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This article highlights Engiven's founders', James and Matt, journey to starting Engiven.
James Lawrence has long sought to work at the intersection of technology and faith, engineering software and developing innovative new products, even if clients aren’t always ready to make the leap to new approaches.
Working with Matt Hayes, a business partner he met while the two were serving as Young Life volunteers in San Diego, he launched Mogiv in 2008. The donor platform offered the first product to help churches and ministries accept donations from mobile phones.
“When we rolled it out, some ministries were behind the curve and not even accepting credit cards, which was news to us,” he says, recalling how some pastors debated whether accepting donations by credit card was a potentially “sinful activity” that exposed believers to spending temptations and possibly going into debt.
In 2016, Mogiv was sold to Ministry Brands, a Tennessee company that operates two dozen software platforms serving 90,000 churches, paving the way for his latest venture.
