Today is December 31 and I think we just made our last charitable gift of the year. We had been thinking through several options and finally decided to do them all.
Over the last 4 months I interviewed over 125 Senior and Executive Pastors of larger churches and everyone was worried about year-end giving this year.
For most larger churches, the last month of the year means about 15-20% of income. That is probably similar to other size churches but my database there is smaller. For many not for profits, the percentage is even higher. I just got off the phone with an officer of a foundation that had recieved multiple million dollar contributions today. These had been in the works for a long time, but the giver waited here until the last day of the year to make the contribution.
I made some predictions for year-end giving to reporters in the past month and it will take a month or so to tell if I was right or not.
In my interviews with the above churches the trend is that attendance was normal and up for the last four months of the year, but giving had not maintained the same pace. In general, most of these churches were about where they were last year with a few exceptions.
The exceptions tended to be those in "sand states" (Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida) as well as states hard hit by carmaker troubles (think Michigan, etc.) These churches, especially if there was a capital campaign going on, were getting hit hard.
Those churches doing "well" had made very modest budgets for the past 24 months and were prepared for the recession. Their giving was slightly up over projection, but nothing like the fast growth times of a few years ago.
A few thoughts that I have shared with reporters:
- Appreciated stock - while many churches have relied on those types of gifts for year end and capital campaigns, they are going to be much harder to see in the next season. There is still some appreciated stock out there though. It may have lost a lot of its value for the past few years, but a some of the long holdings that people may have are still worth more than they paid for them, especially if it was some sort of grant or option in previous years. Still, it ain't the glory days for those types of gifts.
- Real Estate - while many churches don't deal with this type of gift, or handle it through a local community foundation, there are some that have. While real estate values are down across the board, some donors still hold land that they are willing to give. Makes sense to partner with a local Christian Community Foundation for those purposes.
- Americans are generous - While the above two items generally reflect high worth donors, most of us give from cash holdings. My prediction was that if a church had a major local or international cause that attenders saw as tangible and needed, then a special offering of that type would set records.
Why?
a. Americans give to real needs they can see. If you present a worthy cause that helps people less fortunate than the giver, they respond. So if the church said we have 10 families to help, they did. If the goal was to fill the local food bank, they did. If the goal was to send water systems to Africa, they did. If the church said, we have a group of attenders hard hit by the housing downturn and we need to help, they did.
b. These gifts come from cash and here is what I think happened in the last few months of 2008. On September 1st everyone had gasoline prices above $4 and everyone was worried what was next. Christmas gifts for family and friends got adjusted downwards as people reset their expectations for lifestyle. People avoided making large purchases.
Lo and behold, gas in my neck of the woods is below $1.40 and we have more money in our pockets. The thought was why not be generous and help some.
In spite of the economy and world situation, Christian Leaders need to keep on encouraging people to be generous in all things as a matter of discipleship of the person, not from the needs of our churches.
When people develop generous hearts, our needs will be met.
Dave Travis
Managing Director
Leadership Network
Comments