Begin With the Right Building Blocks

The following post is reprinted with permission. 25% to 30% of non-profits annual giving comes in during the last six weeks of the year. In my experience, churches can also see a significant bump in year-end giving if they have and work a plan. A good end-of-year plan must have the right building blocks supporting […]
The 2024 #GivingTuesday Playbook

My Goal for this Playbook “My goal in preaching is for you to come back next week and bring a friend.” I once heard Andy Stanley make that comment at a preaching conference. When it comes to the goal of this playbook, let me borrow that phrase and tweak it a bit. The goal of […]
The Future of Giving: It Ain’t Good, Finale

Think like a pastor. That’s what I often write on my yellow legal thinking pad as I face each stewardship issue. I ask myself, “If I were still a pastor, what should I do about this information?” I would want to know what this meant for me and my church and what I needed to […]
The SBC’s Ticking Time Bomb

Southern Baptist churches are heading into a crisis that will determine which local churches will survive and which will slowly die. The chart above identifies the ticking time bomb about to explode throughout the Convention. Can you see the problem? Can you do the math? 84% vs. 16%! 84% of the church’s dollars come from […]
Reactivating Lost Donors

As we finish this series on the state of giving to churches, we wanted to provide you with insights on how to address the decline in giving. The following, used by permission, shows how to re-engage those lost donors. Only 32% of your lapsed donors realize they have not given to your ministry in the […]
The Future of Giving: It Ain’t Good, Part 2

The average evangelical was giving away only 3.2% of household income to either church or charity, and 19% gave not a penny to either over the previous 12 months.1. Giving to the Church in America is in freefall, and I want to dive into why that is happening and what you can do about it. […]
An Interview with Ron Sellers

Last week, I interviewed Ron Sellers of Grey Matter Research, one of the authors of a new study on giving entitled The Giving Gap: Changes in Evangelical Generosity. The study was done by Infinity Concepts | Grey Matter Research. Due to the length of the interview, I broke it down into two parts. This week, […]
The Future of Giving: It Ain’t Good, Part 1

I have three major studies on giving trends on my desk, and all three say the same thing: giving to charitable organizations, including the Church, is in serious decline. I will break down the findings in this Coach, The Future of Giving: It Ain’t Good, Part 1. “The average evangelical Protestant gave 1.7% of household […]
An Interview with Ron Sellers

In my opening post, I referenced a study entitled, The Giving Gap: Changes in Evangelical Generosity. The study was done by Infinity Concepts | Grey Matter Research. Ron Sellers of Grey Matter Research was gracious enough to give me an interview about their recent report. Due to the length of the interview, I will break […]
A False Sense of Security

How can giving be up when it’s actually down? The 33rd edition of The State of Church Giving through 2021 Intentional Miracles, a highly respected source, reveals some startling facts. In 1933, the worst year of the Depression, Americans gave 3.2% of their Disposable Personal Income (DPI) to the church. Fast-forward to 2021, and Americans […]