Pass the App, Please

If you’re like many Americans, you spend hours every week on Facebook. So why not give your tithes and offerings through the social networking site? 

That’s the way Horace Nelson, a 36-year-old single father and software developer from Brooklyn, N.Y., sees it.

Nelson developed an app that enables churches to raise financial support using the emerging “social funding” model. You might call it a virtual collection plate; Nelson calls it Faith Funder. His application also lets churches reach beyond their membership to raise offerings.

“So many places of faith are simply and unnecessarily underfunded,” Nelson says. “It’s unfortunate, because there are plenty of people of faith who would gladly give trivial amounts to these places in need if only they knew how and it was easy and convenient.”