes memorial or special gifts in memory or in honor of someone, a gift to the flower fund (again, in memory or in honor of someone), a gift to the Beyond the Budget Challenge List and the ability to specify which item on the list, a gift to the General Endowment Fund and the ability to provide information about your gift to the church’s endowment, and gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing, Peacemaking, and Christmas Joy. This form can be found on the “SPECIAL GIFTS” page under the GIVE tab on the website homepage.

• Ministries: Includes gifts to the Christian Education Fund, the Cuba Partnership, the Kenya Partnership, the Deacons’ Fund, the Diaconal Ministers’ Fund, the Radcliffe Room Homeless Ministry, the 7-2-9 Ministry, the Community Club, the Benevolence Fund (local outreach), Disaster Relief and the ability to specify the relief location, and the Alternative Christmas Store for the year’s current store beneficiaries, such as the Baghdad Presbyterian Church, Cuba Partners, and the Kenya Goat Project. This form can be found on the “MINISTRIES” page under the MINISTRIES tab on the website homepage.

• Music Program: Includes gifts to the music program overall, the Choir Fund, the Harpsichord Fund, and the Organ Fund. This form can be found on the “CHOIR” page under the WORSHIP tab on the website homepage.

Lastly, the online giving system supports payments for specific purposes, such as the purchase of copies of the new church history, Capital Witness. In this case, the form is located on the page that describes that item, for example on “A NEW NYAPC HISTORY” under “HISTORY” from the “ABOUT US” and “RESOURCES” tabs on the church website’s homepage.

Privacy and Security

The personal information you enter into the church’s new online giving system is not stored by the church, but by ServiceU. ServiceU includes an extensive privacy statement on its website, which can be accessed from the bottom of any of the donation login and payment screens. In general, it is ServiceU’s policy “to protect your personal privacy.” ServiceU and NYAPC encourage you to read and understand the details of this policy. ServiceU specifically states in its privacy statement that the company “will not sell or rent personally identifiable information to anyone”, and “will not disclose any collected information to others in ways different from what is disclosed.”

It is important to understand that once you register with ServiceU and sign in to the company’s services, you are not anonymous to ServiceU. In addition, please remember that your registration or account information is password-protected for your privacy and security. The security of ServiceU account relies on you to safeguard your ServiceU password. Any disclosure of your password to a third party may result in access to your registration or account information or execution of transactions. ServiceU uses industry-standard SSL encryption to protect data transmissions of financial and certain other information. Financial information is stored in encrypted form on computers that are not publicly accessible via the Internet.

Questions?

If you have any questions about ServiceU’s Privacy Policy, the practices of its site, or your dealings with it, please contact webmaster@ServiceU.com.

Please let the church webmaster, Rebecca Davis (rebecca_l_davis@yahoo.com), or the chair of the Funds Development Cluster, Jim Spearman (jamesspearman@netscape.net), or Cluster member, Edith Snyder (edithholmes@aol.com), know if you have any comments or questions about online giving on NYAPC’s website.