The Millennial Impact Report

The following infographic comes from The Millennial Impact Report. Let’s take a look at a couple of highlights.

1. People prefer to give online. This correlates with our finding that offering online giving was the #2 factor in churches whose giving exceeds budget. Your greatest opportunity to engage donors is not in your church service (when people don’t have cash or checks) but online. Sadly, in our survey of more than 1,000 churches, 37% did not offer any form of online giving.

Action Step: Download the 2012 Church Giving Survey results and learn all five factors that help church giving exceed budget.

2. People want to know how their gift makes a difference. Giving to pay the pastors or the mortgage might be important, but it’s not very inspiring. And people who don’t give regularly to your church are even less inspired by paying the bills. You must engage people with a cause, and connect their giving to the bigger mission.

That’s why we advocate sending quarterly contribution statements that highlight the vision and ministry of the church, not just donation amounts. That’s why we advocate sending a personal thank you note, connecting someones first time gift to the larger mission. Regular communication, attached to the vision of the church, will inspire people to stay connected in generosity.

Action Step: Check out What Happens When You Give, a unique, all-in-one, thank you note and inspirational booklet.