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 […]
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 […]
Effective Young Adult Ministry Depends on Small Groups
In this feature of the Stewardship Journal, we have focused on the decline in giving across all generations. In our interview with Ron Sellers, he mentioned how important small group engagement was. Scott McConnell, the executive director of Lifeway Research, graciously agreed to allowing our re-post of his recent article on how four churches engaged […]
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 […]
A Wake-Up Call to Engage Donors
Americans gave $557 billion to charity in 2023. That’s the good news. The bad news is even though the total dollars given to charity is up, the number of donors giving is down. Even more troubling, Americans now give only 1.7% of their disposable incomes to charities, the lowest level of giving in the last […]
Attracting the Next Generation of Donors
The following is reprinted with permission and can be found at https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/attracting-the-next-generation-of-donors The future of church giving is at a crossroads, demanding a strategic shift. Currently, most churches in America are heavily dependent on financial support from Baby Boomers, a generation that is now entering retirement. But what happens when this generation passes the torch? […]
The Seven Common Mistakes Churches Make
A few years ago, I was on a conference call with a church, thinking about starting a capital campaign. One of the leaders on the call asked me about common mistakes churches make regarding capital campaigns. I sat down and came up with seven mistakes that we found most common. Make sure you are not […]
Capital Campaigns Are Different, Not Dead!
Success in a capital campaign begins by understanding that capital campaigns are different, not dead. The traditional capital campaign process was developed in the last century and, for the most part, has been left unchanged into the 21st century. That model revolved around organizing a multitude of various teams involving as many members as possible. […]
What Motivates Christians to Give?
What motivates Christians to give? That was the headline of an email I received from the Barna Group a few years ago. They had done a survey to find out what motivated Christians to give. So, what did they find that motivated Christians to give? The Barna report says, “For Christians, emotions motivate charity.” Here […]
Tech to Propel Your Capital Campaign
I’m writing a book on how to hold a Do-It-Yourself capital campaign. As a result, I have been researching all my past writing on the subject. I came across an out-of-print post I wrote ten years ago, entitled How to Use Technology for a Capital Campaign. In 2014, online giving was still in its infancy, […]