Hi Deb,

I can't help you with the software, but taking off my Warden's hat for a moment and putting two different hats on, I can comment on the online giving and card reader questions.

Experiment with Light Network (of which I'm the Treasurer) uses People's Fundraising for their online donations. It's fairly straightforward to set up, and the only cost is a percentage of takings which varies a bit depending on how the donation is made, but compares quite well with other providers.

And wearing my hat of a parish church bookkeeper, the church uses a SumUp card reader - which appears to be also a popular choice with small traders (e.g. at our weekly market here in Bradford on Avon). Interestingly, the SumUp website says you'd pay 1.69% of your takings (in addition to a modest one-off charge for the card reader itself), but the church only pays 1.1%, so I guess they must have some special rate for charities.

https://www.sumup.com/en-gb/card-readers/

Best wishes,

Klaus Huber

Resident Warden, Bradford on Avon

On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 11:20 AM Judi Brill <judibrill@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Friends

At Oxford and around our Area (Oxford and Swindon Area Quaker Meeting) we are looking at ways of making communication, sharing information and holding data more secure and easier for us all to use!

We already use Hallmaster for bookings at several Meeting Houses.
We are looking at a piece of software called Church Suite or Charity Suite.
https://churchsuite.com/

Do any of you have experience of this or a similar programme and could give us the benefit of your experience please?
Particularly attractive would be systems that enable small groups to talk to each other and the streamlining of online giving.
We currently do not have card readers in our local meetings and I feel we are missing out here on donations.

Grateful for your help/advice!

In Friendship

Deb Arrowsmith
Meeting House Manager
Oxford Quaker Meeting House
43 St Giles Oxford OX13LW
Email: office@oxfordquakers.org
01865 557373

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