How one church used Social Media to increase giving!
If you are going to be fully funded this year you had better know how to increase summer giving! Giving in the summer always goes down. Why? Your members go to the beach and they take their offering with them. They go to the mountains and they take the offering with them. They go and see Mickey and they take their offering with them. The bottom line is that in the summer as your attendance declines so does your offering.
If you know that is a fact why is it you are not doing something to correct that? Every pastor and church leaders knows that summer giving is a challenge. Yet few have any plans to do anything about it. If year after year, summer after summer, your giving has declined why would you think this year would be any different? It won’t. It won’t unless you have a plan.
I specialize in putting plans of action together for churches so that they can limit the decline in giving during the summer. Do you have a plan? If you don’t have a plan you are actually planning on failing.
Key Advice for Increasing Summer Giving
1. Get a plan and work your plan! What we plan for we achieve. What we fail to plan for we miss. So what is your plan? Go here to find out how you can get my plan for increasing summer giving http://thestewardshipcoach.org/fully-funded-summer/
2. Set up the tools to help you increase summer giving. The best tool for helping churches head off a decline in summer giving is to set up an online giving platform. Online giving allows members to set up their gifts to be automatic. As one pastor of a 200 member church told me, “Setting up online giving took the worry out of Monday mornings in the summer.”
3. Use your all your tools to highlight the value of what you are doing during the summer. Fundraisers realize that they have to use more than one platform to raise funds. You should considering using your Social Media sites to highlight the importance of giving. Use direct mail to garner an increase in giving. Email that are well written and that provide a direct link to your giving page will help you increase giving. Even the moments before the offering if used wisely can help giving increase instead of decrease during the summer.
4. Ask the right way! I once received a letter from a church that asked me to give to help them pay the electric bill because of the hot summer. Other letters have been sent appealing to donors to make up a budget shortfall. Those kinds of “asks” simply drive donors away rather than help you increase donations. Why? People don’t give so you can make budget! They give to see your make a difference. So tell the story of all that you are doing to help build the Kingdom.
Simply utilizing these four steps will allow you to see an increase in giving this summer. Again, you know this summer will be a challenge, so why wait. Let’s work to fully fund your summer this year!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach
Founder and President
The Charis Group and Charis Giving Solutions
April 2nd at 2 PM EST I will be teaching on how to increase your summer giving. To register go to http://thestewardshipcoach.org/fully-funded-summer/