To maximize impact start early.

 A year-end giving request can be a very useful tool and can have a profoundly positive impact on your ministry.  But if you are going to do it you need to start early, as in now.  Many of your church members make year-end gifts annually and there are dollars in your congregation that will either end up being sent to the I.R.S. or to a tax-exempt charity.  Most folks would rather give to a charity than pay taxes, and if you do not ask for those dollars someone will.  United Way may end up with some of your members’ offerings.  But if you are going to maximize your year-end giving appeal, it needs to be done right.

Failed year-end giving appeals in churches happen for a number of reasons.  Perhaps the most common reason is that churches don’t to see the value of a year-end giving appeal and so they don’t even try.  A year-end giving appeal for your congregation can offer your members a wonderful opportunity to worship in giving during the holy days of Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas, and bless your church as you enter the New Year.  You need to consider having a year end giving appeal.

A second reason year-end giving appeals don’t work is because they are poorly prepared and presented.  A form letter addressed to “Dear Member”, and asking that they consider a special “Thanksgiving offering” which arrives on November 25^th will likely not get a generous response.  Some appeal letters motivate people to give less and not more.  Worse than no year-end appeal is an appeal that comes across as sloppy and thoughtless. 

One other reason that a year-end appeal might fall flat on its face is that it smacks of self-aggrandizement and greed.  If you send out a letter that tells folks you are so wonderful, listing all your accomplishments in the year and asking for more of their money so you can be more wonderful next year, you deserve to be ignored. 

So what does this have to do with a year-end giving discussion in January?  Year-end giving needs to be a special opportunity to carry on a yearlong expression of holy, wholesome, and Biblical giving.  By developing healthy giving attitudes now when you make a year-end appeal it will not seem like you are trying to sheer the flock between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.   A sound yearlong approach to stewardship that is holy, wholesome, and Biblical will bless any church, weather you have a year end appeal or not.  Here are three foundational points you need to have in place.

Vision: Why on earth has God put you here?  You are not here by accident; God has a plan for your congregation.  Be able to articulate the answer to the question “Why?” simply and directly.

Mission: What are we doing about that?  If God has put you here for a purpose you need to be able to state how are you going to accomplish that purpose.

Relationship:  How are we connecting to our members as givers?  People do not give to anyone or anything they do not trust.  You build trust by the currency of relationships. 

Next week I will take a moment to point out some basic tools that will help you build trust and your relationship with your givers all year long.