Pastors, Are You Thinking about Fall Stewardship Appeals?

Many clergy types will soon be turning to one of their least favorite activities: planning and leading some type of fall financial campaign to encourage giving in the next calendar and/or fiscal year for their congregations.  Most campaigns are variations on the same theme.  "You ought to give more because it is the right (or good or faithful) thing to do."

Thus most stewardship appeals really work against normal human psychology.  If we are told that we "ought" to do something, we tend to think that there is some good reason not to do it.  I am interested in finding approaches to these campaigns that work with rather than against the grain of how we are internally wired.  Here are some thoughts.

Giving can be contagious.  If people see other members of a community involved in giving, they are more likely to give.  In the church, however, we make all giving a matter of the highest secrecy.  As I have told some folks, I could describe my personal sex life and get less criticism than if I regularly asked people to give more.  So we reinforce the mistaken idea that most church people don't give.

Whatever ways we can find to combat that mistaken idea will be helpful.  We can publish the average household gift for the congregation.  We can break regular giving down by categories of any kind in order to show that people do give.  As leaders we can share our own giving (assuming it's something that doesn't cause us shame because it's too little).  There is sometimes the fear that putting this information out there might cause larger givers to give less.  That's not true.  Generous people don't operate that way.

Giving in one domain encourages giving in other domains.  Does your congregation measure how many hours are given by members to the community in a week or a month?  If not, you should.  People who volunteer more tend to give more in other ways as well.  Research indicates, in addition, that two hours per week in volunteer work is a source in increased life satisfaction for the givers.  Giving of one's time is most beneficial to all involved when there is no possibility of personal benefit or reciprocity and when the giver can see clearly the impact of giving on the recipient.

So coordination of volunteering beyond the life of the congregation is a stewardship function.  Over the long haul it will increase the aggregate generosity in the system.

Gratitude increases giving.  Include in your stewardship campaign at least six weeks of gratitude lists by members.  Find public venues for making those lists public.  Do people want to be happy?  Gratitude is the surest path to life satisfaction.  Do people want to be grateful?  Giving of ourselves is surest path to daily gratitude.

Once again find ways to make the gratitude public.  Build it into the system.  Consider some kind of system that imitates the Love Machine, first designed by Linden Labs.  This is a community recognition and gratitude system that recognizes givers and encourages those shy about giving to offer help and to enjoy doing it.  Check it out at http://www.sendlove.us/trial/index.php.

Legitimize small gifts.  Have you noticed how any professional fundraising effort always says something like "Every gift counts" or "Pennies add up to dollars"?  The professionals understand that lots of small gifts can turn into big ones.  The church should understand that better than anyone.  But we don't.  So we tend to reward, quietly, what we see as "big" gifts and to sniff politely as the smaller ones.  That is a pathway to fewer gifts overall.

Sometimes we fear that we might encourage the bigger givers to give less if we are too grateful for the smaller gifts.  That doesn't happen.  Generous people understand that every gift counts.  And they know that some of the most powerful gifts are the small ones from generous people of limited means.  Find ways to allow people to make many small gifts.  For example, we sponsor a project that encourages people to give in honor of their birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  It makes a small but measurable difference in giving and reminds people that generosity is the rule among us, not the exception.

In short, no one wants to be a sucker.  So we have to help people understand that giving is what we all do--not just the saps who don't know better.  Here's the campaign I would love:

• Public gratitude lists for eight weeks
• Lots of positive public press about how much giving already happens
• Organized efforts to facilitate, report and recognize volunteering
• Open requests to one another for help and a system of saying thank you out loud
• Clear descriptions of how gifts make life better for people.

But then, what do I know?  What works for you?