Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

By The Rev Ken Howard

As most of our readers know, I’m all about the data. At FaithX, our consulting, assessment tools, demographic platform, and reports are all grounded in research. This research encompasses studies on congregational and judicatory vitality and sustainability, organizational change, community development, and more.

It won’t be surprising, then, when I say that we have studied the research on why, when, how, and how much people give. I won’t delve too deeply into the details on this, but research on digital giving suggests that there are three factors that address all of the above questions: Gratefulness, Freedom, and Playfulness.

First, Gratefulness – People are more likely to give when they feel grateful.

So what are those times? 

Obviously, one of those times is on Sundays in church. But even on Sundays, if people have the opportunity to give digitally in the moment, they will give not only at the offertory but also in response to a sermon, a hymn, or even an announcement that evokes a feeling of gratitude (see chart below).

But there are other times, too.

On weekdays, digital giving typically starts to increase around 6:00 pm and peaks around 7:00 pm, then begins to taper off around 8:00 pm. What’s happening around then? Dinner time! When many people express their gratefulness for food, family, friends, and all the ways God nourishes them. Gratitude strikes again!

The second factor that influences giving is Freedom. Research I conducted at two different congregations showed that they are more likely to give and give generously when they are free to give out of gratitude in their hearts than out of a sense of responsibility.

Two actions have the most impact on giving. One was changing the language of giving from “Pledge” to “Giving Estimate.” The other was having a frank discussion with parishioners about why they might NOT want to give. Both of these actions shifted the conversation from the needs of the parish and the responsibility of the parishioners to an exploration of the desire to live generously.

 The results?

• Significantly more giving estimates than pledges (from people who had never before pledged).
• Significantly shortened giving campaign (people made giving decisions more quickly).
• Significantly increased size of giving estimates (compared to the previous size of pledges).
• Significantly higher fulfillment of giving estimates (compared to the fulfillment rate of pledges).

The third factor influencing giving was Joy. My data on this factor is primarily anecdotal, but I do believe that Gratitude and Joy are close cousins.

A wise mentor of mine once said to me, “You don’t have to be somber to be serious.”

To me, this translates into playfulness. Being playful with how we talk about giving takes away the somberness that usually comes with discussion of money without taking away the seriousness. In fact, playful seriousness can help pierce the armor that somber seriousness can raise.

In stewardship seasons my senior wardens and I always conspired to bring playfulness into stewardship season.

One year, we told the congregation that we were going to do our giving drive NPR style and reduce both the length of the campaign by 1 week and the length of my sermons by 25% if we met our goal sooner than expected.

But my favorite was the year we kicked off stewardship season with a sermon from me and a response from the warden.

My sermon was simple:

“All we ask is that you pray about your giving decision. Ask God how much you should give, then give that amount, no more and no less.”

The warden’s response was priceless:

“Don’t listen to him,” Terry said, “If you let God into this decision you’ll never hear the end of it. Once you let God into your wallet, you’ll never get him out again. Do what I do: Just tithe and be done with it.”

The congregation laughed uproariously. We had a great stewardship season. And my sermon was only 5 minutes long.

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