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Systems and Processes to Increase Giving at Church

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Church attendance in the US is declining

Less than 20% of Americans are in church on a given Sunday. Only 6% of Churches are growing. Regular attenders (those who attend 3 times in 8 weeks) have dropped 11.9% in 10 years. Projections are that in 2050 only 11.7% of American's will be in church on a Sunday morning.

Only 5% tithe and 80% of Americans only give 2% of their income.

With church attendance declining and so few people giving, there are still things churches can do to engage people in giving and becoming more committed to the church and in their faith. Here's seven things you can do.

1. Create Multiple Entry Points for Engagement

Research shows that people who volunteer for a non-profit are much more likely to give. Furthermore, the more central someone's religious beliefs and practices are, the more they give. While the focus of this document is on increasing giving, the importance of engaging someone in their overall faith journey is paramount. Getting someone plugged into a small group, serving in the church, or participating in outreach are ways to help someone live out their faith. Both volunteering in a non-profit and having sincere religious beliefs and practices are directly correlated to the amount someone gives. It's also true that as someone grows in Christlikeness, they're more likely to give. After all, who ever gave more than Christ?

Make it easy for people to engage. I attended a church where they invited people to get with one of the staff or elders after church, but did nothing to identify them. Talk about hard to get engaged. Have a way for someone to fill out a card, go to a connect desk, submit an interest form online, etc. I visited one church that had iPads in the lobby you could fill out saying whether you had a prayer request or wanted to join a small group. Make it easy for someone to sign up.

Use a Church Management System to automate the process so that the inquiry gets forwarded to the right leader and the person inquiring gets an automatic response. If you don't use Rock RMS for this, check out why you should consider it here.

2. Make clear why someone should give

People have so many options today. Tell people why they should give at all and why they should give to your church. One study showed that a few sentences along this line increased the donations on a donation page 150%. Try putting something like this on your giving page:

God has called us to glorify Him - to reflect Him to a world that is far from Him. Since He gives lavishly, we should too. Your gifts to (your church name) helps us accomplish our mission of making Him known and making disciples. Your participation supports our work in caring for widows, orphans, the sick and the poor. Your gifts also supports our work planting churches in some of the darkest places in the world. Your generosity makes possible the making of disciples who will carry on this work - effectively multiplying the impact of your gifts.

Beyond your giving page, communicate in other ways the impact of giving. Addressing the heart of giving is a vital part of discipleship. The heart behind the gift is more important than the amount of the gift. (insert references) Communication could take the form of an announcement, examples of the impact gifts are making, through a short video or a testimony. Generis has developed some helpful guidance about this, that you can access here.

3. Reduce Barriers to Giving

Making it easy to give will result in more giving for a church. Research shows that 83% of people who visit the giving page of a non-profit don't give. E-commerce research shows that having to create an account and having forms that are too long are the reasons that account for over 50% of who people abandon completing transactions.

There are so many things you can do to reduce the friction someone experiences when trying to give online that we have a whole page dedicated to that that you can view here.

Here are a few key points:

  • Make the give link prominent on your home page (One study said offsetting the color around the give link resulted in 190% more donations.)
  • Don't require an account to give
  • Don't make someone navigate to an external payment processor's site to give (there are plenty of payment processors who allow you to embed a form on your own site)
  • Try to make your giving form as short and convenient as possible (Research into e-commerce shows that the best platforms for checking require no more than 8 fields.)
  • Don't ask for more information than needed to complete the transaction (You don't need their address or phone number - you can request it later. One study showed asking for a phone number resulted in 42.6% less donations.)
  • Make sure your donation page and giving form are mobile friendly since over 50% of traffic to giving pages is from a tablet or a phone (test it by giving on a desktop, a tablet and a phone)
  • Reduce the options to leave the giving page as much as possible. Links to external sites and pages or videos will reduce the likelihood that someone completes the donation.

4. Thank People for Giving

Most large gifts are preceded by smaller gifts. When Harvard did a study, of their 254 million-dollar donors, 2 out of 3 started with first time gifts of $100 or less. Had Harvard not followed up well, it's likely those large donors would never have given again. Saying thank you matters (Luke 17:11-19). Not only does it help the donor know you got the gift, but it helps strengthen the relationship between you and them. It's an opportunity to affirm their step of faithfulness to God. The best practice is to make sure that upon completion of an online transaction that they get a screen that says thank you and the amount of the gift and sends an email within an hour of the gift. Whether it's electronic or not, developing a system for acknowledging the receipt is ideal. Some churches have the campus pastor or senior pastor send a handwritten thank you note upon the first gift. Many churches follow up with some combination of reaffirming the value of their gift and the impacts of their giving, links to a story of life change (maybe in video), how to access their giving history, convert to ACH giving rather than credit card and other steps to engage further with your church. Remember that giving is one step in deepening their commitment to your church and to God. Recognize it as such and help them to continue on that journey.

5. Don't hesitate to ask someone to give more regularly

After saying thank you one of the important things you can do is encourage people to give more regularly. Checking your data to identify people who give semi regularly and encouraging them to set up recurring giving is one way that you can increase the giving at your church. There's lots of data about how much more recurring givers give in a year compared to others. It's also the leading indicator of whether someone will continue giving to a non-profit year over year. Not only is it another step in their commitment, but it will ease seasonality in giving.

6. Don't hesitate to ask someone to give a greater amount

When I was a missionary, after my first year, I sent an email to all regular donors and asked if they'd prayerfully consider increasing their giving by a small amount. This one simple thing had a huge impact on my total annual revenue.

I recently talked to a donor who complained that when he logged into his church's portal for online giving that increasing his recurring gift was not easy. He said he struggles through this every year after he gets an annual raise. It made me pause and wonder how many people take the time to do this and how we can encourage people to do it and simplify the process.

Your church can create communication reminding those who tithe to update their recurring gift amounts after getting salary increases and showing them how to do it. Sharing the impact that their increased giving will make is an important part of this communication. Work with your giving provider to make sure the process is as simple as possible and communicate the steps to increase recurring gift amounts.

7. Follow Up with Lapsed Givers

Running a query on those who were regular givers and haven't given recently, provides an insight into someone you might want to follow up with. Perhaps they're facing a crises like unemployment. A call from a pastor to lapsed givers provides an opportunity to check in to see how someone is doing and provide pastoral care - continued discipleship and encouragement. It may result in increased giving - but will be an opportunity to bring God glory even if not in a financial way. For churches that use Rock RMS, contact us and we'll provide the SQL query and instructions to run a search for lapsed givers for free that you can use to drop into a data view.

By following these seven steps, your church can increase giving and, more importantly, engage people in their walk of faith in a way that nurtures them and encourages them to continue to trust in God and glorify Him.