Have you considered the benefits of moving your collection of estimates for annual giving to the first quarter of each year?
Horizons has long suggested that January and February are often the best times for churches to invite annual giving estimates. We have found this to be true across a wide variety of church sizes and denominations.
Most churches begin their pattern of fall generosity efforts to meet the needs of the church and culture that existed 60 years ago. If your church is still collecting giving estimates in the fall, is it time to ask why and whether this practice still serves you well?
The number of churches that have moved from a fall to a new year collection of estimates of giving grows every year. Here are some of the reasons you can expect better results by moving your annual giving campaign to the fall and considering a change in your fiscal budget year to match your ministry planning year, which most often begins when school returns and ends during the summer.
- Better information: In January and February, most people have a clearer picture of their income, having just received raises, cost-of-living adjustments, annual bonuses, new sales or profit goals, and small business owners have closed their books and taken distributions. The more clarity a giver has about their income for the coming year, the less likely they are to make a "safe estimate," because they are taking into account the uncertainties of what they do not yet know about next year’s income.
- Better focus: The fall is a time full of distractions with high activity levels in school, sports, and the holidays. Not only does the new year offer a slower pace of life, which is frequently reflected in higher worship attendance, but it is also a season when people reflect on the past year and make resolutions to live more intentionally and meaningfully. This is a great time to cast a vision for the church’s ministry impact and ask your givers to prayerfully consider whether their giving is reflective of God’s goodness and leading. The combination of people being better focused, reflective, and physically present in worship creates a more fertile ground for spiritual transformation than a busy and crowded fall.
- Estimates of Giving and the Budget (Ministry Spending Plan): The practice of fall annual giving campaigns came about so that churches could create a budget by precisely matching estimates of giving/pledges received from their membership, plus a small allowance for loose plate offerings. Despite the efforts made by some churches to keep the practice alive, few succeed in collecting giving estimates from most of their members. The result is a successful adaptation of creating a budget using financial projections based on past giving from a majority of their membership, a task made far easier by modern accounting software now used by virtually all churches, regardless of size. The argument for a fall campaign, based on budgetary accuracy, has lost its teeth, as the majority of households giving will be projected because they did not turn in a card. Unfortunately, better financial forecasting has brought about a dark and unintended consequence.
As the importance of estimates of giving in budgeting has diminished, many churches are merely going through the motions of an annual giving campaign, forfeiting the perfect opportunity to grow generosity within the church and accelerate the number of households that don't bother.
- Changing your Fiscal Year to Match Your Ministry Year: The collection of estimates of giving in January and February gains even more benefits when the church adopts a fiscal year that aligns with its ministry planning year (normally beginning in July or August). In this scenario, the church has six months of actual giving during the current year on which to base the new fiscal year spending plan. The December giving boost then occurs mid-year, allowing churches six months to adjust spending as needed.
- A More Spiritual Approach to Generosity: Better financial planning is just one of the benefits of changing your fiscal year. Another opportunity is separating the collection of estimates of giving from the budgeting process, which allows the yearly giving effort to become more biblically aligned and people-centric (focused on their spiritual development and the church’s mission). Helping the church pay its bills is low on most Christian givers' priority list. Givers are quick to sniff out when the annual campaign is focused on what the church needs to pay the bills. We can all recall hearing," If you will just increase your giving by this percent, we can balance the budget." This messaging and a failure to tell our stories of impact directly contribute to the rapid shift of church members giving away from the local church, When your annual campaign occurs in a different season than the budgeting process, the focus can be on the giver's need to be generous as a reflection gratitude for God's goodness in their lives and a motivation to see life changes. Discover the stories of three churches that have made the switch.
A Better Way: A Biblical and People-Centric Approach
- Check Our Motive: An examination of our motives is the starting place for beginning people-centric generosity development. Ask yourself: Is the primary motive of collecting estimates of giving to get money from our congregation? Of course not! However, it is not hyperbole to say that the basis of most annual giving appeals is rooted in the church's need to develop and fund its budget, rather than the spiritual growth of the individual. Your members have no trouble distinguishing the difference, no matter how well we try to disguise it with spiritual language. An increasing number of Christians are looking at the institution-centered approach (focused on the church’s need to receive) and opting out of the process altogether.
- Fundraising vs. Spiritual Development: Our experience in guiding churches in the development of cultures of generosity has made it abundantly clear that when the annual giving effort has the primary goal of spiritual growth and missional impact, rather than meeting a budgeted goal, the byproduct is higher levels of household giving.
If you are interested in learning more about how Horizons Stewardship can guide a spiritual development process that leads to increased generosity, I encourage you to read about the experiences of three churches of different sizes and denominations that have adopted a better approach. Click here to read more: Scrap Your Boring Annual Campaign.