Things You Can Do To Increase Congregational Giving
- Link giving to the spiritual life rather than to guilt or obligation.
- Provide opportunities for people to talk about money, the church, and the spiritual life. Use resourceds like Cell Phones, Dessert, and Faith.
- Make stewardship education a year-around process, not just during an annual campaign. People may learn and grow more through sermons and classes related to finances when those are offered at times other than the annual campaign,
- But do have an annual giving campaign! Almost all churches need to conduct an annual campaign. If your church has not been doing so, you could see a significant increase the first time you do. Pressure and manipulation have no place in such campaigns.
- Encourage tithing or proportionate giving. This is a core concept because it links giving to the blessings which God has given us and makes giving a more clearly spiritual matter.
- Send more frequent financial statements to members and constituents who support the church. Churches which move to monthly statements almost always see an increase in giving.
- Encourage the pastor to be actively involved in stewardship education. The pastor is the person with the best knowledge of the relationship between giving and the spiritual life.
- Encourage people to think about planned giving. That includes gifts through wills and trusts. The Generosity Option can be especially helpful in this area.
- Do a better job promoting special offerings! The Desires of Your Heart shares strategies for increasing giving to the special offerings of your church.
- Encourage rather than discourage designated giving. Today’s givers will be more generous when they have opportunity to designate a portion of their giving to an important project. Our financial commitment program takes that reality into consideration.