You might have heard the old adage in the philanthropic world that attracting donors is difficult but keeping them is easy. There’s actually nothing further from the truth.

While it can be difficult and costly to secure new givers, it’s actually far more challenging work to retain those donors over a long period of time. Five Strategies to Engage Donors Now provides concrete and practical steps for managing your donor relationships in a way that keeps givers inspired, informed, and excited.

From navigating a crisis to how to make an appropriate ask, these tools will give you solid guidance
in advancing your church’s stewardship and long-term care of its givers.

Donors need relationship and ministry far more than we need their money. If we don’t see ministry to the donor as our higher calling, our donors are destined to be mere objects and the connection between them and our ministry will be sadly unsatisfying.

Donors of all sizes deserve to know the difference they are making. Henri Nouwen reminds us that fundraising is all about creating a relationship between those who have resources and those who need them, in order to advance God’s Kingdom. 

“We will find ourselves begging for money and they will find themselves merely handing us a check,” he writes. “No real connection has been created because we have not asked them to come and be with us. We have not given them an opportunity to participate in the spirit of what we are about. We may have completed a successful transaction, but we have not entered into a successful relationship.”

The Three Characteristics of the Cheerful Giver: Fundraising as Ministry outlines the key desires of donors and how churches can meet those needs.

Stewardship is a touchy subject in churches today. It’s something pastors often don’t like to preach about. But it’s inevitable. We have to at some point. 

It’s no secret that online giving is becoming more prominent in our churches today, especially because of the Covid-19 pandemic we faced in 2020 and are starting to see recycle itself again right now. If the pandemic did one thing for churches, it forced them to think about how to continue to receive tithes and offerings from its members while not physically meeting on campus each week. Do any churches actually pass an offering plate anymore?

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Cor. 9:7

AS A CHURCH LEADER, HOW ARE YOU COMMUNICATING WHY IT’S IMPORTANT FOR YOUR MEMBERS TO BE FAITHFUL IN THEIR STEWARDSHIP? 

Most everyone in your church knows why he or she tithes. The Bible calls us to. Furthermore, most of your members know how to give. In times past, they would write a check or drop cash in the plate as it passed during an offertory hymn. Times have changed, and now we can add swiping a credit or debit card at a kiosk in the lobby, giving online, or texting a tithe as options. As mentioned earlier, summer has now come to a close. People are returning to your church from a hectic summer, seeking relief and a sense of normalcy. So how are you, as a church leader, communicating why it’s important for your members to be faithful in their stewardship along with the various ways for your members to give faithfully?

HOW CAN YOU ENGAGE AND EDUCATE YOUR MEMBERS ON WAYS TO TITHE AND THE WHY BEHIND IT?