Blackbaud predicts Top 10 trends for nonprofits
Blackbaud always produces some great insight and information. They recently released their Top 10 predictions for nonprofit trends. It was also highlighted in Fundraising Success magazine. Here they are:
- Donor pools will continue to change.
- Proving value will become more important.
- Fundraisers will acquire new skills and an entrepreneurial spirit to be successful.
- Social media will play an even more important role in engagement.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising will continue to grow.
- Donor stewardship will become even more important than it is now.
- Increased government regulations will have a greater impact on the industry.
- Nonprofits will move from a broad donor management system to a single support database.
- Relationships will still rule.
- Finding the right balance of online and offline presence will be critical in the coming years.
The one that really jumped out to me was #6: “Donor stewardship will become even more important than it is now.” I find myself talking with church leaders about this concept more and more. With increased competition for “share of mind and share of dollar,” churches will have to:
1. Tell givers that their gift was noticed and appreciated
2. Explain (in person) how their gift was used to make a measurable Kingdom impact
3. Leverage personal interaction native to “church life” to create a deeper emotional connection
The tactics and implementation of these three things will vary from church to church but must not be overlooked as essential to achieving the fully funded ministry budgets. When was the last time you personally told someone “thank you” for their gift?
Small charity raises $25,000, saves 12 lives via social media
Some people criticize what they don’t understand. Social Media has surely been a misunderstood (and highly debated) fund-raising channel by those in the highest decision-making roles in many nonprofits. The metrics don’t look the same as direct mail, transactional fundraising, so it is dismissed as being premature and the subject of too much hype.
For the nonprofit (e.g. church) trying to engage young donors, social media creates an “event” or something to be experienced instead of simply presenting “problem-solution-urgency” and asking for a measurable response. Young donors want more than a proposition; they wanted to be engaged, empowered, and connected to the gift and response.
I think churches are the best positioned to take advantage of this new social media dynamic because meeting together regularly is built into the DNA of how local churches operate. It would make a lot of sense to set aside your next staff meeting to discuss the steps Estrella Rosenburg took to leverage social media to engage donors and raise $25,000 in one day.
How is your church experimenting with social media as a way to engage others? What’s working for you? What isn’t?
People want to fund life change
People want to fund life change. They don’t want to fund self-preservation.
Below is a video of a church who effectively uses the “cardboard testimony” idea. BUT the best part is at the very end when the pastor provides a great example of calling his people to action. Too often, we set up “the ask” but never follow through. Watch how this pastor clearly and compelling challenges his people to fund life change on the heels of Kingdom Impact being clearly demonstrated.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy takes a snapshot of Generation Y
Part of the “new normal” of church giving is that our approach and appeals to our congregation related to church funding are going to have vary by demographic. We are a micro-communication culture that wants to be communicated with in practice, language, and through mediums that are “native” to our worldview.
The risk is not that we’ll upset someone by not meeting their expectations.
The risk is that some will never “hear” us at all.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy provided a nice overview of Generation Y (people born between 1970 and 2000) in their May 6, 2010 print edition.
$341 Average amount members of Gen Y donate annually
3.6 Average number of groups they support
57% Share who have volunteered in the past year
21% Share who say helping others is on of their biggest priorities
20 Median number of text messages they sent in the past 24 hours
83% Share who has slept with their cellphones on or near their beds
29% Share who made their donations online over the past two years
37% Share who joined a charity’s online social network in the past month
Are you prepared to change your funding plan to meet the “new reality” of church giving?
Raising money will ALWAYS cost you something
The reason so many church leaders walk away from raising money is that it comes at a high cost.
Raising money is going to cost you…
Time….it takes time to share your story and you never get the luxury of only sharing it only once and only through one medium.
Energy…it takes energy to discover what God is calling your church to do or become.
Effort…it takes effort to develop a strategy and define actionable items that create results.
People…it takes people encouraging others to get involved and there will always be someone who will leave your church using money as an excuse for his or her departure.
Money…it takes money to raise money and you might need to look outside your staff for guidance along the way.
Of course, the ability to fully fund your church and facilitate eternal life change and spiritual formation should be worth whatever it costs you along the way.
But if the cost just seems too high and appears to involve too much work, don’t do anything different. Nothing bad will happen immediately. Over time you will help direct money and people to other churches who are willing to incur the cost in exchange for seeing the evidence of life change.
Raising money will ALWAYS cost you something!
The power of relevance in raising funds
I have been thinking a lot about a recent Fundraising is Beautiful podcast from Jeff Brooks: The power of relevance.
“Relevance doesn’t just happen. The thing that just happens is irrelevance.”
- Jeff Brooks
The greatest obstacle church leaders have to funding budgets and raising money is that they assume that what is important to them is important to everyone else. Church leaders are often so close to the situation it’s impossible to have any objective perspective. They live with a sense of urgency because they know all the details and fail to acknowledge that the people in the pew are busy and will quickly forget whatever appeals were made Sunday morning by the time they finish lunch that same afternoon.
If you’re honest (and bold) enough to admit that your direct appeals from the pulpit aren’t getting the results in the offering plate that you’d like see, take 22:03 and listen how Jeff Brooks unpacks the incredibly successful Haiti relief funding appeals from people who largely lived with little connection to this country and were largely not personally affected by this natural disaster.
Are you relevant? Wait. Don’t answer that question yourself. Remember to ask the person in the pew.
Gap widens between giving to religion and number of households
Someone asked me a question recently that I couldn’t immediately answer. I’m not one of those people who just creates an answer, but I am one of those people who will search for the answer until I find it. When looking to answer this particular question, I stumbled upon some data that I find highlights a growing concern that churches must take very seriously.
This data is from Giving USA’s latest publication: Giving USA 2009 The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2008
Note: The data below represents per household giving to religion. (You can find it on page 84 if you have a personal copy of the report.)
- 1988: Giving to religion per household was $902 and there were 91.12 million households
- 1998: Giving to religion per household was $879 and there were 102.53 million households
- 2008: Giving to religion per household was $915 and there were 116.78 million households
This data reveals that giving per household to religion only grew about 1.4% over a 20 year period while the number of households grew by 22% during the same period.
Given what I’ve seen after studying the giving habits church members, this is consistent with the widening gap between growth in attendance/membership and growth in giving. While many churches are seeing their pews full Sunday after Sunday, the number of giving units is declining. In some cases, the giving units – while in decline – are increasing their gifts. Nonetheless, fewer people giving – even if they are giving more – is not a sustainable church funding model.
This is A PROBLEM.
But as Tom Peters says, “The problem is not the problem. The RESPONSE to the problem is almost always the problem.”
Hope is NOT a strategy.
“Meeting” an amended budget doesn’t remove the need to know the giving habit/trends in your church. This is the only way to validate that the ministry investment decisions you are making are, in fact, creating disciples who are deeper engaged in growing, serving, and giving.
What action steps will you take today to get a grip on your funding model to ensure the money exists to accomplish the ministry God has placed on your heart?
Hint: If you don’t DO something, NOTHING will change. Worse…whatever growth you did achieve, you won’t be able to maintain.
One atheist take his cue from the church to encourage giving
Church leaders should pay careful attention to one atheist who is leaning upon his observations from the church to create a Foundation to fund the charitable and philanthropic urges of those who don’t even subscribe to the existence of God.
Read Atheists’ collection plate, with religious inspiration.
Fascinating!
While church leaders ask me if it’s even possible to increase giving, one guy is taking his cue from the church to tap into the power to influence and mobilize a body of people to collect resources and disperse them to those in need.
Those of us leading churches might do well to learn something, ironically, from this atheist.
