Budget and More
Most churches have followed the conventional wisdom for church and non-profit fundraising: Fund essential operating expenses with a regular budget (primary budget funding understood as a biblical tithe or 10% of income) and collect special offerings for missions and large capital expenditures (historically understood as giving above the 10% tithe). In addition, special love offerings were often collected for special causes and situations. Church offerings usually included the following categories:
- Budget Offerings (Tithe)
- Missions Offerings
- Benevolence Offerings
- Love Offerings
- Capital Project Campaigns
We might describe this model as the Multiple Offerings Approach. Consider some brief descriptions of each offering as well as the pros and cons of the approach.
Budget Offerings
Most churches fund day-to-day operations with a ministry budget, comprising the wide array of expenses required for multi-ministry church: facilities, insurance, utilities, personnel, benefits, administration, ministries, pastoral care, and more. This regular budget is usually clearly identified as the tithe—Obedience to God by giving the first fruits (usually the first 10%) of your own personal harvest.
Missions Offerings
In the context of SBC and state convention cooperation, special missions offerings have grown to include the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (International Mission Board—IMB), Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (North American Mission Board—NAMB) and individual state missions offerings (among the various state conventions). These special offerings are an important funding mechanism for missions across the United States and around the world.
Benevolence and Love Offerings
Many churches also collect offerings for benevolence needs or other causes. Love offerings are often used to fund special needs, emergency relief, underfunded priorities and unbudgeted expenses. While the gospel imperative and value of these worthwhile ministries are important, special offering appeals may reduce platform time for more significant missional needs in the church’s budget.
Capital Project Campaigns
One of the most important special offerings is used to fund large capital projects. Typically collected in a well-organized capital campaign, capital project funds involved one-time gifts and multi-year pledges above and beyond the normal tithe. Capital campaigns remain a viable fundraising option for large projects. In most churches, these 3-year campaigns can and do result in significant up-front gifts from donor cash, equities, and property.
Cultural Shifts
The multiple offering approach has been an effective church-funding mechanism for several decades. At the same time, there are important cultural and generational shifts undermining this traditional approach. While some aspects of our longtime strategy will continue to have a role into the future, others should be reevaluated and adjusted to meet the changing times.
Consider these demographic, cultural and institutional shifts:
- Offering Fatigue
- Vision Confusion
- Denominational Decline
- Economic Dislocation
- Large Giver Shift
Offering Fatigue
Most churches have discovered that appealing to the giver’s Spirit sensitivity and faith motivations for giving money should be done sparingly. The first domino to fall was in missions—where previously we received each of the mission offerings mentioned above, we soon decided to combine all of them into one World Missions Offering. Too many special offerings and love offerings on top of the expected regular budget offering (tithe) diluted the significance of the primary ask: Obedience to God by giving the first fruits of your own personal harvest.
Vision Confusion
Younger generations tend to be less connected and aware of church history than previous generations. That means we have to clearly communicate our mission, vision and core values to illustrate the giving impact of tithes and offerings. Combining our vision with one significant ask is a key strategy for simplifying and unifying giving for future generations. Framing the entirety of the church’s missional work—local, state, national and international—as the essential working out of the Great Commission can be a useful approach to help a new generation of givers connect meaningfully with the scope of the gospel task.
Denominational Decline
As denominational loyalty, SBC institutional chaos and traditional Cooperative Program funding mechanisms falter, it’s clear that giving at national and state convention levels will be affected. Our responsibility is to guide our church to effectively allocate missions resources to IMB, NAMB and other state and national causes that continue to impact lostness around the world.
Economic Dislocation
While many families will continue to have the capacity to give large one-time gifts, many others will not. This is driven both by individual budgeting and financial considerations and by a need for deeper discipleship on biblical generosity. Many families will have more capacity to make medium-term commitments or pledges than to give one-time gifts.
Large Giver Shift
Many historically large givers are “passing the torch” to sons, daughters and spouses who may not share the same zeal for and spiritual commitment to the church and its vision. It is important to develop a strategy to facilitate legacy giving and provide long-term sustainability for the church.
In light of these cultural shifts, many churches have moved to provide vision clarity with one significant giving ask. This idea forms a key strategy for simplifying and unifying giving for future generations.