With 2016 coming to end in just a few short days, you can still encourage your givers to make a tax deductible contribution to your ministry through video or email. Consider the following when communicating with your givers:
- Celebrate what God has done through your ministry in 2016. Connect Giving to Generosity and Generosity to life change. Be as detailed as possible and make sure your givers know that their financial involvement was instrumental.
- Make it Easy to give. Explain the different ways they can give from dropping off a check, giving online, text giving, etc. It would be wise to put a donations box at the front door of your ministry or let your givers know the office will be open until 5pm on December 31st to receive tax deductible donations.
- Say Thank you as much as possible, and be detailed. Thank you for making it possible to send 12 students to camp on scholarship. Thank you for bringing non-perishable food and helping our pantry feed over 900 families this Thanksgiving. You can never say thank you enough and the more you connect giving to stories, the easier it becomes to normalize the giving conversation in your ministry.
- Cast vision for 2017 and maybe give your givers a sneak peak of what’s to come. If you’re launching a campus or planning something that hasn’t been announced on the weekend, this is a great way to give your givers “inside information” which can further the trust in your relationship with them.
- Surprise and Delight your givers with a well-crafted Annual Giving Statement Strategy. Most church management software does a great job of making these statements “easy and efficient.” But that shouldn’t be your goal. You should aim for meaningful and engaging communication with your givers. We put together an excellent resource to help you engage your givers and normalize the giving conversation in your ministry.
We know this type of giver communication can be difficult so we put a sample below to make this as easy as possible. Feel free to copy, paste and make the changes need to engage the culture of your ministry. If Generis can be of assistance in helping your church increase giving in 2017 or coach your through a capital campaign to maximize your end-result; we’d love for you to contact our team and schedule a meeting.