Church Giving: 7 Best Practices

Church giving is a lot more than what’s on the surface.

With its own unique nuances and relational dynamics, church giving can be a tough topic for many church leaders.

We want to help!

Here are 7 best practices for church giving.

Church giving: 7 best practices

1. Have a clear and compelling vision

This may seem obvious, however, from my experience working with churches, it is quite common for churches to “under deliver” when it comes to a clear and compelling vision for general ministry and special ministry initiatives.

Providing clarity in ministry vision helps remove fear and uncertainty, while providing a compelling ministry vision removes doubts and energizes your congregation.  

2. Have a plan

Similar to a proper communications plan, your church should have a church giving plan.

This church giving plan would include:

• Calendar
• Strategies (first time givers, small dollar campaigns, large gifts, estate planning, etc.)
• Tactics (first time giver follow up, recurring giving follow up, recurring giving solicitation, etc.)
• Tools (dashboards, giving pages, church giving software, etc.)
• Goals (monthly, quarterly, annual, initiatives, etc.)

3. Make it measurable

Collecting and visualizing giving data is helpful both internally (leadership team, elder team) and externally (congregation).

Common metrics include: giving units, first time givers, recurring givers, monthly giving, and quarterly giving.

For special initiatives, using a “giving thermometer” graphic on your church website is a great way of showing progress during a campaign.

Another tactic to make church giving measurable is equipping your congregants with a “planning card.”

These cards are usually the size of a postcard but have blank spaces for income, giving amount, and frequency.

With the card’s formula put to work, individuals and families can easily see how much they are planning on giving for the year and pray through that amount.

Regardless of the complexity of metrics or tactics you choose, it is a great best practice to make your church’s regular giving and special initiatives measurable and understandable for both internal and external audiences.

4. Make it regular

Outside of the Sunday morning designated time of giving, how often does the topic of giving get brought up on a Sunday morning?

If your church is like most churches, the topic of giving is relegated to a once a year focus or special campaign.

Make it a regular topic.

One simple way to make giving a regular topic throughout the year, is to have a designated “giving moment” time in the service where a leader or volunteer shares a personal or video story of ministry impact.

After that testimony or media is shown, tie that ministry impact into a moment of vision and challenge explaining how generosity fuels ministry work that changes lives.

This will help congregants know how the church is succeeding in its mission as well as challenge and encourage an increasing generosity among the church body.

Churches who grow in giving and generosity make it a regular rhythm and topic of church life.

5. Make it easy

We’ve all had moments of frustration when trying to check out at an online store.

Thoughts like, “Just take my money!” or, “This should not be so hard.” come to mind.

Depending on your church giving solution, your congregants may be feeling this exact pain.

To make church giving easy for your church, make sure to use a modern and easy to use church giving platform like Anedot.

Other easy ways to give include text to give, recurring giving, and simply passing the offering plate.

We have articles that explain how your church can use and implement these tools on our blog, here.

Make it easy to give to your church by leveraging the best software and providing different digital and non-digital solutions.

6. Make it a challenge

When is the last time your church body was challenged to give more than what was planned?

Many churches have found regular “giving challenges” a healthy and unifying way to grow in generosity.

Whether it's to increase regular giving for a year or to give more to a certain annual event, giving challenges often help to bring about spiritual breakthroughs and a growing trust in God.

As a discipleship tool, giving challenges can help believers identify idols in their lives and confront them with a community’s help.  

Making your next Sunday or next campaign a challenge is a great way to grow generosity in your church.

7. Celebrate impact

Southwest Airlines famously says to their guests, “Thank you for choosing to fly with us. We know you have many options.”

Similarly, your congregants have many ministries and causes to give to, but choose to give to their local church.

An effective way to communicate thanks and compel continued giving is to celebrate ministry impact.

As mentioned previously in relation to “church giving moments,” celebrating impact is a powerful and inspiring way to show that ministry dollars bringing about life change.

Great ways to celebrate impact include: Sunday morning pre-sermon times, social media campaigns, and printed letter and media mailed to all who supported the initiative or ministry.

When your church knows that their generosity is fueling ministry impact and changing lives, they will grow and be compelled to give more in faith, trusting the Lord to use their gifts for His purposes.