Digital Payments Have a Jolly Holiday. That was a recent Wall Street Journal headline of an article that tracked Black Friday Cyber Monday sales for 2023. This year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales were flat, rising only 1.1% over last year. However, e-commerce sales were up 8.5%. The real...
What should pastors be thinking? That is the question I often ask myself. Notice I said what pastors should be thinking about. At this time of year, I’m lucky if a pastor even opens my emails! This is one of your busiest times of the year, but as we near...
Non-profits know how crucial end-of-year giving is. They have a plan, do you? Here are four tips to help you. Tip #1 – Have a plan and work your plan! If you are not planning, you are planning on failure, so let's devise a plan. Your plan in a nutshell… Social Media posts...
How powerful is gratitude when it comes to being fully funded at your church? Consider this stunning statistic, “Research has shown that first-time donors who receive a personal thank-you within 48 hours are four times more likely to give again. Yes, thanking in 48 hours equals a 400 percent improvement in...
Here are some pointers and thoughts about crafting a thank you card or letter… Get to the point! It’s about saying thanks, not telling them how great your church is. Make it brief. People are busy these days, and they won’t read more than a paragraph or two. Personalize it. The most successful...
It is impossible to create a culture of generosity without, at the same time, creating a culture of gratitude. As our nation pauses this Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving, I decided to focus writing this Coach on the topic of The Importance of Gratitude. Let me share a few key points...
One key strategy for a good start to your New Year is to make January a push for recurring giving. While dated, the sample above gives you an idea of how to put recurring giving in the minds of your donors. This sample was in a yearly statement from North...
“You never have to recover from a good start.” My mentor in the stewardship field, Dave Sutherland, taught me that years ago. Ask any football team if the statement is true or not. Consider this: 3/4 of NFL teams leading after the first quarter go on to victory. The first...
Baptist Press reported last week that Cooperative Program giving for the first month of our fiscal year is 5% below target. To be fair, at the time of the report, a few smaller state/regional conventions had not yet sent in their CP allotments. Yet none of those outstanding conventions are...
The following is a great example of how to position paying down a debt. The following was produced with my help for a church that was attempting to pay off a debt they had been paying down for some time.
