While your members are away do you have a plan to replace the lost offerings?
Do you have a Memorial Day giving strategy? When I was a pastor Memorial Day weekend was one of the worst attended Sundays of the year for us. As a result it was one of the worst offerings of the year. I should have simply held church at the lake where most of my members were. My guess is that you will experience the same thing. So, do you have a plan to offset that decline?
Memorial Day is for Americans the start of summer. Summer giving is already a challenge and on top of this we have three holidays that impact us. Not to be the bearer of bad news but the 4th of July is on a Saturday which means your attendance on the 5th of July will be low as well. Want to guess what your offering will be? What are you going to do to make this up?
This morning the members of The Stewardship Coach were able to sit in on a live teaching time about how to build a holiday giving strategy. Who is helping you?
The first advice I gave my clients this morning was to be aware of the coming offering decline. It nearly always is true that if attendance is down your offering will too. So you know that you have three hard weekends of holidays ahead of you. Why would you not prepare ahead of time.
Next I counseled them to put the tools in place that will allow them to still see gifts coming in even if attendance is down. We talked about the importance of having offering envelopes that were self-addressed and postage paid. We also talked about having online giving set up especially text giving. To find out how you can easily set up online giving and text giving go to Charis Giving Solutions at http://charisgivingsolutions.com/ Before you can build out a strategy to hit those that miss these weekends you need the tools in place.
Finally, have a plan and work your plan. My members already have my copy of, “The Fully Funded Summer,” that lays out a detailed plan of action to increase giving throughout the summer. We talked about a specific plan within that plan for the three holiday weekends. If you fail to plan you are planning on failing. Can you risk not being able to fully fund all your missions and ministry initiatives? You can get a copy of my plan, “The Fully Funded Summer,” here https://thestewardshipcoach.org/store/
Of course if you were a monthly member you would have gotten all this already. You would not have to worry about your weekly offering talk. You would not need to worry about the letters you need to write. You could be fully funded 365 days a year! Giving is going to be off this summer unless you do something. So, don’t just sit there do something!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach