Despite the doom and gloom reported by daily media economists, the Blackbaud Index reports that charitable giving has increased from 2009. For the entire nonprofit sector, which includes colleges, universities, churches, and all other nonprofit organizations, giving increased 12.1% in April 2010.
I wondered if this trend was happening specifically in church giving, so I contacted my friend Jim Sheppard, CEO of Generis. Jim and his team of strategists consult faith-based nonprofits and religious organizations to connect them with people who want to financially support their mission and vision. Here’s what Jim had to say about church giving:
TONY: The Blackbaud Index says giving is up. Is the index a reliable measurement?
JIM: The index is probably a good overall indicator. The limitation of the Blackbaud, like most of these type surveys is that they do not take into account very much, if any, church giving.
TONY: So churches should expect lower-than-average giving?
JIM: About one-third of churches have giving that is down. Of the churches I know whose giving is down, there is typically another story with factors other than the economy. Many of them are churches with little or no vision. The prosperous economy concealed the fact that they were not in good shape. The lean economy reveals it.
TONY: Are you saying church giving is less about the economy than the media would have us believe?
JIM: Scarcity clarifies—the lean economy has revealed, in general, which churches are healthy and which are not. Yes, there are a few spots that have been hammered by the economy (Detroit, Las Vegas, etc.) but that is not the main problem for many of the churches that are down. Having said that, It appears most of our clients and prospective clients have seen an uptick in giving. Plus, the confidence level of church leaders seems to be much better than it was at the end of 2009. They are now talking about taking on projects like mortgage reduction, buildings, property acquisition and ministry venture capital.
How about you? Is giving up in your church? Is it down? Do you think Jim’s comment, “scarcity brings clarity,” changes the way we need to approach giving?
