Mission Trip Registration Overview¶
We have a 9-minute Mission Trip Registration video on our TouchPoint channel on YouTube that will give you the basics about registering online for a mission trip. It also demonstrates how to use TouchPoint to email supporters, so that they can make an online tax-deductible donation to help defray the cost of a participant’s mission trip.
Note
This video was produced in early 2014, prior to the release of our new UX, and prior to the name change from BVCMS to TouchPoint. While some of the screens may look different, the functionality is basically the same.
See also
Benefits for the Goers (Participants)¶
Using the Mission Trip type of online registration has many benefits for those going on the trip.
An individual can register online and pay his deposit using a credit card or bank account.
These tax-deductible payments are automatically recorded on the Goer’s giving record as a donation.
A user account is created automatically for the registrant, and an email is sent with login information.
The Goer can use that account to view his own profile at any time, track the summary totals for his trip, and make a payment right there.
He can also Email Supporters (Senders) by using a link on his profile page - even if the supporter is not yet in our database.
The Goer will be notified via email when a Supporter (Sender) makes a donation.
The list of Supporters will be remembered and any amount donated will be listed beside that person’s name on that page
Exception re Email Supporters List
If a donor checks the box indicating his preference is not to notify the Goer, the name still is listed with the supporters, but no amount is displayed.
Also, if a person makes a check donation which is entered manually, his donation will not display on the Email Supporters page. His name / email address will only display if the Goer included him in his email list. The amount donated will, of course, be reflected in the Goer’s balance.
Link to Post on Website¶
If you choose, you can post a link on your website so that anyone can select a Goer and make an online donation to help reduce that person’s balance. The options are there to either support an individual who is going on the trip and/or make a general donation to the trip, not for anyone specific.
Only those who are enrolled in the Involvement will display in the drop down list. So, the list will change as more people register for the trip.
The link must be configured as follows:
https://MyChurch.tpsdb.com/OnlineReg/90165?GoerId=0
Note
If you wish to require supporters to donate to a specific trip participant before they can contribute to the trip in general, add the administration setting MissionSupportRequiredGoer with a value of true.
Benefits for the Senders (Supporters)¶
When a Participant uses the Email Supporters feature mentioned above, there are benefits for the Supporters as well.
A Sender can give online using a credit card or his bank information, instead of having to mail a check to the church.
If the Goer found the supporter (Sender) in the database, the link that is sent to him will eliminate the need for him to find his own record first. It is as though the Sender is logged in.
If the person is not in our database, he will create a profile during the course of the transaction when making a donation.
In either case, the donation will be automatically added to the person’s giving record in TouchPoint.
Benefits for the Staff¶
The Mission Trip type of registration also has great benefits for the staff and will reduce their workload.
You will no longer need to keep up with checks and cash, as most donations will be made online - both those made by the Goer and contributions from Senders.
Because the registration is in TouchPoint, multiple staff members can monitor the progress of the mission trip registration, instead of just one person tracking it in a spreadsheet.
Online donations are automatically assigned to the correct fund and are recorded on the person’s giving record.
Note
If your church uses multiple payment gateways, Mission Trip and Support payments will process through the One-Time Giving gateway by default since they are considered tax-deductible. If you have a separate payment gateway for your Online Registrations and you would like to have your Mission Trip Involvements set to process payments using that gateway, you may toggle the setting called MissionTripInvUseOnlineRegGateway to True. This setting may be found by navigating to Administration > Setup > Settings > Features > Registrations.
You can associate the general ledger accounting number with each trip to make it easier for the accounting office to make journal entries.
The questions on the online registration can capture most of what you need to know for a Goer, helping reduce the need for paper forms.
You have 2 special reports available to you: Mission Trip Funding Report and Mission Trip Senders Export. You can also select the export version of the funding report.
See also
We realize that some donations will not be made online, so we have a simple process to handle those, and still have the donation apply to the Goer and be recorded as a donation for the Sender.
Using a similar process as for these cash and check donations, you can also change the amount due for those cases in which you give a scholarship to any of your Goers.
See also
You can use a special type of ad-hoc Extra Value in order to allow a Goer to register online with a reduced (or zero) deposit.
See also
Latest Update |
7/21/2021 |
Updated note about one-time giving gateway