Does Lower Giving Indicate a Vision Problem?
Despite the doom and gloom reported by daily media economists, the Blackbaud Index reports that charitable giving has increased from 2009. For the entire nonprofit sector, which includes colleges, universities, churches, and all other nonprofit organizations, giving increased 12.1% in April 2010.
I wondered if this trend was happening specifically in church giving, so I contacted my friend Jim Sheppard, CEO of Generis. Jim and his team of strategists consult faith-based nonprofits and religious organizations to connect them with people who want to financially support their mission and vision. Here’s what Jim had to say about church giving:
TONY: The Blackbaud Index says giving is up. Is the index a reliable measurement?
JIM: The index is probably a good overall indicator. The limitation of the Blackbaud, like most of these type surveys is that they do not take into account very much, if any, church giving.
TONY: So churches should expect lower-than-average giving?
JIM: About one-third of churches have giving that is down. Of the churches I know whose giving is down, there is typically another story with factors other than the economy. Many of them are churches with little or no vision. The prosperous economy concealed the fact that they were not in good shape. The lean economy reveals it.
TONY: Are you saying church giving is less about the economy than the media would have us believe?
JIM: Scarcity clarifies—the lean economy has revealed, in general, which churches are healthy and which are not. Yes, there are a few spots that have been hammered by the economy (Detroit, Las Vegas, etc.) but that is not the main problem for many of the churches that are down. Having said that, It appears most of our clients and prospective clients have seen an uptick in giving. Plus, the confidence level of church leaders seems to be much better than it was at the end of 2009. They are now talking about taking on projects like mortgage reduction, buildings, property acquisition and ministry venture capital.
How about you? Is giving up in your church? Is it down? Do you think Jim’s comment, “scarcity brings clarity,” changes the way we need to approach giving?
I have a few of thoughts on the matter.
1. Giving may be up BECAUSE OF the hard times. Tough situations and tough times have a tendency of bringing people closer to God, getting their attention, etc. A lot of people pitch in and help during times like these.
2. People want to put their money where they feel it is genuinely being used and is being used efficiently and effectively. Tough times may help to lift the lid off of some situations and reveal truth. That may lead some people to decide to give their money elsewhere.
3. When a group… a church in the case of our discussion… is really working, really doing something toward growing and nurturing God’s kingdom, people tend to want to support the program. People feel really good and really comfortable in helping a cause that is truly working and is making a clear difference.
Bottom line; good people genuinely want to help. Good people especially want to help when help is needed most, where it is needed most, and know that it is going toward the true need.
I agree with Jim and believe he is right on!
People give to vision, I believe that. People don’t lack ability they just lack incentive most of the time, people just want to be inspired. I do.
M_
Interesting blog post, Tony, and an appropriate question for us non-profit leaders (churches included) to be asking.
My answer: yes, lower giving can indicate a vision problem; however, it might also indicate that the vision lacks a participatory component to it (a vision problem of a different order). Sometimes organizations communicate what they want to accomplish with clarity, but not how the average person can be involved to help accomplish it. An example comes from the Million Man Gathering for Promise Keepers in 1997. At what was perhaps the largest religious gathering on American soil, the energy was high. People were cheering for just about everything that was said. That is, until Coach McCartney shouted, ?From now on, Promise Keepers is going international!? The cheering did a complete nose-dive. I was standing near two guys whose conversation at that point went something like this:
Guy 1: ?I ain?t goin? international, how ?bout you??
Guy 2: ?I ain?t goin? international, either. I?m going home.?
There wasn?t a lack of clarity with the vision. It was completely appropriate for Promise Keepers to go international; the only problem was that those two guys had no idea how they were supposed to participate in the whole endeavor. Sadly and perhaps not coincidentally, Promise Keepers? budget struggled in the years following.
I learned a lesson that day: in addition to having a clear vision on the whole, you need to have clear vision for participation from regular people. Because when people get involved in a cause, so do their wallets.