San Francisco church starts digital collection plate

The Catholic Church in San Francisco is moving beyond the collection plate and weekly newsletter into a more tech-oriented platform.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco has partnered with Evergive, a service that will let Bay Area Catholics donate money, share prayers amongst other things on the smartphones and computers.

The Catholic Church has embraced social media in nearly all of its highest levels, but this technology could actually help local churches where money is still dropped into collection plates and announcements are still put in newsletters.

"It helps our parishes, especially those with limited resources, get access to a level of technology that they never could have afforded," said Father Anthony Giampietro, the interim director of development for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

In the past, Catholics in the Bay Area could post events on Facebook, donate money via PayPal and send messages on Gmail. However Evergive wants to put all that in one private online space that can be easily be setup and operated by churches, non-profits etc. – basically any organization that relies on a shared sense of mission and donations to exist.

Around 443,000 people currently attend the Archdiocese of San Francisco, making it Evergives largest and most important client. The company charges a small fee on donations, something like credit card transaction fees.