At its core, generosity is a spiritual issue—not a financial one.
Many church leaders shy away from discussing generosity or only speak about it once or twice a year, but doing so does a disservice to you and your community. It tells them generosity doesn’t matter and unnecessarily distances the subject from the discipleship journey.
Keep it Spiritual
Discipleship is the foundation of any generosity initiative. To become a spiritually mature disciple, people need to embrace generosity.
A generous disciple wants to use their resources to care for others and make an impact. As a leader, you should share, teach, and model how generosity helps people grow spiritually and enrich their faith experience.
To encourage generosity through discipleship, ask people to:
- Read and study Scripture, in particular, what God says about money. (Matthew 6:21, Romans 13:8)
- Challenge their assumptions about money.
- Encourage them to look at their beliefs about money, saving, and giving.
- Describe the attributes of disciples who give (cheerful, proportional, sacrificial, etc)
Grow discipleship by keeping generosity a matter of the spirit and doing God’s holy work.
Tell Your Ministry Story
Stories connect people. They provide a tangible example of the ministry's work and the generosity it takes to accomplish the mission. They also highlight the reason and need so disciples have a clearer picture.
Stories evoke emotions, create empathy, and make your ministry relatable to your givers.
The length of the story is not as important as its impact. The length of the story depends on the channel you use. You’ll use shorter stories for channels like email and social media, while you have more space to tell a story with channels like direct mail.
Make sure, no matter the length of the story, you include these three components:
- The challenge or problem
- The journey
- The need or call to action
- Importance of partnership
- The outcome as a result of generosity
Effectively communicating how you are transforming lives cuts through what culture has to say about money.
Build Relationships
People give to people. Cultivating relationships with givers is sacred and requires careful tending and a constant commitment. A strong relationship can take years to mature.
You need to nurture every giver, focusing on their interests and spiritual journey. Creating a meaningful experience for them will have a greater impact on your mission.
Each giver has a unique journey toward supporting your ministry. Lasting relationships grow through intentional stewardship. Stewardship happens when you develop trust, provide value to them, acknowledge their contributions, share updates, and ask for feedback.
Use every opportunity and channel available to you. Tried-and-tested channels such as the telephone and handwritten notes have a tremendous impact. A multi-faceted approach that includes digital communication, such as email, social media, and text messaging, will keep those relationships strong.
Measure Effectiveness
A good steward of people’s generosity knows how that generosity is used. Further, a leader will ensure that generosity has the greatest impact. One way to do that is to measure effectiveness.
To help you make decisions with data, you will need to define your Key Ministry Indicators (KMIs). A KMI measures progress and performance. You decide what KMI to measure based on your goals and objectives.
While this is not an exhaustive list, here are a few important measures to track.
- Gift size
- Gift frequency
- Average gift size
- Giver retention
- Giver lifetime value
- Conversion rate
Every dollar given with impact will increase trust and encourage future giving.
Make the Ask
A successful appeal has many elements that create a compelling story and request. These elements work in person and with direct mail, email, social media, and text messaging.
Know your givers, their behaviors, their interests, and their preferred method of communication. Test and apply your findings to produce better appeals.
Mastering the art of the “ask” is a continuous process. With engaging appeals, ministries can connect with givers on an emotional level, inspire action, and drive meaningful contributions to support their mission.
People grow their generosity habits when they feel challenged to take the next step.
Generosity is Greater Than Ourselves
By encouraging generosity with people you develop spiritually mature disciples ready and willing to make sacrifices for your vision and mission.
Generosity invites people to move along the discipleship journey as they grow in their giving and deepen their faith. And remember: People invest in your church's ministries to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
To learn more about how you can grow disciples through generosity, check out Next Level Generosity.