How can you inspire maximum generosity at this key time of year?
6 experts, 6 questions — all the answers!
Giving experts agree that the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve is a crucial time of year, financially, for churches across America. It generally represents increases in worship attendance, as well as budgeting by congregants for the holiday season (including charitable gifts).
In fact, some experts suggest the time to start communicating about year-end giving to the church could begin as early as September or October, when members begin to research beneficiaries for their year-end giving. Giving to one’s church is an excellent way to reduce the tax burden while simultaneously supporting deeply held causes and organizations.
So, how can church leaders maximize giving during the holidays? Here, six experts weigh in.
#1: Just how important is year-end giving in churches?
Bar Am: It’s when members are in the frame of mind to reflect on the good they’ve done in the past year and want to do in the year ahead. But even more practically, it’s when they’re most primed by holiday spending and salary bonuses to open their wallets.
Also, upcoming tax filings drive folks to maximize their charitable donations before January 1.
As they spend larger-than-usual sums of money on gifts, folks also think about their responsibility to larger causes — including their churches. There are many forces competing for that attention, however, so it’s critically important that churches position themselves to be key beneficiaries.
Baylis: Churches often rely on year-end giving to help them finish projects, replenish different church funds or programs, or to make up for budget shortfalls. It’s also a time that churches can encourage members who have pledged to give a predetermined gift or tithe to complete their gift before the end of the year.
Crowther: End-of-year giving is hugely important for churches. In fact, if our platform is any indication, process volume increased from November to December last year by 50 percent. So, yes, it’s a big deal.
Kopplin: It’s essential for a healthy church. Constructing year-end giving campaigns around a specific cause or need like a “Love Offering” or “Christmas Campaign” can build a strategy to avoid budget shortfalls by inspiring above-and-beyond giving. It’s a powerful way to be Christ’s hands and feet to those who are hurting in the church or community. Inspiring your congregation with a focused effort helps shape the DNA of generosity.
In short: year-end giving closes out one financial year and sets the tone for the next.
Lee: Most churches receive 25 percent to 33 percent of their yearly contributions between Thanksgiving and year’s end — a critical time for catching up on budget shortfalls, or for getting a jump-start on the coming year’s financial goals. This is when church members who attend infrequently come to services, along with many new visitors. Their gifts tend to be larger during the giving season, and there are more opportunities to respond to special appeals. Year-end giving is also important for members who are catching up on pledges or making contributions for tax purposes.
Tierney: Our stats show year-end giving represents about 24 percent of a church’s overall giving. But with our system, it tends to be a bit more normalized throughout the year.
#2: What are the most common challenges related to year-end giving in churches?
Baylis: Some common challenges include: communicating the church’s need without alienating church members; cultivating generosity during a time of year when members’ finances are stretched (during the holidays); distinguishing the church’s need when many other organizations are also marketing their year-end giving campaigns.
Crowther: For some pastors, I think, conversations about giving and generosity can be difficult in and of themselves. That’s not just limited to end-of-year giving, either; they’re often shy about having the conversation altogether.
Another challenge is obviously having the resources to pull off a bigger end-of-year campaign in a way that’s successful. Mobile giving can simplify this a ton, obviously.
Kopplin: Successful year-end giving doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a thoughtful step-by-step strategy to organize goals and tasks. Often, churches wait too long to introduce their year-end giving campaign. Starting in October or November gives members a chance to financially plan and engage with the church mission. Remember: your members are being asked to donate to many organizations during this time.
Also, some churches lack convenient tools to optimize generosity using the methods and devices members use every day. It’s vital during year-end giving to offer flexible options to donate — via the website, phones or tablets, or onsite with traditional giving options, as well as kiosks or card readers. My husband is a pastor, and we just planted a church in Washington State, so providing various donation options was a no-brainer for us.
Lee: The most common challenges are volume and recordkeeping. When a church receives nearly one-third of its yearly donations in less than two months, they’re handling 2.5 to 3 times their average. If they’re primarily cash and checks, they’ll take more time to process, which can create recordkeeping issues. When a cash contribution isn’t recorded correctly (or at all), or when names or addresses don’t match on a check, it’s difficult to know whose giving record to credit. You never want to send a family a year-end statement that doesn’t reflect all their contributions.
Tierney: The first challenge is communicating to members their progress on their giving goals by providing accurate household statements for tax purposes. These probably sound familiar: I didn’t receive my donor statement. Can I get an electronic copy? My statement includes my business checks, which aren’t personally tax-deductible.
Accurate statements are complex, especially for generous supporters who use multiple giving methods. Simply pulling a report of gifts and running it through mail merge doesn’t cut it. (Remember: people look at the accuracy of their statement as an indicator of how well the church stewards those gifts.)
Also, it can be a challenge for churches to manage time zone-based end-of-year giving. When people give, where they live is the basis for whether or not the gift falls within the current tax year. If a church on the east coast receives a gift from the west coast before midnight, that gift is on the statement for the previous year.
From the giver’s point of view, managing time correctly has real income tax implications. For the church, not doing so might create extra work at the end of the year to “correct” that giving.
Bar Am: First, there are many other worthy causes and corporations competing for year-end dollars.
Second, the power of out-of-context fundraising is diminishing; annual mailers and email and phone solicitations are less compelling than they once were. Younger donors, especially, want to give while they’re having an experience. With holiday travel and high demands on their time, it might be harder to have a face-to-face interaction — the most opportune moment to spur generosity.
Third, the lack of innovative (but low-friction) solutions for getting those donations can be a challenge. Many young people have never written a check and don’t carry cash. A church must ensure that a highly engaged, activated, generous attendee has an opportunity to make a powerful year-end gift.
#3: Conversely, what are the most compelling opportunities related to year-end giving?
Crowther: With a church app and a mobile giving solution, you’re really set to engage your community in an effective way with a notification “drip” campaign that can inspire people leading up to the end of the year.
And let’s not forget, most churches have a few extra services around the holidays, so that’s a great time to introduce more people to your ministry and / or a particular cause your church supports.
Kopplin: This is your chance to share the tools you have that will make a huge impact in your church and articulate to members that you have them. Emphasize the power of recurring giving. At my husband’s church — a new church plant — recurring giving is critical to our roadmap; but churches of all sizes rely on it for forecasting and sustained funds. Don’t shy away from communicating the operational benefits recurring giving provides. Show them how to set it up on your platform during this time of generosity.
If there’s a shortfall, focus on a campaign to rally your church around a specific cause, and work to ensure you have a compelling story that will connect members to it. Showing the end result will resonate more deeply and increase the likelihood members will engage, financially, to support your initiative.
Lee: We recently conducted a national survey of 1,000-plus churchgoers. More than 60 percent — across all age groups — prefer to give electronically. A mobile app is a convenient way for smartphone users to give. Text reaches more impulse or occasional givers. A kiosk reaches more visitors.
People traveling during the holidays can easily set up a recurring gift to their home church and make a one-time gift to the church in the city they’re visiting.
Another opportunity is that administration is easier and more efficient. When all family members’ gifts come in through the same login, with the same credit or debit card, they’ll be recorded to the correct account. Integrating electronic giving with church software makes pulling a report easier for the staff and creates an instant record of the gift for the church and the giver. And, electronic gifts are more secure than cash or checks.
Tierney: For many of our clients, the giving that happens as a result of members being able to see their current statement is significant. Sending statements to those members before the end of the year — and to givers who aren’t using mobile or the web to give — is a great way to plant the seeds of generosity. Consider sending them in November.
Also, be sure to talk to people about their year-end giving, particularly regarding what the church and God could do with those gifts. By asking, we create an opportunity for people to be generous.
Bar Am: The major opportunities are the other side of the “challenges” coin! Yes, it’s a time crowded with calls-to-action — but it’s also when folks are most engaged to give. Yes, congregants have a lot on their plates — but they’re bound to come to Christmas or other holiday services. Yes, it’s difficult to catalyze a moment of in-person encounter into a moment of giving — but the right technology can turn the primed visitor or congregant into an eager donor making an easy contribution.
Baylis: Year-end giving provides churches the valuable opportunity to: encourage long-term giving for the upcoming year; inspire generosity by reminding members what last year’s year-end giving achieved for the church; and encourage members to catch up on tithing or program pledges they made that year.
#4: Compared to more traditional giving options, in what ways can technology uniquely inspire year-end giving during?
Kopplin: Giving always starts as a decision on the donor’s part; technology is merely a vehicle. Even so, accessibility and convenience can make or break the follow-through action.
Connecting members to a branded giving page provides a unique engagement opportunity for your church. It allows them enter a gift amount directly next to your year-end giving campaign rather than to a generic fund called “giving.”
Using videos or personal testimonials can evoke an emotional response and connection from donors and further explain the need you’re working to fulfill. In that powerful moment, invite members to get involved using mobile app and text giving. There’s something so moving about everyone giving what they can, together.
Lee: The strongest inspiration comes from the ability to give in the moment. If a sermon or a choir performance moves you, you don’t have to wait for the collection plate — you can give in seconds with an app or text message. We know this is important because our above-mentioned churchgoers survey showed nearly 75 percent give out of a sense of calling. Electronic options let people give when they hear that call, whether it’s before or after the plate is passed, and even when no plate is passed.
Tierney: Technology can’t inspire giving, but it can facilitate it.
This is 2016; church members expect the giving experience to match the rest of the church experience, offline or online. Any church giving solution will likely provide a dropdown list of funds — but does it feel like worship? Or, does it feel like paying the cable bill online? Does the confirmation look like a receipt from Amazon or PayPal, or is it a personal communication from your church?
Giving is an act of worship and should feel like it, including content and images that reflect the emotional experience worship is intended to be. Acknowledgement of a gift should be a personalized email from the church.
Bar Am: Some more high-tech solutions — like giving online through a web form, or entering a credit card into a payment kiosk — attempt to solve that problem. However, these options are often high-friction and high-attrition. Will they remember to go online when they get home? Will they wait in the line to follow the multi-step giving process in the church foyer?
Better to meet congregants where they are by linking giving technology with payment technology in a friction-free way. Most people use credit cards every day, but they want their giving experience to be fast and easy.
Baylis: The decision to make a gift at the end of the year is often made outside the walls of the church. Many members decide to give year-end gifts to their churches on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Options like online giving or text-giving can help facilitate those gifts, even when the giver is not physically at church.
Crowther: Christmas services are an opportunity to engage with people in your community who don’t often get to church. Understandably, giving and generosity is usually less of a topic during this season. However, this is a great time to encourage those in attendance to get plugged into your church and perhaps consume some of the encouraging content you’re producing at a later date.
An app is a brilliant way of curating your content and making it accessible to people, even if they don’t regularly attend your church. A lot of the churches we serve use strategies like tying their content to push notifications in order to achieve this.
#5: Is it fair to say that technology can drive more generous giving at this time of year?
Lee: That’s a very fair statement — and it’s backed up by an in-depth, year-long study we did with a national denomination. It found churches offering ACH and credit / debit giving have 26 percent more giving than similar-sized churches with no electronic giving options.
Also, on average, electronic gifts are larger; people tend to give more when they can give immediately. It’s like easily taking whatever change is in your pocket and dropping it in a Salvation Army kettle. Taking out your phone and opening an app or sending a text is easier and faster than writing a check. And, your gift isn’t limited by the cash is in your wallet.
Tierney: Technology doesn’t drive more generous giving; more accurately, it provides access to giving that might not occur without it.
Let’s say I decide to make a donation to my church on December 31. I could sit down, write out a check and mail it or drop it off — but maybe I don’t have stamps or an envelope. Maybe I’m in another city visiting family. Technology lets me make that gift, regardless.
Last December 31, we experienced an average gift of $757.12 online, across all clients. (Several large gifts far exceeded that amount.) Who’s to say they’d have been received without online giving?
Bar Am: Absolutely. People want to be generous! What prevents more donations isn’t a lack of will — it’s the points of friction that put up barriers to donation. Whenever technology can allow giving with the payment mechanisms people have and use (credit and debit cards) as opposed to cash and checks, individuals’ pent-up generosity is more likely to come out.
Technology can also make giving more joyful and contagious; people love for their generosity to be social. Anytime donating can be a group experience — visible and audible to all — more of it will happen. We see it again and again: generosity is contagious.
Baylis: Certainly! People decide to make year-end gifts based largely on their emotional connections to the work your church does in your community. Technology is a powerful tool for building those emotional connections. If you can remind your members of the work you’re doing in the community through videos, pictures, social media posts and other online channels, you can make a powerful case for support that might not be as effective in other ways.
People are also likely to give more generously if the process of giving is a simple one. Use technology to make giving easier than writing a check or withdrawing cash to take to church.
Crowther: It’s a more-than-fair statement: Mobile giving technology allows people to give in seconds, even if they’re not carrying cash or checks — and that’s a huge deal. That means all the visitors that make a decision to attend a holiday service have the opportunity to give simply and securely at the exact moment they feel inspired to do so.
Kopplin: Yes — it’s beyond fair to say so. Technology provides an avenue of communication and ease-of-use with your members, and what better time is there to inspire the message of generosity? Studies show people who give electronically, on average, give more. We normally see electronic donation amounts in excess of $120 on average — more than double the average gift size for traditional “pass-the-plate” giving.
#6: In what ways can churches use technology during the holidays to encourage long-term giving throughout the year — in effect, lessening a church’s dependence on year-end giving?
Tierney: We can help a church identify first- or one-time givers and automate personal communications through email. These “email triggers” are added into our system to thank them for their gifts, but also to see if they’d like to set up a recurring gift. This can be a one-time communication or a series.
Bar Am: Behavioral economists and psychologists have long known about the “foot in the door” effect: get someone to do something easy in support of a cause now, and they’re then more inclined to do something more demanding later.
Enabling an easy gift at the holidays makes people think of the church as a year-round cause; thus, they’re more likely to support it with a later, larger call-to-action. They can also be prompted to make their first small gift recurring — a lower barrier than agreeing upfront to the lump sum.
Baylis: Churches often struggle to encourage generosity in their churches without alienating members who are sensitive to feeling like the church is placing too much emphasis on money. Using year-end activities — both online and in the walls of the church itself — to encourage recurring giving is a powerful way to mitigate members’ hesitation to make one large year-end gift. If your church can encourage its members to automatically make multiple small gifts over the course of the next year, members can feel that they’re supporting your church long-term without the stress of writing a single large check.
Long-term giving can actually be a lot of work for church members. They have to remember to bring checks or cash to church regularly — and fewer people carry those items with them today than they have in the past. With online giving, members can set up recurring donations that they can schedule in ways that suit them. They can choose the frequency of their gift, decide how long a period they’d like to support your church, and, with many platforms, manage their payment methods and edit their payment schedules. They can do all those things from their own computers, which can save them (and your staff) time and effort.
Crowther: This is a great question. I would say by getting people to connect with your church through a church app, you’ll be setting yourselves up for year-long communication with those people.
That’s a huge opportunity to reach new people with sermons, events, push notifications, educational links, giving opportunities, and more! One thing that the younger generation especially is interested in is transparency with their gifts. With an app, you have the opportunity to keep your entire community updated on what their gifts are doing in your ministry.
And, of course, we also have the basics like recurring giving built into our mobile giving platform; and, we’ve designed smart technology that can prompt people along the way to get that set up and running all year long.
One of the most interesting things we’ve seen on our own platform is that even people who have set up recurring giving through mobile technology are now able to give spontaneous gifts throughout the year. So, not only do you have the benefit of a predictable budget from month to month, but also you’re seeing over-and-above giving happening on top of it. From a data perspective, we are seeing $1 of over-and-above giving happening for every $3 in recurring gifts.
That’s the power of simplicity and great mobile technology.
Kopplin: It’s important that technology enables the conversations around generosity. Promote your recurring giving option for donors to set a monthly amount and give all year instead of grouping it all into one month. Look back over the year’s giving, and find consistent donors who aren’t using automatic recurring giving and share your gratitude for the impact they are making in your community.
Lee: In every good e-giving solution, there’s a flag to make a gift recurring. Whether weekly, monthly or quarterly, giving with a credit or debit card or ACH is easier; members set it up once and it’s done. It doesn’t matter whether they’re on vacation, can’t make it to a Sunday service, or get to church and don’t have cash or a checkbook — they still have an avenue to give.
— Reporting by RaeAnn Slaybaugh
