Giving is the financial lifeblood of most churches, making up well over 50% of the total income of all the churches in the diocese, but why do people give money?
An emotional response
When any charity is looking for donations it can be easy to state facts and talk about how much it costs to run the building and services that they offer. If we really want to motivate people to give, though, we need to move on from talking about costs and instead appeal to people's emotions. Consider the story of the building of the Tabernacle:
And they came, everyone whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and brought the Lord’s offering to be used for the tent of meeting. Exodus 35:21
In this story Moses is asking the people to give towards the building of the central place of worship for the Israelite community but he doesn't just give them a list of costs. Instead, he makes an appeal to their heart for them to support the future worship of God. This remains an important lesson for us today: people give because they feel an emotional connection to the thing they're supporting.
What does this mean for churches?
There are many "heart" reasons that might make people want to give to church; for some it might be about supporting their faith community, others might want to help look after their historic building/place of worship, and still others might want to support the social action of the parish.
Whatever their personal reason, if we see giving as a response from the heart we can pick out three principles that explain why people give to church:
- a spiritual response to their faith
- because they want to make a difference to their community
- because they care about what the church is doing.
These three points can be neatly summarised as: faith, hope, and love. When we understand this we can open up our giving conversations beyond “we need to pay the bills” to “here are some reasons to care about your local church, we'd love your support.”
Framing the ask
Aiming to reach people through an emotional response is the key to motivating giving to church. It offers potential givers an opportunity to see the good that we do as faith communities and to engage with and support that through financial giving. We want to make it a "heart" approach by not just listing costs but by saying to people "we bring these blessings to our parish and local community; you can support us to keep doing that into the future." In this way, giving can provide a brilliant opportunity to really engage the hearts of your congregation and the local commuity with your church’s future.
Let's look at this again through Faith, Hope, and Love:
Faith
Asking for giving can be a great opportunity to explore giving as a faithful commitment to God (discipleship), or a response to God’s grace (thanksgiving), or an opportunity to resource the growth of the church (evangelism). Ask yourself: what motivates your faith as a church community and what does financial giving mean to how you are able to practice that? A conversation about financial giving can also give you an evangelistic opportunity to communicate to those outside the church that the blessings you bring to the local community flow from your faith in Jesus Christ. Have a look at this page for a little more about the theology of giving.
Hope
Parish churches are often the greatest sources of community action and charity work in their local area. Ask yourself: how do you want to be able to generate and embody hope within your congregation and your local community? Whatever the answer, it will be unique to your church and therefore a unique way for your potential givers to care about your church. Motivating giving is about communicating to people the difference you make and inviting them to help you achieve it.
Love
People give to causes they care about, even if that's only at a superficial level. Motivating people to give is about explaining what they will help achieve if they give you money. This is about appealing to the things people may already care about, such as the historic building, as well as offering them new things to care about too, such as "did you know we run a lunch club for people with dementia?" This is all about generating that emotional response that moves people to care about who we are and what we do as a community of Christians.
The Diocesan Generous Giving Adviser, Joshua Townson, is available to visit your PCC to discuss further how you can motivate people to give to your church. You can contact him via email at joshua.townson@oxford.anglican.org or telephone on 01865 208 757.