Silicon Valley gives rare blessing to software for church
By Max Taves, CNET, August 28, 2015
Venture capitalists sit on large piles of money, and they’re fond of spreading it far and wide. So the companies that get funded pretty much cover the gamut, from drone and gadget makers to robots, selfie sticks and one more social network (why not?).
But here’s what doesn’t generally get Silicon Valley’s blessing: businesses in the business of religion.
So a $2 million investment in ChurchDesk last week stood out--maybe even a lot.
Unlike a lot of startups, ChurchDesk’s name actually has something to do with what it does. Christian Steffensen began building the firm in 2010 after watching his pastor-mother struggle with the day-to-day realities of running her congregation. In many ways, Steffensen’s company is like a Salesforce.com for churches, providing Internet-based software to help pastors pay their bills, track expenses, communicate with parishioners and organize volunteers all via a mobile app, if they want it. Today, more than 1,000 churches in Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom use ChurchDesk.
The new cash, which is a drop in a bucket compared with the tens of millions of dollars other startups often raise, will help ChurchDesk expand its presence throughout Europe.
So far this year, venture capitalists have spent $5 million on startups in the business of religion, according to venture research firm PitchBook. That amounts to double the amount invested in all of last year, but no one’s calling it a trend... yet.
Venture capitalists aren’t showering money on a Facebook-for-Mormons or a Reddit-for-Rabbis or even another church-management service like ChurchDesk. But despite the lack of any financial backing from Silicon Valley, technology continues to push further into religious life.
Today, there are dozens of startups focused exclusively on the demands of religious institutions. And much like businesses, churches have reached out to tech to innovate, says Lauren Hunter, who runs Church Tech Today. For churches, that means filling the pews and those pesky donation baskets.
Hunter says an ongoing question among pastors is whether texting parishioners Saturday night will increase attendance Sunday morning. And in a blog post last month, for example, Hunter looked at how one small church in California is using text messaging. In another post, she writes about the mistakes churches make when using social media.
Religious groups usually communicate with their members through daily or weekly bulletins filled with community info, Bible verses and any other news pastors want to share with their flocks. So, naturally, there’s a startup trying to digitize--and commercialize--the business of the church bulletin as well.
“Boring church bulletin?” asks a recent web ad by Service Sheets whose software allows pastors to create Web bulletins and send them to congregants via text message.
In a bizarre business proposition, a facial-recognition startup called Churchix.com even promises to give pastors the ability to identify people sitting in the pews, whether they want to be or not.
There’s also ChurchOS, which is one of a growing number of companies specializing in making websites for churches.
To expand their reach, pastors have embraced live-streaming, according to Hunter. A church in Sacramento with less than a 1,000 members can pay ChurchStreaming.tv $199 a month and tell congregants in Toledo to watch the sermon from their smarphones.
A more common technology that’s increasingly making its way into church is the mobile payment app. Yes, tithing can now be done via iPhone or Android.
Dean Sweetman was a long-time pastor in Atlanta who moved out to Los Angeles last year to launch Tithe.ly. His app allows congregants to donate via their smartphones from their pews or from their beds at home on a Sunday. It charges $0.30 and 2.9% of each donation.
Sweetman says the idea for his company came from his own time as a pastor trying to make sure the bills got paid.
“Most church revenue comes in on a Sunday. You have one shot,” he said. “You’re lucky if a church member comes twice a month. And if they’re not there, they’re probably not contributing.”
Notably, for a church that’s using his app, it doesn’t matter where its parishioners are on Sundays. Their donations go the same place: the church.
Obviously, Christians aren’t the only believers with software.
For Jews looking for a quick way to pray, they can download Synagogue app for Android. Its description says “no matter what country you are in, open the Synagogue application, place yourself on the map or enter the address of your choice and find the nearest synagogue.”
Muslims need to pray five times a day and face Mecca when they do. My Mosque helps them do it right, by pointing them in the right direction.
