Leading Leaders to Lead

Leaders first. Never announce a major change of ministry direction or a new building plan from the platform on a Sunday morning that you have not first announced to your leadership. That is a mantra I preach to every Senior Pastor that I help raise capital dollars. Why? Let me give you one practical reason. Your leaders will pledge and give around 90% of all that is given in a capital campaign. The success or failure of your campaign depends upon whether your leaders step up to lead your church.

This Coach’s title is Leading Leaders to Lead. I have said for years that a congregation would not go where leaders have not gone. The leaders in your church each have spheres of influence throughout your congregation, and their influence is significant. I could give you multiple stories of pastors who tried moving forward without leaders only to find themselves all alone and, in some cases, without a job. I’m going to help you avoid this by helping you understand how to lead leaders to lead.

First, let me stress again the importance of your leaders with an illustration I used a few years ago. For over twenty-five years, I have studied giving data on hundreds of churches, from some of the largest in America to some running only a hundred. The one constant is that a few people in any church give the majority of what is given. The following, taken from a random section of my clients, will show this…

	Church	Budget size	Percentage of donors that gave half
A	Multi-site SBC	$18 million	7.4%
B	Multi-site SBC	$6 million	13%
C	SBC church	$4.1 million	11.1%
D	Contemporary UMC	$2.4 million	14%
E	Traditional SBC	$2.3 million	16.4%
F	Traditional SBC	$1.9 million	13.5%
G	African American	$1.9 million	12.2%
H	Independent	$522K	15.4%
I	Traditional UMC	$416K	15.8%
J	Traditional UMC	$329K	15.4%

Half the annual budget came from an average of 13.4% of these 10 churches! I could have added more churches, but the percentages would have remained the same. The few give the majority in any church, no matter the size.

What about capital campaigns? Half of the 15% of those top donors to your annual budget will pledge and give 50% of the total. The other 50% of your top 15% will pledge and give around 35% to 40%. Combined, they give 85% to 90%.

To be successful, churches need to know where the dollars are going to come from. I made this point to a church a few years ago by showing them real data. First, I showed them the results of two churches with similar budget sizes. Here is the data…

Church Sample number one: $2.9 million was pledged in their campaign, representing just over one times their operating budget. 50% of what was pledged came from 55 families, which made up 7.7% of their donor base.

Church Sample number two: $1.3 million was pledged in their campaign, about 1.25 times their annual operating budget. 50% of what was pledged came from 22 families, representing 5.1% of their donor base.

Then, I gave this church the data from their last two capital campaigns.

Campaign 1 in 2005: 50% of the pledged amount, about two times their annual budget, came from 31 families representing 7% of their donor base.

Campaign 2 in 2008: This was a debt reduction campaign, and 50% of the pledges came from 19 families, representing 7.7% of the donor base.

Since the few are going to give the majority, shouldn’t you spend time with them?

Yet, here is where the stewardship industry misleads you, the church. Most of their focus is on getting the rest of the congregation involved in the hopes that they will give to your campaign. Now think about it: if someone is not giving you money regularly, why will they suddenly change their heart and give to your capital campaign? The truth is they will not. If they do, our data shows it is a very small amount and usually is inconsistent. Yet, most of the effort and work that goes into the majority of campaigns is about attempting to attract money from those who do not give. That’s what discipleship is for.

Since top donors are so important, I advise Senior Pastors to have a plan of action for this key group. Specifically, you can and should meet with them on a regular basis. Let’s say that you average one lunch meeting a week with a top donor. Use that time to keep them abreast of the church and to see what needs they have that you can minister to. Another strategy is to write simple notes of encouragement telling this segment of your church that you are praying for them and value their contribution. If you don’t want to know what people give, simply have your financial secretary alphabetize the list of your top donors. The point is, be a leader of this group of leaders, and you will find that they will act like leaders!

Every pastor should do this. Most would never think about it in the first place, and many who think of it would dismiss it as showing favoritism. They believe in treating everyone alike. Treating all your donors alike might sound spiritual, but in truth, it’s just throwing away an opportunity to raise more funds to fuel more ministry. The only one you are hurting is you!

In his old but still excellent book, How to Increase Giving in Your Church, George Barna addresses this issue. He says, “Effective fund-raising churches refuse to treat all people as equals.” The point is not to show favoritism over one group but to provide effective communication to each group. You will find that your leaders, who make up your top-end donors, see, hear, and feel giving opportunities differently than others. This doesn’t make them better; it makes them different. Do you have a strategy to disciple this group in your church? If you lead, they’ll follow. Then, others will follow them.

So, never announce anything new from the platform without first getting the buy-in of your leaders! In the Bonus Section, I’ll show you one way to do this.

¹
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach
mark@acts17generosity.com

OnlineGiving.org, the leading online giving processor in America, sponsors my writing. Find out more about their services at https://www.onlinegiving.org/.