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February 25, 2009
Do special offerings negatively impact regular giving?
I came across these thoughts on a user's group that I am a member us for church business administrators. The question is an important one: do special offerings detract from regular giving?
Below is the copy of an e-mail from a conversation thread attempting to answer this question. (No, I won't identify this person for two reasons: one, they don't know I'm writing this and two, identifying the individual or church irrelevant to the purpose of this post.)
"To convince your pastor you might want to follow giving when special offerings are taken. We have found that even though you mention to the congregation that this giving is after the normal giving; in most cases we will see the normal offering drops by a like amount as was given to the special offering.I might add that giving toward a vision (like a major building project)
doesn't seem to affect the normal giving negatively. In fact, it seems to
help normal giving. (Something about giving the people a vision, I guess)"
Here are my initial thoughts:
1. Special Offerings don't inherently cause regular giving to go down. The fact that a better appeal or "ask" has been crafted for the special offering and that the assumption has been made that whatever is given will be over and above a member's regular giving is the real causal factor.
People like to know how their contributions will be used. Special Offerings make a connection between need and opportunity. Giving is an emotional response to a cause or organization that helps others do something they couldn't do on their own.
The answer is not that we should stop using special offerings to meet short-term immediate needs. The answer is that church leaders need to do a better job demonstrating how regular offerings are being used and connecting need with opportunity in measuralbe ways.
2. Giving is an outward sign of an inward commitment. In the second paragraph, the writer highlights that "giving toward a vision" doesn't negatively impact regular giving. My only response to that is this....exactly! There is a strong connection between giving and vision because giving is an emotional response to a passionate appeal to meet a compelling need.
There is a lot of energy and storytelling surrounding any type of major capital campaign. This naturally translates into more dollars because people see themselves as participating in something larger than themselves. Casting a vision results in commitment, sacrifice and action.
What do you think? Do you agree? Are special offerings the problem or is a lack of vision for regular, undesignated giving the real culprit in this scenario?
Posted by bstroup at February 25, 2009 1:52 PM
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