George Barna wrote that, “effective fund-raising churches refuse to treat all people as equals.” You might be saying, “What?” Here is the full quote…
“Effective fund-raising churches refuse to treat all people as equals – and people truly are not when it comes to giving. Most of these churches develop some kind of segmentation strategy in which they categorize the congregation into types of donors.” George Barna in “How to Increase Giving to Your Church”
Do you think about the various segments that exist within your church? Most churches don’t BUT if we want to be fully funded we need to understand the various segments in our churches and how to best communicate with them.
Treating all your donors the same ignores the fact that not everyone sees and feels things in the same way. The key to raising significant funds is knowing not only the different segments of your congregation but how to appropriately communicate with them. This is a skill set that no one teaches pastors in Bible College or seminary.
I have been reflecting upon The Blackbaud Institute’s study on generational giving patterns “The Next Generation of American Giving.” Reading the study shows the importance of segmentation. While there are more than generational segments in a church, if you start there you will be ahead of most. In this post I will share some of the report’s findings. Let’s start with a…
Generational Overview – Sociologists typically break generations down by roughly 20 year segments. We thus get…
- Matures – Pre 1945
- Boomers – 1946 – 1964
- Gen X – 1965 – 1979
- Millennials – 1980 – 1994
- Generation Z – 1995 – 2015
America’s Generational Giving Practices – Here is a summary of their practices…
- Matures – 23.5 million Matures, 78% of their total number gave to charities. Matures donate more money per capita ($1,235) than any other generation. Their giving comprises 20% of the charitable pie.
- Boomers – 55 million Boomers, 75% of their total number gave to some charity. They donate the largest dollar amount, $58.6 billion a year than any other generation. Their giving comprises 41% of all charitable giving.
- Gen X – 35.8 million Gen Xer’s 55% of the 65.6 million in the U.S. gave to a charity. Their $32.9 billion a year represents 23% of charitable giving. Gen X is the second largest generational group only a mere 2 million behind Millennials. This generation is the Churches immediate future.
- Millennials – 34.1 million M’s representing 51% of their population gave. America’s largest generational group mustered 14% of all charitable giving. Clearly they have a lot of unrealized potential.
- Generation Z – While just getting started, 44% of this generation gave to some charity. Their giving represented only 2% of the charitable pie. Their day is coming.
America’s Top Overall Giving Priorities – The study listed out the top 7 most frequent giving choices by generation. With Worship highlighted, here is the order of their giving priorities…
- Matures – Worship; Local Social Service; Emergency Relief; Health; Children; Military; Formal Education
- Boomers – Local Social Services; Worship; Health; Emergency Relief; Children; Military; Animal
- Gen X – Health; Local Social Services; Animal; Children; Emergency Relief; Worship; Military
- Millennials – Worship; Children; Local Social Services; Health; Animal; Emergency Relief; Youth Development
- Generation Z – Children; Animal; Health; Worship; Local Social Services; Military; Emergency Relief
Clearly, we have our work cut out for us. Each generation presents to the Church both challenges and opportunities.
Here are my broad brush stroked pieces of generational advice…
Help Matures end well. They invested much into the Church. We must assure their well-being.
Keep and secure what you have, Boomers. Experts say we have five years left with this group being the top donors. We need to assure their financial stability into retirement and cast a vision to them of leaving behind a legacy to their church through their wills.
Work to build up the next generations. Gen X needs to have our immediate attention but we need to teach generosity as a natural part of being a disciple to every generation. Along with biblical discipleship we must train them in how to handle their finances thus avoiding debt.
That is just for starters. But first, do you know your generational segments at your church?
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach