giving

We love the warmer weather that summer brings, but church leaders tend to dread a decrease in giving. Here are two ways to increase summer giving.

It’s easy to be thankful when you've got a stomach full of turkey and pumpkin pie while watching football surrounded by family. But expressing gratitude shouldn’t be limited to Turkey Day. Especially in the church, we should have a Thanksgiving mindset all year round. And that attitude of gratitude should be incorporated into your communication strategy.

Giving Tuesday - the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday - has turned into a phenomenon that delightfully transforms our focus, if only for one day, from shopping and consumerism to giving and generosity. According to WikiPedia, "Giving Tuesday was started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season.

Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “People don’t give to need. They give to vision.” Well, that’s not entirely true. The truth is, people give for a variety of reasons. Just like people have different personality types, they have different motivators for being generous. Everybody in your congregations isn’t motivated by the same thing. Let’s talk about the five reasons why people make a donation to your church:

Planting a church is hard work. In the early stages, a small group of people handles the brunt of the workload. Sunday set-up, child care, budgets, communications, you name it. Resources may be low, but solutions are still necessary. Thankfully, technology can help ease some of the burdens.

You’d think by now, it would’ve gotten easier. I’ve been going to church for my entire life. I’ve been giving to the church for most of my adult life. For goodness sakes, I’ve been working in church generosity for three years now. And I still don’t know how to talk about money. Because, let’s face it, people get weird when it comes to their wallets. Because of this, many pastors and churches simply don’t talk about it.

In a recent post for ChurchTechToday, I discussed four of the primary financial benefits that effective recurring giving programs can provide for churches. Increased giving, stabilized revenue, and automated workflows were all discussed at length. Today, I want to focus on another demographic that will benefit greatly from a fast and flexible recurring giving option: your givers! It’s no surprise that a giving tool that will benefit your church’s staff will benefit your givers as well. (How’s that old proverb go? “What’s good for the goose is good for the giver as well?” Yes, I think that’s it. Intuitive though it may be, let’s dig a bit deeper and look at four specific things recurring giving can do for the givers in your congregation.

Despite the fact that the Millennial Generation is often pegged a the "me me me" generation, they are not only giving in record numbers,...