Now that we are in the last quarter of 2014, most churches are beginning to think about updating their offering envelopes.
Step #1: Know who is receiving offering envelopes in your congregation.
Whether your church gives offering envelopes to members, contributing members, or to only those who request them, create a smart group to match your method. Here are a few examples:
Smart Group Name: Offering Envelopes (every confirmed member)
- Who are living
- Whose status is “member”
- Who were confirmed ever
Smart Group Name: Offering Envelopes (contributed in past 12 months)
- Who are living
- Whose status is “member”
- Who have contributed in the last 12 months
Smart Group Name: Offering Envelopes (requested)
- Who are living
- Whose tags contain “Uses Offering Envelopes”
Step #2: Change offering envelope numbers individually or all at once.
- Under Offerings, click on “Envelopes,” and then choose the Smart Group you just created.
- Choose the date on which your members will start using the new envelopes.
Note: Communicate this date to your members and distribute the envelopes as close to this date as possible. - Review the list of potential contributors.
- Anyone who is eligible to contribute jointly will have a blank check box to the far right with a label that says “Contributes jointly.” This should be checked unless the person has told you otherwise.
- If there are people on the list who should not be included, then your Smart Group criteria may not be correct.
- Click the Clear button to remove all existing numbers.
- Go to the field called “Automatically renumber envelopes starting with” and enter the first new offering envelope numbers and click "Renumber." The new numbers will be added to the contributors.
- Review the list, make any manual changes, and click "Save." Each contributor will have a new number as of the date indicated.
Step #3: Choose whether to print labels for each set of offering envelopes.
- Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the "All" link to the far left. This will indicate that you are printing labels for all contributors.
- Click the Mailing Labels button and select your mailing template and click Download. This will generate a PDF of the labels.
Note: When printing the labels, make sure the “Page Scaling” is set to None. Depending on your browser, it could also say “Fit to page,” which should be unchecked. - Apply the mailing label to each offering envelope box and distribute to the appropriate members.
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