FREE! At https://thestewardshipcoach.org/store/
I believe that you CAN increase your Easter offering when you make it NOT about you. I wrote in my last post, It’s Not About You, on how to attract your guests on Easter to actually participate by giving to your offering. In that post I stated,
Focus upon what you DO not what you need. Show people how a gift to your church will impact the world for good and people, even guests, will give you money in this Easter’s offering plate!
My contention is that we do a poor job of telling people what their gift does. So, to get people to WANT to give you need to tell them about the amazing things your church is doing.
Why do people give? People give to a cause not a budget. So what we must do is show what a gift to your church accomplishes. I recommend that before the offering you highlight some missions or ministry task that you need funds for. Since it is Easter and our thoughts are on children, why not focus the offering time around what you do for children? What if you put the focus on your Student Ministry? By highlighting ministry areas that shape our society in a positive way you will be more apt to garner first time donations.
If the “ask” is about helping you make budget show why that is important. Focus upon what you do with the money that people give you. Budget education should not happen only when you are trying to get the year’s budget approved!
So, if your Easter offering is simply for your budget, focus upon what budget giving does. Break out the specific pieces and highlight their importance. It is as simple as saying, “Do you realize that your gifts allow us to minister to dozens of children helping shape them to meet the challenges of the secular world we are called to live in?” The more effective you tell that story the more people will willingly give to support your work.
If we make the offering about a special need how does that work with regards to regular budget giving? This is a great question. It is important that we realize the difference between a designated gift and an undesignated gift. You cannot raise money for Bibles and then use that money to pay the light bill. That may come as a surprise to you but Google Jim Baker and see the story of what happened to him when he did basically the same thing.
Whatever you raise money for must go to that area!
How to use a designated appeal to help your budget. For instance let’s say you want to build the “ask” around your student ministry. Perhaps your yearly budget for Student Ministry is $10K. A part of that might be for your summer camp. Let’s say that this camp is 50% of the $10K line item budget. If your offering raises $2,548.16 you have just saved that amount from your budget. That is $2,548.16 of leeway your Student Ministry pastor or volunteers have to work with.
The bottom line ultimate goal is to get people to give to your church so that your missions and ministry initiatives are fully funded.
So, decide now what you want to ask for and begin to build out the case for why people should give NOW to support that cause.
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach