It’s a heartbreaking truth that many financially capable households give more to their favorite charity than their church. This rapidly accelerating trend is a primary factor in the growing financial strain most churches are experiencing.
Americans say 67% of their giving is spiritually motivated, yet only 24% is being given to the church.
As church leaders, we are responsible for this trend. The primary reason is we fail to move beyond answering the spiritual question of "Why Give?" and provide a compelling answer to the question, "Why Give to Our Church?".
Even among the most well-funded churches, Horizons is finding the most capable givers are increasing the percentage of their giving to other nonprofits. This trend is easy to miss. It happens slowly over time. Givers simply stop or slow increasing giving to your church and shift these dollars to where they believe the greatest impact is occurring. In their minds, it is good stewardship of the resources God has entrusted them with.
As church leaders, we must constantly demonstrate to the satisfaction of our givers that investing in our mission is both impactful and good stewardship of the resources entrusted to them.
If you are interested in reversing this giving trend in your church, I encourage you to download The Financial Crisis - Five Practical Ways to Overcome Persistent Ministry Funding Challenges. It is a resource developed with Tony Morgan of The Unstuck Group to help you address five key areas that are impacting your ministry funding and long-term financial stability.
The following are a few keystone practices from among the many covered in the downloadable resource - The Financial Giving Crisis.
Generosity is central to our theological understanding concerning our relationship with God, ourselves, and one another.
Most churches send mixed messages about giving; in some cases, they don’t talk about giving. The result is that people fail to grow spiritually, miss out on the joy of generosity, or never understand the importance of joining in God's work by giving through their local church.
The starting point for growing individual generosity is to clearly articulate in detail your Theology of Generosity - what your church believes the bible teaches about Giving, Stewardship, Generosity, Tithing, and Offerings.
Your Theology of Generosity is your source document for all communications, ensuring a single and clear message is heard through all communication channels.
Giving is part of personal spiritual growth, and everyone needs to understand its importance along with other important spiritual disciplines like prayer, worship, spiritual formation, and serving.
A discipleship pathway lays out measurable steps for personal growth as part of their spiritual journey. In the same way, a Giving Pathway lays out measurable steps for growth in giving. For example, for someone new to giving, the first step might be to prayerfully consider what amount they will give in the coming year and sign up for recurring giving to memorialize this decision. A regular giver might find their next step is to identify what percentage of their household income they give through their church and prayerfully consider growing by one or more percent of their income as part of a plan to reach a tithe (10% of household income).
Be sure your giving pathway language uses words to which you can attach clear definitions, such as
A ministry plan is a graphicly enhanced collateral piece grounded in your Mission, Vision, Discipleship Pathway, Theology of Generosity, and Ministry Goals.
Write your ministry plan using giver-centric language (from the giver’s point of view) and fill it with pictures and stories that make a case for giving to your church by demonstrating in measurable terms the transformative impact of your ministries made possible by your members' generosity of time and money.
Your ministry plan should:
A well-crafted ministry plan becomes a cornerstone in your annual ministry funding plan implementation strategies to inform, inspire, and engage existing and new givers.
The world of ministry is constantly changing, especially when it comes to funding. It isn’t easy to stay current with the emergence of digital technologies and ever-evolving trends. An integrated funding strategy (end hyperlink) is built on the understanding that success does not come through one thing but all parts working together. It is a helpful framework to ensure your ministry funding plan is comprehensive and well-rounded.
Your 52-week (year-round) ministry funding plan defines why, what, when, how, who is responsible, and your goals and desired outcomes in measurable terms.
Ensure your ministry funding plan takes advantage of the natural rhythms in people's lives such as promoting the convenience of automatically recurring giving before the summer vacations begin or launching your year-end giving strategy on Giving Tuesday.
As you create your plan, use an Integrated Funding Strategy framework and its supporting best practices as your guide. Horizons suggests:
Common best practices include connecting generosity to spiritual growth, telling the story of one life that was changed each week making clear the connection to giving, creating first-time and lapsed giver strategies, intentional giver appreciation practices, sharing returns on giving investments (for every $100 given we can ______), sharing internal controls on spending, information security, theft prevention, and donor transparency practices.
The most effective form of communication is one that is written to address the giver's desires, needs, and aspirations in combination with compelling storytelling that highlights the real-life impact of the ministry. Utilize case studies, testimonials, and stories of changed lives to illustrate transformational outcomes and connect givers emotionally to the cause. Consider implementing these practices.
To help you take the next step, Horizons partnered with The Unstuck Group to create The Financial Sustainability Crisis - Five Way to Increase Ministry Funding. To download this resource, click here.
To learn more about how you can grow giving in your church, access our free resource library Giving365.com and check out Next Level Generosity. Click here to schedule a no-cost exploratory conversation.