My members received this for free! Did you have an end of year plan?
When it comes to increasing giving at your church don’t go it alone! That is my advice for the week for you. Churches that attempt to do it themselves when it comes to raising funds are not as successful as churches that get help. That is the truth. For every one church that you show me that went it alone I will show you a dozen that tried and failed on their own.
DIY campaigns, whether for capital projects or for regular budget giving simply fail. Even those that claim to have been done by themselves typically use some type of manual, book or program. Despite the facts that giving is in continual decline and churches attempts to reverse this fail, few churches reach out for help. My phone rings when church leaders get desperate. As long as the staff is getting paid few have concerns. Why get help? Further, why pay someone like me to provide help?
Without help you will not be as successful raising funds as with a trained coach to help you. There are a multitude of reasons for this. First of which is…
Accountability – Who owns giving at your church? My guess is no one. You might have that task since you are reading this. If you are in charge how is that working for you? With a coach you have someone who is holding you accountable. This morning my first work duty was to fire of multiple emails to clients asking how things were going. I am reminding them of tasks that need to be done. I hold them accountable so that the tyranny of the urgent does not crowd out working on increasing giving. Who emailed you this morning about your giving needs? Then there is the issue of…
Expertise – Seminaries and colleges don’t train ministers in how to increase giving. We don’t know the best practices for how to craft appeal letters, emails or the multitude of other tasks it takes to increase giving. A coach can do that for you. As a stewardship coach I get up thinking about one thing and one thing only, increasing giving for my client churches. Who gets up thinking about that for you? Let me ask you these key questions…
- Do you know how to write an effective appeal letter? Do you know what should be inserted into it?
- Do you know how to write emails that will be read? What about the best time to send them?
- Do you know how to put together an effective end of year giving plan? How about a summer giving plan?
I could go on and on but suffice it to say that my clients don’t have to worry about that as I do that work for them!
If having a coach is so crucial why do so few churches get giving help? There is one simple reason, money! This past year I have had several churches tell me that they would love to be a part of The Stewardship Coach but their church cannot afford it. Really? You can’t find $59.95 a month in your budget for plans that will increase your giving by more than that every week?
“The Stewardship Coach just helped us raise $15,000 last month and you don’t want to spend $59.95 a month now for continued support?” That was what one pastor said last January to his finance team when he went to them wanting to join my monthly membership plan. It took him two more months of prodding to get them to agree to join the plan. Since then we have helped them raise thousands of more dollars.
What you spend on The Stewardship Coach is not an expense, it is an investment!
Don’t go it alone! Join today by going here https://thestewardshipcoach.org/join-now/
Let’s get started on seeing you fully funded for 2015!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach