The digital outreach technology stack at Rockharbor Church mirrors its ministry
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
To know Rockharbor is to know a church that’s laser-focused on next-generation ministry.
It comes as no surprise, then, that leaders at this multi-site church in Costa Mesa, Calif., keep a keen eye on evolving — and improving upon — their digital outreach technology stack. For every such tool or strategy, they’re always asking a simple question: Does this help us compete for the time and attention of our people when they’re on their phones?
One of those leaders is Rockharbor’s Director of Operations Katie Bansmer, who has been privy to these assessments for 11 years. Originally joining the staff in an administrative capacity, it wasn’t long before Bansmer — with a bachelor’s degree in business management — was enlisted as lead coordinator at the church’s main campus of five, in Costa Mesa. When she took on the Director of Operations role four years ago, it meant overseeing accounting, human resources, IT, and facilities, and event planning.
With so much insight into every aspect of the church’s operations, Bansmer made it a mission to ensure the tools used by her, her team, and the church-at-large matched the next-gen ministry experience at Rockharbor.
It’s important to note, here, that this church views “digital” as a crucial strategic element in how they do ministry, not just as an ancillary tool.
“So, I was really looking to bring all our systems up to date,” Bansmer explains. “But as I did an overhaul, I knew I needed to tackle our Giving platform first, because it’s so outward-focused.”
Modernizing the giving pathway
Looking back, Bansmer describes the giving platform in use at Rockharbor at the time as antiquated and difficult to navigate. Given the timing, these were make-or-break criteria.
“It was in the middle of COVID, when we were doing online services and really wanted to get a better app, better streaming, and a better overall digital experience,” she recalls. Bansmer was urgently exploring Subsplash’s mobile app solution to see if it could improve upon the church’s mobile experience, both for the administrator and the end user/church congregant.
“Then, I started playing around and looking at all their other products,” she says. For giving, she looked at two other platforms as well but determined that Subsplash was by far the most user-friendly.
“And that was one of my highest values: I didn’t want our platform to hinder people from giving,” Bansmer points out. “Also, it just looked really slick; I loved that.”
Indeed, Bansmer says she believes the new platform actually increased members’ confidence in the church because of how professional it looks.
“Compared to the old platform, it was just like, OK, Rockharbor is getting its act together,” she laughs. “It just looked more professional and trustworthy.”
Maybe most of all, Bansmer says, she appreciates how giving was integrated right into the Subsplash app. Critically, this meant givers would no longer be pushed out of the church’s app to an outside giving platform.
“Prior to Subsplash Giving, I did a case study where it took seven clicks to donate to us — seven different screens,” she recalls. “Clearly, that wasn’t going to work. It was pretty brutal.”
Additionally, log-in was complicated. Church members didn’t know how to change the amounts of their recurring gifts. Downloading tax statements was difficult. All of this put pressure on Bansmer and her team to fill in the gaps.
“Just looking at the numbers of hours it was taking to support our donors, we were, like, There’s got to be something better out there,” she explains. “Now, it’s all within the app. That made Subsplash Giving a no-brainer.”
Once Rockharbor onboarded Subsplash Giving, all givers had to move their information over to the new platform. This process took three months, but Bansmer says it proved to be simple for users.
“Everyone said how easy it was,” she recalls. “I was obviously nervous about doing this — potentially interrupting people’s gifts, I mean — but it was so worth it. I’d do it again if I had to.”
Now, for one thing, givers can now log in and change their own recurring gift amounts.
“Before, they would one-hundred-percent be coming to me for that,” she points out. “Now they don’t have to.
“Overall, they’re more engaged with their giving, which has been really nice.”
App, meet Tap
Fast forward to early 2025, when Rockharbor integrated Subsplash Tap into its giving strategy. These tailored NFC discs and stands are designed to affix to seatbacks, giving stations, connection centers, youth rooms, entryways, offices, and more. In Rockharbor’s case, several tap-to-give discs bearing the church’s logo are displayed above the cash-and-check giving boxes at the back of the sanctuary, as well as at the “Connect with Us” kiosk in the lobby. Similar to scanning a QR code (but even simpler, since the Subsplash app doesn’t need to be open), the user taps his or her cellphone to the disc and is taken directly to Rockharbor’s Giving webpage.
“We were still passing the basket during services, and we knew it was time to move away from that, but giving is such an act of worship that we still have the giving call during services,” Bansmer explains. “In that giving call, we just tell people we have multiple ways to give at Rockharbor: you can go in our app, website, or you can go to the back of the room to drop cash or checks in the boxes, as well as tap to give.”
An ROI everyone can enjoy
Ease of use and greater engagement have delivered tangible monetary benefits at Rockharbor. In the initial year of launching the Subsplash app, more than 2,000 people downloaded it. In the three years since, the church has seen nearly 7,000 more installs.
Likewise, in the first two years of launching Subsplash Giving, Rockharbor saw a nearly 25% overall increase in total online donation amount, as well as a 53% increase in recurring donors.
As Bansmer points out, implementation of these new platforms coincided with the arrival of Lead Pastor Glenn Packiam. Since then, the church has enjoyed a steady increase in overall attendance and giving.
Collectively, the enthusiastic adoption of all these changes speaks to Rockharbor’s spirit of embracing what’s next.
“Health-wise, Rockharbor has experienced quite a bit of growth over the last couple of years,” Bansmer explains. “And I know that people have such an easier time giving now, so that’s no doubt part of it.”
