There are 4 reasons you need a Labor Day giving plan and 3 steps to take now if you are to fill up your offering plates.  Don’t look now but summer is almost over.  Summer is typically one of the hardest times of the year to see giving stay strong.  It is also the most costly time for most churches with camps, mission trips and other initiatives taking a huge cut of your funding.  Then at the close of summer comes Labor Day, a three day holiday that could greatly impact your ability to be fully funded this year.

Every year you face the same challenge.  Why not this year instead of reacting afterwards you do something before hand to negate the potential loss of offering.  Let’s start with…

Why you need a Labor Day giving plan.  Here are four reasons why.

1.  Three day weekends are killers for offerings!  Why?

2.  Your people are at the lake, beach or ball game.

3.  When attendance is down giving is.

4.  Falling behind makes it difficult to catch up.

Recognizing the problem is the start of solving the problem but you need to take steps to correct the problem.  So, let’s talk about…

3 Steps to Fill Your Offering Plates on Labor Day Weekend.  For that matter these steps can help with any three day weekend.

1.   Create a compelling message that inspires giving.  Telling people to give because you are behind budget doesn’t motivate people to give.  What does motivate them is knowing that their gift is making a difference.  One of my mantras for giving is to get a story, work your story, tell your story and people will give to support your story.  What is the story of accomplishment for Kingdom work your church is doing?  Focus on that.  What missions and ministry initiatives do you have coming up that will change lives?  Focus upon that.  Then simply say, “Your generosity allows us to do all of this.”  I call that connecting the dots.  Make the link for donors of how giving a dollar to your church impacts the world and they will more likely give.

2.  Put the tools in place.  Too many churches depend upon one main tool for collecting money, the offering plate.  Yet if attendance is down that plate isn’t in front of many of your members.  You must have tools that allow for people to give even if they are at the beach or mountains.  For my members we use these major tools to increase three day weekend giving…

  •  Self-addressed postage paid envelopes for direct mail appeals the week before the three day holiday.
  • Online giving platforms that allow people to give immediately from whatever device they connect to the Internet with.
  • Social Media platforms to tell the story of what the church is doing and provide links back to the online giving page.

3.  Put a plan in place.  Another one of my mantras is, get a plan and work your plan.  If you wait until Saturday night before the Sunday of a three day weekend you have failed to plan.  Failing to plan is planning to fail!  So, at least two to three weeks ahead of the holiday think through the why and how of your plan.  The why is the message.  The how is sharing that message with the tools you have in place.

Taking these three steps will help you offset any declines that Labor Day or any other three day holiday might present to you.  Labor Day is about here so take steps now to correct any decline in giving.

Don’t have a plan?  Get mine!  Members of Giving365 received a detailed plan from me with emails, letters and other tips on how to negate any Labor Day decline.  I also taught a thirty minute webinar around what to do this Labor Day.  Membership in Giving365 is costs only $1 a day.  You can try Giving365 for 14 days for only $1 at $1 for 14 Day Trail offer

Let’s get started on closing out the rest of your giving year strong!

Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach