Intelligent Church Giving by Power Trade Media

H E L P I N G L E A D E R S B E C O M E B E T T E R S T E WA R D S .

Intelligent Church Giving Presented by: RSI Stewardship

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Table of Contents HAIL MARY OR HOLY MOLY: THERE’S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY TO FUND MINISTRY

Many church leaders have realized that data and technology provide new ways of thinking about how they can overcome their increasing financial challenges.

identify new approaches, such as contemporary services, small groups, multisite churches and online campuses. Unfortunately, when it comes to giving, we’re not always so quick to adapt or adjust our ways of thinking. By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

MAKING SENSE OF MARKETPLACE MUMBO JUMBO

NEVER ASK AGAIN: 3 TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING CHURCH GIVING 6

Before you write off the ideas as “marketplace mumbo-jumbo,” let’s consider a few reasons why they might be applicable to your ministry.

Regardless of the situation, you’re probably searching for any other way to increase generosity without having to make another announcement about it.

By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

THE SECRET TO REACHING OUT — WITHOUT BURNING OUT

RETHINKING THE CHURCH CAPITAL CAMPAIGN 8

Data and technology have made it easier than ever to reach more people and raise more money. This isn’t about adding another thing to your plate; it’s about identifying ways you can work smarter, not harder. It’s about improving how you reach out so that you never burn out.

The capital campaign has always been a powerful way for church leaders to focus attention and resources toward reaching a God-inspired vision for your ministry. And while the timeless principles will never change, the best approach to funding your vision has always — and will always — evolve as the landscape of ministry evolves. In fact, we’re living through one of those evolutions right now.

By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

HOW 2 CHURCHES USE DATA AND TECHNOLOGY TO REACH MORE AND RAISE MORE 10 Funding ministry is likely the most complex part of your role as a church leader. Changing attitudes around giving and involvement don’t help; tithing and weekly attendance is no longer considered normal. These shifts are making it harder and harder for you to fully fund your vision. It can seem impossible. Yet, many church leaders are beginning to learn that working smarter, not harder, is the way to discover your path to developing a culture of stewardship in your church. By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

A GIVING GUT-CHECK: 10 QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN EVALUATING YOUR CHURCH’S GENEROSITY IN 2017

Your ministry is too important to be left to “going with your gut” or hoping things will work out. If you really believe God has called you to accomplish the vision you have for your ministry next year, then you owe it to yourself, your staff, and the people who support you to make sure you appropriately steward the time, talent and treasure God has already brought to you. To help, we wanted to share 10 questions you can use to evaluate your strategy for cultivating generosity and make the adjustments needed to enhance your efforts next year. By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO GUESS ANYMORE

Where do many new report-writing tools fall short? More importantly, is there a better way to analyze the information you have to finally start gaining traction towards your ultimate vision?

IT’S TIME TO CHANGE HOW YOU THINK ABOUT CHURCH GIVING: 5 MINDSETS TO TRANSFORM YOUR MINISTRY FUNDING STRATEGY 22

Those are the two questions we’re working together to help church leaders answer.

Innovative strategies and technologies are emerging that provide church leaders with tools to overcome the obstacles they face. In church, giving has (and always will be) based on the timeless principles of Jesus, but the methods and tools must continue to evolve.

By Joel Mikell and Curt Swindoll

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT GIVING CAN KILL YOUR MINISTRY POTENTIAL 14 Every church leader recognizes that there are times when we must adapt the way we do ministry. While the message stays the same, the methods change. New challenges have led us to churchexecutive.com

Here are a few proven principles church leaders are embracing to adopt new church giving strategies, improve their efforts to engage people, and fund their vision. By Joel Mikell & Curt Swindoll

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Intelligent Church Giving

Hail Mary or holy moly There’s got to be a better way to fund ministry By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

Most senior pastors or executive leaders approach church giving by looking for a Hail Mary or settling for a holy moly. We depend on someone to save us at the last minute — or, we accept managed decline. But what if there were a better way?

Thankfully, there is. Many church leaders have realized that data and technology provide new ways of thinking about how they can overcome their increasing financial challenges. New challenges require a better way to fund ministry. Today’s ministry leaders face a new series of challenges when it comes to church giving. If we want to identify a better way to fund ministry, let’s agree on a few things: Church giving is declining while overall charitable giving is increasing. According to a recent report by the Atlas of Giving, overall charitable giving increased by 4.6 percent in 2014, but church giving declined by 1.6 percent. There is a remarkable change in behavior when it comes to church giving. Attitudes and giving patterns aren’t the same as they once were. Tithing is not the norm. The conditions of how people give, why people give, and when people give is changing. The cost of ministry is increasing … and so are the needs! Ministry needs are constantly increasing, especially in a growing church. Church leaders rarely feel like they have all the resources they need. Many church leaders are uncertain about how to solve the problem. While leaders might be aware of the challenges, no one trained them on how to overcome them. It can be difficult to discern what the right next step should be. However, leaders can either bemoan the reality, or they can commit to taking action.

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How do you cut through the clutter of all the giving opportunities and ensure you fully fund your ministry plan? Rather than preaching louder or working harder, data and technology provide a more intelligent way to cultivate generosity. Church leaders can benefit from a more intelligent way of increasing generosity. If you believe this is true, then you need to reach toward data and technology to help you make disciples and grow churches. Even if you’re not ready to agree that data and technology can help, let’s consider several ways every church could benefit: #1: You’ll make smarter, more informed decisions. You have more information and data on your church members than ever before. But, are you using it to make data-driven decisions that validate or challenge your intuitions? Taking the time to analyze your data and the behavioral patterns of your church members can make a significant difference in the impact of your ministry. For example, your church might be considering a capital campaign for a new facility. By taking the time to analyze your data, you might find that you can overcome the challenges you’re facing by adding another service, rather than going into debt to build a new facility. When you take time to analyze the data and information, you can make smarter, more informed decisions rather than relying on your gut. #2: You’ll break through the noise and clutter. Inspiring people to give is just half the equation. You must help them follow through. Technology gives you the ability to communicate and follow up with givers like never before. Segmentation and personalization allow you to connect with each church member in a way that fits their native consumption habits and giving history. Technology allows you to guide every church member in the grace of giving, whether it’s a first-time giver or a financial leader. churchexecutive.com

#3: You’ll define a holistic process that uniquely allows you to enhance your disciple-making strategies. You have access to information that can be leveraged to help people grow in generosity. Sometimes that means challenging them and providing accountability just as Paul did in several of his letters to the early church. Intelligent giving strategies allow you to maximize the information you have to lead each individual church member toward being more generous. Take the first step toward a better way The days of waiting until the end of the year to “work it all out,” or hoping for the best, won’t be enough to engage the people in your church and move them toward extravagant generosity. Why is it OK for Target and Amazon to know more about our members than we do? And why wouldn’t we want to use every available resource to advance and fund Kingdom work? Funding your ministry can be easier. Rather than praying for a hail mary, technology allows you to confidently lead your church members in generosity in more effective ways. Instead of being so overwhelmed by the increasing financial challenges that all you can say is “Holy Moly!”, data provides a new way of thinking for how you can overcome them. The steps toward intelligent giving strategies are simple, but they require discipline. Are you ready to leverage your data and technology to do it in a smarter way? Joel Mikell is president and principal at RSI Stewardship. He has helped church leaders raise more than $500 million for Kingdom projects and has had the privilege of working with some of the most well-known churches and church leaders across the country. Follow him on Twitter @joelmikell, or find him on Facebook. Derek Hazelet is senior vice president at RSI Stewardship. His unique combination of business and local church experience fuels his passion to see churches and organizations realize their full potential through the ministry of stewardship. Reach him by email, and find him on Twitter @dhazelet or LinkedIn.

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Intelligent Church Giving

MAKING SENSE

OF MARKETPLACE

MUMBO

JUMBO What church leaders really need to know By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

Data and technology provide church leaders with new ways of thinking about how to overcome financial challenges or fund growing ministry opportunities. Consequently, there are a lot of new concepts and topics being discussed across ministry circles. Before you write off the ideas as “marketplace mumbo-jumbo,” let’s consider a few reasons why they might be applicable to your ministry. An “inside look” at today’s church members Understanding the value data and technology can provide starts with recognizing the mindset and motivations of the church members we’re trying to reach.

“Learn more about how you can create an easier way to fund ministry with Intelligent Church Giving by downloading our latest resource at: www.RSIstewardship.com/IntelligentChurchGiving The expectations of your church members have changed. In a world where Amazon [ www.fastcodesign.com/1669551/how-companies-like-amazon-use-big-data-to-make-youlove-them ] provides specific recommendations based on our shopping activity, today’s church members expect you to know their preferences, interests and ministry involvement. This is about more than adapting the format or style of a worship service — people want the churches they attend to truly know them. Today’s church members still want to know they matter. They want to be connected to tangible impact and life change as a result of their generosity. This connection between giving and impact is a fundamental element of discipleship. We live in a world that is noisier than ever. There are more nonprofits competing for the attention and resources of church members than ever before. We must be intentional about earning the attention and investment of church members rather than assuming it’s automatically given. 6

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You can try to meet these expectations manually, exhausting yourself and your staff in the process. Or, you can deploy technology and tools to equip your staff to effectively disciple and cultivate generosity among your congregation.

What church leaders really need to know Familiarity with key concepts and phrases is important. Here are three terms you should know when it comes to leveraging data and technology to cultivate generosity: #1: Business Intelligence More than likely, you’re already gathering data about your church members (previous giving history, attendance/involvement, interests, etc.). However, data alone is meaningless unless you can do something with it. In essence, business intelligence is about leveraging actionable data to drive your strategy, measure your effectiveness, and improve your efforts for accelerating generosity. It’s more than collecting data and reporting information; it’s turning data into actionable information. #2: Marketing Automation Until now, the processes for prompting church members to give have been manual, time-intensive activities. Marketing automation enables you to create a systematic process for cultivating generosity that isn’t dependent on a manual process. This allows you to spend less time sending emails or following up with church members, and more time doing ministry. #3: Productivity Tools How are you measuring ministry effectiveness? How are you making sure the energy you’re putting into cultivating generosity is actually moving people into deeper levels of commitment? Productivity tools allow you to organize information and automate reports so you can see what’s happening on both a macro- and micro-level in various areas of ministry.

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Why does this matter for ministry? Now that we’ve defined the terms, here are just a few of the benefits data and technology provide:

Optimization — You have access to so much information on your church members. But, are you using it to make data-driven decisions that validate or challenge your intuitions? Taking the time to optimize your data is the key to working smarter, rather than harder, when it comes to solving the ministry challenges you face. Integration — Many churches collect data in silos. Taking the time to connect the dots is key to overcoming your financial challenges. On a macro-level, it gives you the ability to see trends within your ministry. On a micro-level, it provides tangible insights to cultivate generosity in individual church members. Activation — Data and technology are useless unless you can use them to move people to action. Marketing automation and productivity tools allow you to develop a systematic process for implementing the things you learn from data to make a tangible impact. Most church leaders don’t know what they have at their fingertips. Many parachurch ministries and nonprofits are embracing business intelligence best practices, marketing automation and productivity tools to increase contributions. For-profit companies have been doing this for years. Our mission has eternal significance, and the stakes are much higher. Why wouldn’t we use the information and tools we have available to fund ministry, both now and in the future? Joel Mikell is president at RSI Stewardship www.rsistewardship.com. Follow him on Twitter @joelmikell, or find him on Facebook www.facebook.com/joel.mikell. Derek Hazelet is senior vice president at RSI Stewardship. Find him on Twitter @dhazelet or LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/derekhazelet.

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Intelligent Church Giving

The secret to reaching out â&#x20AC;&#x201D; without burning out By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

Simple church can feel incredibly complex at times. There are always more people to reach. There is always more ministry that can be done.

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If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the pressure or nervous about the future, you’re not alone. Research shows: • 90 percent of pastors admit they are frequently fatigued and worn out on a weekly, or even daily, basis, and • 62 percent of senior pastors are concerned about giving. Here’s good news: Data and technology have made it easier than ever to reach more people and raise more money. This isn’t about adding another thing to your plate; it’s about identifying ways you can work smarter, not harder. It’s about improving how you reach out so that you never burn out. 3 keys to working smarter, not harder, with data and technology Here are three ways you can apply the principles behind intelligent church giving to work smarter, not harder. 1) Make better decisions by balancing intuition with information. If making more disciples is the end game and discipleship is a life-long process, then effective ministry requires a long-game approach. It’s about equipping and sustaining comprehensive ministry. While there will always be an element of faith involved, we must get past “going with our gut” when it comes to the ministry decisions we make. In the same way a car dashboard helps us monitor if our car is operating correctly, there are indicators to help us measure ministry effectiveness and make better decisions along the way. For us to play the long game, we have to have feedback mechanisms and tools that help us measure if things are on the right track. Your car dashboard helps you monitor things that help you reach your destination. As church leaders, we can use data as indicators to measure disciplemaking strategies and improve ministry effectiveness. 2) Accelerate discipleship through automation. Leading people into a deeper relationship with Christ requires us to help them take the next step. Our ability to respond to indicators of spiritual growth (participating, volunteering, giving) in measurable ways is essential for helping people grow. Unfortunately, manual processes aren’t easily replicable or scalable. What happens when the person you rely on to follow up with church members forgets or isn’t around anymore? Fortunately, automated communication gives us confidence that we are effectively engaging church members in relevant and personal ways. It gives us a chance to communicate with every church member without relying on manual processes. churchexecutive.com

3) Go deep and wide with new technology tools. Understanding how people are interacting with your church not only helps you understand what’s working, it helps you engage each church member effectively and uncover what’s most pressing in their lives. For example, maybe you notice a church member has stopped giving — this might be an indication of a financial strain you have the opportunity to address. Technology allows you to bridge the gap between Sundays. If all of your communication is based on what happens on the platform, your church is being silenced by outside forces competing for attention throughout the week. This is not about dehumanizing people or the disciple-making process. It’s about enhancing it. As church leaders, we are responsible for the people in our church. We’re responsible for their spiritual condition. The end game is not “big data” or how much information we collect; it’s about taking what we can learn about the people we engage to make smarter ministry decisions. The end game is not using the latest tools and technologies to be “cool.” It’s about using those resources and tools to help each and every person take steps to grow as a follower of Christ. Are you ready to reach more people and raise more money by working smarter, not harder? Joel Mikell is president at RSI Stewardship www.rsistewardship.com. Follow him on Twitter, @joelmikell or find him on Facebook, www.facebook.com/joel.mikell Derek Hazelet is senior vice president at RSI Stewardship. Find him on Twitter, @dhazelet or LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/derekhazelet. I N T E L L I G E N T C H U R C H G I V I N G • CHURCH EXECUTIVE

Intelligent Church Giving

HOW 2 CHURCHES USE DATA AND TECHNOLOGY TO REACH MORE AND RAISE MORE Learn what they did — and what you should do next By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

Funding ministry is likely the most complex part of your role as a church leader. Changing attitudes around giving and involvement don’t help; tithing and weekly attendance is no longer considered normal. These shifts are making it harder and harder for you to fully fund your vision. It can seem impossible. Yet, many church leaders are beginning to learn that working smarter, not harder, is the way to discover your path to developing a culture of stewardship in your church.

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You can’t overcome the looming challenges you face by doing things the same way you’ve always done them. But, here’s the good news: Data and technology provide a new way to guide how you engage members, cultivate generosity and grow your church. These new tools in your toolbox will actually increase your opportunity for personal interactions and support your desire to disciple more effectively. Intelligent church giving in action Here are two church leaders who have discovered that doing things differently is exactly what was needed to improve ministry funding and Kingdom impact. Lance Taylor — Executive Pastor, Long Hollow Baptist Church Long Hollow Baptist Church has experienced tremendous growth over the past decade, reaching as many as 7,500 people on a Sunday and making a worldwide impact, including funding orphanages on three continents. As the church grew, the leadership realized that greater complexity required better systems. “You can’t communicate in a church of 5,000 the same way you do in a church of 2,500,” Taylor says. “We knew we had to become better at targeting our communication efforts if we wanted to help each individual grow and challenge them to take the next step in their spiritual journey.” For the past several years, Long Hollow has taken steps to automate its communication strategy using technology to improve engagement. Through segmentation, Long Hollow has been able to provide specific and relevant content in a way that provides actionable insights for its team. For example, Long Hollow strategically evaluates each age group in the church and how the messaging should be targeted. Additionally, guest attendance, new member activity, and first-time gifts automatically trigger workflows when an action is taken. These systems ensure church members aren’t slipping through the cracks by sending personal touch points to members who haven’t been involved in the church after several months. “We realized that what we were doing would have to change if we were going to be positioned to go to the next level,” Taylor explains. “Leveraging systems and technology solutions has improved our engagement efforts, actually enhancing our discipleship strategies.” churchexecutive.com

Dana Lawson — Chief Financial Officer, Cornerstone Church Cornerstone Church has experienced tremendous growth over the past several years. Like many growing churches, it was looking for ways to fund the new opportunities that were emerging because of the rapid growth. The leadership team tried a variety of approaches before deciding to use data to drive their decision-making. What they found completely transformed their strategy. “It wasn’t until we started digging below the top-line numbers that we realized the answers we were looking for were right in front of us,” Lawson recalls. “We just didn’t have a way to surface them until we started mining the data.” Cornerstone’s leadership uncovered the insights they needed to make more informed ministry decisions. They learned which giving segments were growing, which ones were not, and why. They even discovered hundreds of givers who don’t even live in the same state, yet are connected through their TV broadcasts and online presence. With this detailed information, they were able to refine their thinking and shift their planning, which resulted in not just growth in giving but also expanded ministry opportunities. “We assumed we were doing all the right things in the right ways, but quickly realized how important it is to challenge or validate our assumptions with objective information,” Lawson points out. “Analyzing data gave us the clarity and confidence we needed to improve ministry funding and ensure it keeps pace with our rapid growth.” Are you ready to reach more — and raise more? Your church has the ability to apply the principles behind Intelligent Church Giving just like Long Hollow and Cornerstone have done. Take an even deeper look into how data and technology have helped churches reach more people — and raise more money — by downloading our latest resource at www.RSIstewardship.com/ICGinAction. Joel Mikell is president at RSI Stewardship www.rsistewardship.com. Follow him on Twitter, @joelmikell or find him on Facebook, www.facebook.com/joel.mikell Derek Hazelet is senior vice president at RSI Stewardship. Find him on Twitter, @dhazelet or LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/derekhazelet.

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Intelligent Church Giving

You can’t afford to anymore

guess

Why your report writer is no longer good enough By Joel Mikell and Curt Swindoll

Making important ministry decisions without insight-driven data is a known gap that has existed in almost every church we’ve worked with over the past 40 years — regardless of denomination, church size or ministry budget.

This is why church leaders are constantly wrestling with the same questions: • How do I lead our church from where we are to where we want to be? • Will our current strategy ultimately get us where we want to go? • Are there things we should be doing that we’re not? Report-writing tools were supposed to help solve these challenges, but it’s evident that those are limited in their application. As a result, church leaders feel like they’re swimming in a sea of information, but still thirsty for insight. Where do these new report-writing tools fall short? More importantly, is there a better way to analyze the information you have to finally start gaining traction towards your ultimate vision? Those are the two questions we’re working together to help church leaders answer. 12

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Why your report writer isn’t good enough Here are four reasons why traditional report-writing tools aren’t sufficient for helping your church make the type of progress you know is possible: 1) The insights they provide are limited. There are three elements of any analytics model that must be present to provide confidence in bridging the gap between your ministry today and where you intend to be one, three and five years from now: Descriptive Analytics — Descriptive analytics provide a clear and complete picture of your efforts based on objective information. This enables you to challenge or validate the true impact of your ministry decisions in a way that wasn’t possible before. Predictive Modeling — Predictive modeling helps you look toward the future by providing a real-time look at future results based on historical detail. This allows you to quantify the future impact and implications of churchexecutive.com

your present decisions based on a set of proprietary algorithms that can be manipulated at every level to isolate and understand how one decision affects the overall outcome. Prescriptive insights — Prescriptive insights put information into action by contextualizing comprehensive data modeling within your church culture to drive prioritization and accountability to ensure change actually takes place. This allows your team to focus its attention and efforts on the parts of your ministry that will take you where you want to go. It will also clearly highlight what must demonstrably change in order to produce the ministry outcomes you desire. Traditional report writers only provide insights into one of those areas — descriptive data. But, relying solely on this information is like trying to drive a car by only looking at the rearview mirror. It’s the predictive modeling and prescriptive insights that help you know how to move forward. Bottom line: You can’t afford to make critical decisions based on the output of any standard report writing tool. 2) It doesn’t inform other areas of ministry. You must be willing to have crucial conversations with your ministry leaders if you want to change the output of your ministry. This isn’t about who’s right or wrong. This isn’t about pointing fingers. This is about using data as a diplomat to challenge or validate your intuition about what it’s really going to take to get you where you want to go. Bottom Line: If you want to change in the ways that will accomplish the vision God has given you, you need to make the right adjustments, at the right time, with the right people.

3) It doesn’t take into account the long-term impact of your weekly decisions. Making a tactical shift won’t be enough to overcome a trajectory that’s taking you to a different destination. You need a clear line of sight between today and the outcome you want to create. Traditional report writers don’t project forward the future implications of today’s ministry decisions. As a result, you won’t be able to connect the dots without a multi-year approach to database analysis that removes any and all existing silos. Bottom Line: You need to be sure you are making decisions based on a complete picture before you will be able to fully grasp the implications of the ministry decisions you make today. You can’t afford to wait. There’s a better way… As the ministry landscape continues to evolve, we are more convinced than ever that the challenges you face require world-class tools to ensure sustainability and growth in the future. Through Pursuant, we’ve invested more than a decade and millions of dollars perfecting a series of advanced analytics and modeling tools that have informed decisionmaking in hundreds of organizations, including some of the world’s leading nonprofits. These tools haven’t been available to church leaders in a way that is accessible and affordable. Now they are. It’s more critical than ever before if you intend to successfully sustain and grow your ministry. This is why we think it’s vital that you reassess your report writing tool as the basis of your ministry decision-making. Joel Mikell is president at RSI Stewardship. Follow him on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Curt Swindoll is the executive vice president for strategy at Pursuant, the parent company of RSI Stewardship. He leads Pursuant’s work with faith-based organizations and the firm’s Direct Response practice group. Follow him on Twitter.

Ready to lead with clarity and confidence like never before? Learn how you can gain actionable insights that provide a clear line of sight between today and your ultimate vision for ministy. www.Pursuant.com/SmarterMinistry

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Intelligent Church Giving

What you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know about giving can kill your ministry potential 3 key moves every church leader should make By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

CHURCH EXECUTIVE â&#x20AC;˘ I N T E L L I G E N T C H U R C H G I V I N G

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Every church leader recognizes that there are times when we must adapt the way we do ministry. While the message stays the same, the methods change. New challenges have led us to identify new approaches, such as contemporary services, small groups, multisite churches and online campuses. Unfortunately, when it comes to giving, we’re not always so quick to adapt or adjust our ways of thinking.

Believing that people are giving everything they can give is a false assumption a lot of church leaders make. The fact is, charitable giving has represented about 2 percent of an individual’s income for decades. One of the things we’ve helped church leaders discover is that there is significant discretionary income in their pews, which could lead to 50- to 75-percent budget growth in some cases. As a church leader, it’s important to challenge the assumptions we have about the people in our pews. There are ways for you to leverage data to identify how much capacity is sitting in your congregation. These insights become incredibly valuable for informing your strategy and leading your church towards greater levels of commitment and generosity.

If you’re like most church leaders, you want to lead your ministry to a place it has never been before. To lead with clarity and confidence, you need to be willing to take another look at the framework you’re using to make decisions, and the support systems needed to grow your church in the grace of giving.

#3: Develop a strategy to drive engagement with new givers AND faithful givers.

3 key giving moves every church leader should make Here are three key moves you can’t afford not to make based on insights we’ve gathered from working with churches.

When you only look at top-line metrics, it’s common to think that you’re growing if the number of new givers is greater than the number of people slipping out the back door. However, our research confirms that it can take eight new givers (if not more) to replace the impact of a single person who has given over multiple years. While possible, it is extremely difficult to do. The key, then, is to develop a strategy for driving engagement on both ends of the spectrum: from non-givers to key multi-year givers. Help them see how their faithful giving has made a difference over the years. Provide specific content that is important to them.

#1: Tell a better story about giving. Insight: Overall charitable giving increased by 4.6% in 2014, but church giving declined by 1.6%. This is according to an annual research report by the Giving USA Foundation and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. It’s easy to assume attitudes around generosity have led to a decrease giving. But the truth is that today’s church members are just as generous as in years past. The difference is this: there are more organizations competing for the attention and resources of your church members than ever before. Research also tells us that people are beginning to split their charitable giving. How do we overcome this challenge? We must give people a compelling reason to support our ministry. We must find a way to communicate the connection between the budget and ministry impact. This takes work, but it also gives us the opportunity to identify the things that inspire people to give and ultimately generate more momentum for our ministry. #2: Validate and challenge your current baseline assumptions about giving.

Insight: It takes, on average, eight new givers to replace one key multiyear giver.

Knowledge + insight = wisdom Knowing this information is one thing — but it requires action. We can’t afford to sit on the sidelines related to emerging trends and insights that directly affect our future ministry potential. Instead, we must use this information in a way that leads to “actionable insights” that validate or challenge our assumptions and help us develop a clear strategy for moving forward. Learn how you can begin to apply the insights to your ministry efforts by downloading our free discussion guide at RSIstewardship.com/ GivingGuide. Joel Mikell is president at RSI Stewardship. Follow him on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Derek Hazelet is senior vice president at RSI Stewardship. Find him on Twitter or LinkedIn

Insight: There is a significant opportunity to increase generosity when considering demographic data compared to total annual gifts.

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Intelligent Church Giving

Never ask

AGAIN 3 technology-driven strategies for increasing church giving By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

You didn’t get into ministry because you enjoy asking people for money from the platform. And yet, sometimes that seems like the only option in order to fully fund the work your church is doing. If you’re facing this dilemma, you’re not alone. There are hundreds of other church leaders dealing with the same challenge. Some church leaders are in the middle of a summer giving slump and wondering how they can make it through the rest of the year. Other church leaders are looking for ways to fulfill the commitments for their capital campaign, but the gifts aren’t coming in as easily as the pledges that were made on Commitment Sunday. Regardless of the situation, you’re probably searching for any other way to increase generosity without having to make another announcement about it. 3 technology-driven strategies for increasing church giving At RSI, we’ve been working to help church leaders overcome these challenges by adapting the various communication tools and strategies used by today’s leading non-profit organizations. Here are three discoveries that your church can use to increase generosity without having to make another ask from the platform: #1: Allow church members to manage their giving the same way they manage all their other finances. Many church leaders assume that e-giving is just for Millennials. But, according to a recent study by Vanco Payments [ vancopayments.com/faith-based-resources ], 60 percent of all churchgoers — both young and old — prefer to give electronically. Allowing people to give online is an essential first step. 16

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But, what if your church is already offering online giving? Is there anything else you can do? Yes, there is. As the popularity of online giving has continued to rise, we’ve been exploring how churches can enhance the online giving experience. We’ve developed a specific tool to enhance the campaign pledge management and fulfillment process. This tool gives church members a personal platform to manage their giving. It also allows church leaders to manage your efforts by integrating with your current systems so that you can monitor and measure holistically, in a way that wasn’t possible before. We live in an increasingly paperless society, where people manage their bank accounts, bills and investment portfolios online. Today’s church members don’t just want their church to provide the ability to manage their giving online — they expect it. #2: Enhance your engagement and discipleship process through relevant and consistent communication across every platform. If giving is a spiritual decision before a financial one, then guiding people towards deeper levels of generosity requires an intentional process that engages people through personal and relevant interactions. However, many churches are communicating with every person the same way with their digital efforts, blasting the entire congregation with the same message. Technology has made it easier than ever to create this one-on-one experience. By segmenting your email communication efforts to target various groups within your church, you’re able to provide the appropriate churchexecutive.com

“Many church leaders assume that e-giving is just for Millennials. But, according to a recent study... 60 percent of all churchgoers — both young and old — prefer to give electronically.”

Evaluate your strategy and optimize your efforts to lead people towards deeper levels of generosity. Download our free resource: www.RSIstewardship.com/NeverAskAgain

“next step” for every person in the pew. This enables you to bridge the gap between Sundays and engage each person in a way that’s relevant to him or her. It also ensures that you’re communicating a cohesive message across every channel, from digital to direct mail, so that people understand the vision, mission and priorities of your campaign. #3: Ensure every person is noticed and every gift is recognized with automated follow-up and real-time notifications for your staff. Every person in the church deserves to be noticed, to have a human touch, and to connect in a meaningful way to a community that can help them grow. But, the reality is that your staff can’t manage all those one-to-one interactions once you reach a certain size. The good news is, technology exists to ensure every person is noticed and every gift is recognized. For example, you can automate a response that thanks a first-time giver. You can also receive real-time alerts based on customized variables, including when donations lapse or when church members make a significant gift. This technology allows you create a basis for an ongoing relationship and ensures no one gets looked over or left behind — all without adding additional work for you or your team. churchexecutive.com

What if you never had to ask again? Technology will never completely solve all the challenges you face when it comes to increasing generosity, but it can make a significant difference with the right tools and strategies in place. It can also alleviate a lot of the pressure to make another announcement from stage asking people to give. Are you ready to take the first step in leveraging technology to increase giving? We’ve created a free resource to help you evaluate your efforts and optimize your ability to lead people towards deeper levels of commitment: RSIstewardship.com/NeverAskAgain. Joel Mikell is president at RSI Stewardship [ www.rsistewardship.com ]. Follow him on Twitter [ @joelmikell ] or find him on Facebook [ www.facebook. com/joel.mikell ]. Derek Hazelet is senior vice president at RSI Stewardship. Find him on Twitter [ @dhazelet ] or LinkedIn [ www.linkedin.com/in/derekhazelet ].

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Intelligent Church Giving

Rethinking the church capital campaign A new day demands a new way to fully-fund your church’s vision The capital campaign has always been a powerful way for church leaders to focus attention and resources toward reaching a God-inspired vision for your ministry. And while the timeless principles will never change, the best approach to funding your vision has always — and will always — evolve as the landscape of ministry evolves. In fact, we’re living through one of those evolutions right now. By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet Church leaders recognize the new challenges of funding their Godgiven vision in today’s complex world of ministry. Pastors who’ve led multiple capital campaigns are wrestling with uncertainty of being able to fully fund the vision in light of today’s ministry landscape. Churches in campaigns are noticing that keeping momentum going after Commitment Sunday seems harder today than it used to be. At RSI, we’ve dedicated everything we have to helping church leaders overcome these challenges. 3 prevailing keys to fully fund your vision If you’re considering a capital campaign in the near future, here are three essential ways to approach your campaign to gain greater clarity and confidence in order to fully fund the vision God has given you. #1: Eliminate the guesswork with actionable insights & predictive modeling. While capital campaigns might be familiar, many pastors are leading their church to places they’ve never been before. Report-writing tools have become a popular way to use data to make decisions about how to move forward. And while report writers are helpful for analyzing past giving history, looking back doesn’t provide a complete picture. It’s like trying to drive a car by just looking out the rearview mirror. 18

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Our team has adapted to this need, helping church leaders gain actionable insights from predictive modeling tools used by some of the world’s leading nonprofits. This enables you to validate your campaign goals by digging beyond top-level giving trends and quantifying the future impact of your decisions with real-time predictive modeling tools that show you exactly what could happen, based on specific variables. This level of understanding provides a clear line of sight for the key moves that will help you fully fund your campaign based on the unique characteristics of your specific ministry. #2: Create a multi-channel communications strategy to engage and inspire people in personal and relevant ways. Funding Godinspired vision is always spiritual before it is financial. But, to inspire people in today’s increasingly noisy world, you need to engage them in ways that are personal and relevant to them. This includes communicating through the channel that’s most relevant to them. It also means creating a multi-channel experience that tells the same story through every communication channel. At RSI, we’re helping pastors engage church members in a way that’s relevant, based on their interests and commitment level. By combining the power of online communications (such as email and microsites) with traditional forms of communication, we’re helping church leaders create a multi-channel experience that’s personal and relevant for every person in the pew. #3: Bridge the gap between Commitment Sunday and fulﬁllment with automated communication. Intentional follow-up has always been an important part of a successful campaign. However, every church leader knows that realization is the most difficult part of a campaign. It can be difficult to keep everyone engaged during the campaign by relying on what is said from the platform. No church leader wants to deal with the churchexecutive.com

awkwardness of reminding people about the campaign and their pledge commitment. Ministry in a decentralized world requires a new set of tools. RSI is working with church leaders to leverage technology to bridge the gap in a way that wasn’t possible before. By enhancing the proven principles of campaign fulfillment with automated communication tools that deliver relevant, timely and action-driven messages, we’re helping church leaders ensure every person is engaged in personal and relevant ways throughout the campaign. In essence, we’re working to remove the burden of manually managing the process of campaign fulfillment that the traditional campaign would require the church to do. Gone are the days of “going with your gut” and hoping for the best The good news is that these three ideas help overcome the biggest known gaps for capital campaigns: validating your ideas and assumptions with objective information and having a way to follow up with people in a way that is personal and scalable during campaign fulfillment. Your God-given vision for ministry is too valuable to guess what you should do or hope you can do to fully fund it. You deserved to be empowered with actionable insights for funding your ministry in order make the best decisions. You deserve to be equipped with a support system that helps you optimize fulfillment without adding more work to your plate. Joel Mikell is president at RSI Stewardship [ www.rsistewardship.com ]. Follow him on Twitter [ @joelmikell ] or find him on Facebook [ www.facebook. com/joel.mikell ]. Derek Hazelet is senior vice president at RSI Stewardship. Find him on Twitter [ @dhazelet ] or LinkedIn [ www.linkedin.com/in/derekhazelet ].

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Intelligent Church Giving

A giving gut-check By Joel Mikell & Derek Hazelet

10 questions to ask when evaluating your church’s generosity in 2017 Your ministry is too important to be left to “going with your gut” or hoping things will work out. If you really believe God has called you to accomplish the vision you have for your ministry next year, then you owe it to yourself, your staff, and the people who support you to make sure you appropriately steward the time, talent and treasure God has already brought to you. To help, we wanted to share 10 questions you can use to evaluate your strategy for cultivating generosity and make the adjustments needed to enhance your efforts next year.

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#1: What percentage of your attendees are actively contributing to your budget? A church can grow exponentially in attendance — and even participation — but not in givers. This is unsustainable. Measuring the percentage of people who are actively giving can ensure that you’re not setting yourself up for a crisis when your budget can’t keep up with the ministry expenses necessary to operate a fully functional and growing ministry. #2: How frequently are people giving? Churches have historically depended on consistent frequency of giving. As the way people are paid and give has shifted over time, it could create issues. Evaluating how frequently people give not only helps you allocate expenses, it can help you identify potential areas of improvement, such as encouraging people to give more frequently or intentionally reminding people about the impact their gifts make. #3: Do you know how many people have stopped giving — or decreased their giving — in the past year? Giving is a key indicator of engagement, just like attendance. When individuals suddenly stop giving, or give less, it often indicates circumstances that could reveal a ministry opportunity you might not have known about earlier. Does your church have a system in place that recognizes when someone stops giving? This isn’t about fleecing the flock; it’s about paying attention and enhancing your ability to minister to people in your church. churchexecutive.com

#4: How many faithful givers stopped giving this past year? Giving is also a way people can “speak” their commitment to your church’s vision and mission. This is especially true for people who have been faithful givers for multiple years. According to our research, it takes between eight and 12 new givers to replace one faithful, multi-year giver. Knowing that faithful givers have stopped giving can serve as an early indicator of negative trends that might compound over time if not addressed. #5: Did online giving make up a greater percentage of overall giving this year? Almost every church that has experienced an overall increase in giving is receiving it through online contributions, via a mobile app, website or kiosk. The more people who give consistently online, the more predictable cash flow will become. Growth in online giving indicates how well you’re communicating the various ways people can become part of the giving engine of your church. #6: How dependent are you on major gifts for annual budget giving? Being overly dependent on a handful of major contributions to fund your ministry budget can create significant issues or challenges down the road. At the same time, failing to develop financial leaders can limit your ministry potential. Having a healthy balance is critical for a sustainable ministry budget. #7: Do people feel like they’re a vital part of the impact your church is making through their gifts? The expectations and attitudes of church members is different than it was 20 years ago. People want to know the money they give is making a difference. At the same time, they’re constantly being asked for donations from dozens of other nonprofits that are sharing stories of impact. Retention is one way of measuring this idea. Another way is to survey people directly to determine if what you want the message to be is what’s being heard and embraced. #8: Do you have an intentional strategy for leading people from firsttime givers to faithful, multi-year givers? Our research shows that average retention rates for first-time givers is around 30 percent. However, if they give for three consecutive years, retention jumps to 75 percent. Having a strategy to intentionally churchexecutive.com

engage people from their first gift through their first three years as a giver is an important part of “closing the back door” of your church’s assimilation process. #9: How timely is your follow-up when someone takes a step toward your ministry? Timely follow-up is an important part of building relationships with first-time givers. It’s important to be proactive and intentional in engaging new givers by acknowledging their gift individually. Our research shows that following up with a first-time giver within the first week of their donation has meaningful impact. #10: What feedback mechanisms do you have in place to evaluate your efforts throughout the year? If you truly want to implement the ideas needed to increase generosity, it’s important to evaluate your efforts more than once a year during the budgeting season, or monitoring the same things year after year. Having an intentional process that helps you monitor your specific efforts throughout the year is important for reaching your goal. How to get beyond going with your gut Ministry is more than numbers. However, your church has limited time, energy, staff and money to accomplish the things God is calling you to do next year. Therefore, you need to make sure the effort and resources you are investing personally and through your staff are providing a worthy return. Taking the time to ask these questions, evaluate your efforts, and identify ways to improve not only helps you get beyond going with your gut, it provides more clarity and confidence than ever before when it comes to funding your vision for ministry. Joel Mikell is president at RSI Stewardship [ www.rsistewardship.com ]. Follow him on Twitter [ @joelmikell ] or find him on Facebook [ www.facebook. com/joel.mikell ]. Derek Hazelet is senior vice president at RSI Stewardship. Find him on Twitter [@dhazelet] or LinkedIn [www.linkedin.com/in/derekhazelet ]. Want to dig deeper into each of these questions? We created a free resource to help. Download it at: www.RSIstewardship.com/GivingGutCheck.

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Intelligent Church Giving

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to change how you think about church giving 5 mindsets to transform your ministry funding strategy By Joel Mikell & Curt Swindoll

The challenges the local church faces today are markedly different compared to those of a decade or two ago. Gone are the days of significant numbers of church members attending on Sunday mornings, evenings, and Wednesday nights. Tithing is no longer the norm. And many church members are dividing their donations between the local church and a number of nonprofits and causes. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, advances in technology, the changing expectations of church members, and the way people engage with their church, continue to evolve; the church increasingly has to compete for attention. These barriers confront almost every church, no matter the size, denominational affiliation, or geographical location. The good news is, innovative strategies and technologies are emerging that provide church leaders with tools to overcome the obstacles they face. In church, giving has (and always will be) based on the timeless principles of Jesus, but the methods and tools must continue to evolve. Here are a few proven principles church leaders are embracing to adopt new church giving strategies, improve their efforts to engage people, and fund their vision.

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#1: Abandon assumptions that giving this year will follow previous patterns. The 2016 State of the Plate report found that 60 percent of churches experienced flat or declining giving in 2015 compared to 2014. Just because something worked in the past, does not mean it will work in the future. When times are uncertain, the first thing to go must be our assumptions about how, why, and how frequently people give. The new realities of the changing ministry landscape demand that church leaders have accurate data about who is giving at their church, the channels through which they give, what ministry programs they support, and any changes in giving habits. Without this information, it is difficult to make wise decisions for your church. Understanding general giving trends is no longer adequate. Effective leaders are well-informed leaders. #2 Expand giving options. When it comes to the channels through which churches collect contributions, passing an offering plate and placement of donation envelopes in pews continue to be the most widespread and popular methods. However, online and electronic giving might equal or even eclipse those methods in the next decade. The State of the Plate report observed that in the past six years, churches have increasingly adopted digital giving via a diverse array of platforms such as website giving, textto-give, smartphone apps, and bank EFT autopay. Offering a wider range of giving options allows people to give in ways that feel natural to them.

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You can’t rely on hope and intuition to ensure that your ministry will be fully funded in 2017. Learn five statistics about the current state of church giving, plus action steps for cultivating generosity in your church this year. RSIChurchSolutions.com/2017GivingOutlook

#3: Tell more (and more effective) stories of Kingdom impact. The number of non-profit organizations has increased exponentially over the past decade, and more and more church members are dividing their charitable giving between their local church and other nonprofits. Additionally, donors across the non-profit spectrum expect higher levels of transparency from the organizations they support, and the church is no exception. Church leaders need to communicate how contributions are being invested for maximum Kingdom impact through compelling stories of changed lives. These messages should not be limited to just the church bulletin or from the pulpit on Sundays, but through the platforms and channels that church members engage with on a daily basis — email, newsletters, the church website, and even personal conversations. #4: Find ways to engage your financial leaders at a deeper level. One of the realities facing nonprofits and churches alike is a shrinking number of donors and support at the annual giving level, coupled with increases in giving at the leadership level. As a result, financial leaders — those with the capacity and interest in providing a large gift — will play a growing and crucial role in funding your ministry efforts. It’s vital that church leaders remember that money doesn’t eliminate the problems in an individual’s life — it magnifies them. Financial leaders need to be appreciated and ministered to just like any other church member. In addition, develop a vision for their giving that captures and inspires their imagination of what is possible through their support.

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#5: Talk to older church members about planned / legacy giving. Churches that have 10+ years of ministry impact, and / or older givers, are likely to have members who would be glad to include their church in their will or estate plan. But, these folks need to be identified and encouraged to consider doing so. Churches that make it a priority to instruct their members about daily financial wisdom would be equally wise to inform them about the importance of having an estate plan that includes giving to their local church. To overcome the obstacles facing the church today, leaders have a choice between desperate reaction and thoughtful, proactive planning. As a church leader, you must ask yourself: If the current reality of my church is true, what must change today so that God’s vision for our ministry can be achieved? Often, the answer to that question will require you to step away from the current methods and models of how your ministry is funded. The key is not to fear change and a loss of comfort, but to recognize that Kingdom work more often than not includes a calling to be adaptive and responsive to the changing church giving reality. More tips for implementing these ideas in your church this year are available in RSI’s free downloadable guide, 2017 Church Giving Outlook [ RSIChurchSolutions.com/2017GivingOutlook ]. Joel Mikell is president of RSI Church Solutions [ RSIChurchSolutions.com ]. Follow him on Twitter (@Joel_Mikell), or find him on Facebook. Curt Swindoll is Executive Vice President of Pursuant Faith, the parent company of RSI. Follow him on Twitter (@CurtSwindoll) I N T E L L I G E N T C H U R C H G I V I N G • CHURCH EXECUTIVE