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5 Tips for Helping Your Church Beat the Summer Giving Slump

3. Quarterly Giving Update

Reminding people of their giving every quarter is a best practice for churches. These reports should be mailed to each of your donors’ homes throughout the year. Churches who have done this regularly have seen direct financial results from these regular updates and their revenue. The attitude of these updates is gratitude to people for giving to your church. They serve as a helpful reminder to your community about how their giving is making a difference in the life of the church.

If your church has never done quarterly giving updates, then doing one in early July that covers the first six months of the year is a great time to start!

6 Elements of a Quarterly Giving Update Letter:

Thank You – Go out of your way to ensure that you are thankful in the overall tone and approach of the letter.
Connect to Vision – Tell a story about the vision of the church in action. Show people how their giving is making a difference in the life of the church!
Statement – Show them how much they have given year-to-date to your church. If your church has multiple “funds” make sure they show all that data.
Be Open to Questions – Ensure that you let people know who they connect with if they have any questions about the finances at the church. Be open and transparent about this aspect of your ministry, and go out of your way to invite people to ask questions.
An Ask – Make a soft ask around the upcoming financial need of the church. Let people know that their continued giving makes a difference. (Asking people to join your “Automation Beats Determination” campaign would be a great ask!)
Response Tool – Include a way for them to give right away. This could include a response envelope or website address that they could go to.
P.S. – Studies have shown that the P.S. on letters like this are among the most read statements. Include a clever “call to action” as your postscript to the letter!

4. Meet with Donors 1 on 1

There is a segment of the people who give to your church who disproportionately fund your mission. These people have the ability to make money and give it generously to your church. Oftentimes, these people are not looking for special treatment or attention, but they would value some time with the lead pastor or other members of the leadership of the church. In my experience, these people aren’t looking to get anything from the church but are simply wanting a relationship with the leadership of the church.

This practice will increase your giving over the long haul at your church. It won’t necessarily solve the short-term softness in your offering over the summer, but it will help you build relationships with people who will help you over the long term at your church. It’s about taking advantage of the change-up in people’s schedules to attempt to build some new relationships to help the church long term.

5 Questions Church Leaders Ask When Thinking About Meeting with Donors
But what about when Jesus said, “But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you,” in Matthew 6:3-4?

Jesus was speaking to the giver in this passage, not to you the leader. There will be people who won’t want to meet with you because of this passage and that’s OK. Ensure discretion with people as you interact and allow them to remain private. You aren’t offering them a special seat in church or to put a plaque with their name on it! You’re just attempting to build a relationship.

How do you ask them for a meeting?
When you call or email them just say something like: “You have invested in our ministry deeply and I wanted to take some time to get to know you better.” I wouldn’t hide the fact that you are meeting with them because of their financial contribution, but keep the focus of the invite and conversation on relationship.

What do we talk about for our time together?
Not money! In fact, my recommendation is you just meet with them like anyone else from the church. You’re attempting to build a relationship and get to know them better. You could lead off the conversation thanking them for their support of the ministry through serving and giving, and reassuring them that you aren’t asking them for anything today! (It’s all about relationship!) When you have about 15 minutes left in your time together simply ask, “Do you have any questions about the church that I can answer? Is there anything about our ministry that you are wondering about?” My experience has been that your openness to answer questions about the life of church is enough to help with supporters.

But I don’t know who gives what to the church!
That’s a mistake. Someone at your church beyond the financial people need to know who is giving to the church to help foster generosity. In the same way that if someone at your church was showing a disproportionate spiritual gift of teaching and you’d meet with them, all you are doing is tracking these people with a gift of giving and helping encourage generosity.

How do I follow up with these people after we meet?
Great question! Keep looking for doors that you can open for this person. Are there people in the church you should be connecting them with? Do they have questions that require you to follow up with them? Are there open issues that they pointed out that you should follow up on? I’ve found that writing quick notes to myself immediately after meeting helps remind me what I’m supposed to do next with these people.

5. Start Working on Your Christmas Campaign!

Now is the time to start planning and working on your Christmas Giving Campaign. It’s critical that you don’t leave this project until late in the fall. Multiple studies show that somewhere between 25-33 percent of all charitable giving is made in the month of December. Although we are attempting to teach people to be generous all year long, we know that a large percentage of them give additional gifts in the last few weeks of the year. Many churches who execute a Christmas Campaign see a bump in giving in excess of 15 percent in the last month of the year. Use your summer months to get ready for this important giving opportunity in the life of your church and next summer you’ll be in a different financial place!

This article originally appeared here.