Funding Your Ministries

Thanks to Gary Hoag at www.generositymonk.com, 1 I learned about some key findings from “The Generosity Project” 2 sponsored by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. The report is based on an online survey of 16,800 givers to non-church Christian ministries. Twenty-two percent of those were Millennials, ages eighteen through thirty-four. I emphasize Millennials’ participation…
Read MoreWhen people want to give to a ministry to improve people’s lives, they need to know they can trust that organization to follow-through in the ways they promised. But how can they know your church or other nonprofit organization is doing the right things with the money they have given? The answer includes not only…
Read MoreEver 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 MoreWith 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 MoreWritten 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 MoreSpread 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 MoreWith 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 MoreWhat 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!…
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