Giving Analysis: What’s in the numbers?

Depending on what you’re tracking and looking at, giving data can provide a lot of insight into your donors.  So much so, that there are data-mining services honed to find your best donors in a sea of donors and prospects. People often think this type of analysis is for larger organizations, but data is data, and there is still much you can learn from yours if you are willing to collect it.   

Giving data is one of the most tracked metrics in fundraising. That can be simple or very in-depth depending on how much data you have and what you are collecting it for. In church congregations, I have found the following metrics to be very informative with respect to giving:

1. Donor demographics
2. Total annual giving amount per year
3. Church tenure
4. Giving pattern (how many times/year)

Additionally, churches more so than most charities, have the blessing of knowing who a lot of your donors are.  So, adding in the demographic data will really add depth to your analysis.

Donor Info

Demographic info can tell you a lot about a person and allow you to make certain assumptions.  It is no different in church congregations.  So, do not skip over collecting that info and establishing who is in your constituency. The age of the donor might seem incidental, but it’s not. It is important to identify gaps in generational groups in your congregation.

You also want to look for gaps in giving.  This does not mean you are looking for an even distribution of giving.  Those aged 45-60 have probably reached their peak earning potential and will likely be some of your largest givers. Those in their 20’s on the other hand, may just be starting out and not have the same amount of earned income to give to the church.  But do not assume that means they cannot give anything.  Everyone can do something if they want to. 

What you want to look for is whether there are individuals within the generational groups that give well below their potential or give nothing at all. Even giving at a low level is encouraging. The donors or members who give nothing are the concern. 

Churches have failed badly in preparing donors to give, particularly the younger generations. A lot of them do give…maybe just not to the church. Many churches have not recognized these generational differences and thus, have not offered creative giving choices to encourage younger members to give. 

When a gap is identified, it becomes an opportunity to address the problem proactively.  What can be most discouraging is the discovery of people (sometimes many) in the older generations that are non-givers. 

Total Annual Giving

This is really the column that drives all the others.  Once completed you want to sort the data according to this column and list your donors in descending order according to the largest gift. 

This is often and interesting revelation for a lot of ministers and church leaders who are often surprised who their “top” givers are. Secondly, who is not on the list in the top 20%…often citing names of wealthy members who have not yet discovered the joy of giving…at least not to the church. 

Within the faith-based sector, the 20/80 factor was far more representative as a commitment distribution and not a wealth distribution.  A 20/80 (often 10/90 now) ratio usually indicates that success has not been achieved in terms of a proactive stewardship process.  

A healthier distribution is 20/50, where the top 20% are giving 50% of the funds.  In all the churches I have worked with, never have I seen 100% of the congregation giving to the church.  And that’s ok.  There are certainly circumstances and instances where people for whatever reason are not able or going to give.  The highest we ever saw was a 93% response rate and this was certainly a unique situation.

However, checking the giving distribution is important on a number of levels.  First of all, it speaks to the issue of latent potential. If 80% of your congregation are giving at low levels or not at all, there is tremendous potential to inspire a higher level of giving. Secondly, if your church has settled into this pattern of giving, your leadership has some work to do in the area of expectations and education on stewardship and discipleship. 

Benchmarks of Giving

One of the first stark realizations that most churches make during this process are the number of people in regular attendance that contribute nothing financially to the church. In many congregations that number is around 15-20%.  For some it is higher.  The highest I have seen is 50%!  The ideal here is 10-15%.  If you are higher than that, you probably need to work on that. 

The other benchmark’s you want to look for are annual giving amounts at; $100, $250, and $500.  Also, not unusual, and often surprising is that you will probably be through 50% of your congregation working from zero up before giving exceeds $500 per year.  If this is the case in your church, that’s a problem and you need to flag that. 

This process is often eye-opening for many church leaders. What you learn from this type of analysis is often the catalyst to a proactive remedy.  Your assumptions about giving will probably be challenged here in the reality of who is making sacrificial gifts and how many are doing nothing. But knowing is better than not knowing and is vital to proactive stewardship planning.

Church Tenure

Church tenure looks at how long people have been attending your church and are they assimilating into the congregation. Generally, churches are quite good at assimilating new members into regular attendance and active involvement, but not so much at giving. Often churches just assume that when people have been in attendance for a while they will give. This is a poor assumption to make because not everyone will move to giving without some sort of formal process of teaching and leadership modelling. 

Patterns of Giving

Donors giving patterns have changed over the years.  This is indicative of a change in the work force and how people earn money in today’s society.  Whereas giving in the church was always weekly the shift has now moved to monthly giving.  You should be regularly promoting an online monthly giving program to encourage this.  

Trends

Another important aspect of your church’s financial and giving data is to establish financial trends.  Trends help identify where we are headed in the future and are the basis for proactive planning. So, you need to ask the question, “If nothing changes, where is this trend taking us?”  Extrapolate the trend forward and create a 5 or a 10-year window. If the trend is heading in the wrong direction, this will be very visible over the long term.

Minor variances, like 2 or 3% can be somewhat deceiving if only looked at on a yearly basis.  It’s easy to believe a variance like that can be made up next year and it probably can…if it’s an anomaly.  If it’s a negative trend, 2 or 3% over five years can add up to 10-15% cumulatively.  A 15% decrease in giving is actuality quite significant and can have some serious consequences on church ministry and programming. 

Check your trends and see where your church will be in 5 or 10 years if you stay on the course you are on now.   Knowing what is going on is the key to proactive planning that results in healthy church finances. 

Conclusion

So, finding out who your donors are and what levels they are giving at or if they are giving at all, is just the start to your organizational analysis. But, it’s the only place to start. In the next segment, we’ll take a look at strategy and see how giving and strategy are related.  

If you haven’t had a chance to read last week’s article and download your copy of the organizational assessment, you can do that here.