Funding Your Ministries
The Commitment Circle
Ever since first learning about the “Commitment Circle” from the Center for Parish Development,1 I’ve been delighted to present it to local church leaders. It helps us understand different levels of involvement in the church at different points of people’s lives, without laying guilt on other people or ourselves for not getting everyone involved. Based…
Read MoreRallying Stories and More
This week I relished listening to Rebekah Burch Basinger in this month’s “Author Chat” done by the Ecumenical Stewardship Center. 1 She is the co-author of the classic, Growing Givers’ Hearts: Treating Fundraising as Ministry. Part of her conversation was about what it would mean for abundance to be the stewardship model in people’s lives,…
Read MoreIncrease Giving in Your Church
With the New Year upon us, now is an excellent time to look at the overall strategies of your congregation to encourage generous giving. Thankfully the Spirituality and Giving Project 1 studied 1,157 churches of more than two dozen denominations related to what motivates members to give, and what influences them to increase their giving.…
Read MoreGo Digital With Your Stewardship Campaign++
Written for “Live Free” issue of Giving: Growing Joyful Stewards in Your Congregation Republished in Ecumenical Stewardship Resources e-newsletter 6/26/2015 500 million people use Facebook, half of them logging in every day. Facebook and emails are most popular among Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) in the U.S and Canada, and Baby Boomers…
Read MoreWays to Share Your Narrative Budget++
Spread your good news! Plan the strategy for sharing your congregation’s narrative budget over the year. Consider any of the following ways of telling or sharing your good news: Use posters and bulletin inserts that proclaim the ministry. Highlight one ministry area a month, or feature a ministry area in weekly bulletins. Have first-hand testimonials…
Read MoreTop Ten Ways to Increase Giving in Your Church
With the New Year upon us, now is an excellent time to look at the overall strategies of your congregation to encourage generous giving. Thankfully we can build on learnings from the Spirituality and Giving Project, 1 which studied 1,157 churches of more than two dozen denominations about what motivates members to give, and what influences…
Read MoreThe Seven Faces of Philanthropy
What motivates affluent people to make major planned gifts to nonprofit organizations like your church? In The Seven Faces of Philanthropy: A New Approach to Cultivating Major Donors (Jossey-Bass, 1994), Russ Prince and Karen File lay out the results of a sophisticated sampling of wealthy givers across the United States. What did they learn? Plenty!…
Read MoreChurch Financial Commitment Programs
Sample Annual Financial Commitment Programs
Go and See – (Ecumenical Stewardship Center) Go and See is a Sunday morning mission fair inspired by the miracle of loaves and fishes. This festival approach encourages participants in a sense of discovery and wonder – discovering the gifts God has given us, and wondering at the joy and increase the Holy Spirit brings…
Read MoreExtravagant Generosity: The Heart of Giving
Plenty of stewardship programs out there offer some good ideas, yet fail to provide leaders with practical help, such as sermons, orders of worship, email messages, letters, newsletter announcements, and marketing tools. Other programs talk a little bit about the role of giving in spiritual life, but do not involve church members in thinking and…
Read MoreWhat is a Narrative Budget?
Every congregation has a Line Item Budget. This budget form reports income and expenses, line by line, so the church’s committees can monitor their activities internally, making sure that expenditures don’t exceed income by categories throughout the year. But a Line Item Budget is not a motivating tool! It is not inspiring (even to those…
Read MoreA Mission-Based Financial Commitment Program
We talk about mission. We do mission. So how can we make our church’s annual financial commitment program mission-based, instead of sounding like one more “sell job” about our church’s programs? 1. Keep the main thing the Main Thing. Most people really do hear what we say. It’s just that they have lots of buttons…
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