Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Since there are only ten more days until Christmas Eve, it’s likely that many people and parishes are feeling the pressure. There are choir rehearsals to attend, Christmas Eve services to plan, new visitors to welcome and a children’s Christmas pageant to coordinate. There are last minute gifts, travel plans, as well as the ongoing search for a bit of faith & meaning in the midst of it all. So given all the busyness, it’s probably crazy to suggest that parishes should be thinking about New Year’s Eve, but there are very good reasons as to why. 

Last week, Network for Good and TrueSense Marketing released a major study on patterns of online giving. This study examined 3.6 million online gifts to 66,740 different nonprofits (including religious institutions) from 2003-2009. There are many helpful insights in the study, a few more of which I include below. But the one insight that begs immediate action pertains to the spike in online giving that takes place on the final two days of December. Fundraising committees, take note! A full 22% of a year’s worth of online giving takes place on December 30th and 31st.

Knowing this, parishes with big dreams for the upcoming year should take advantage of this trend and send an email on the morning of December 30th or 31st which explains why an online gift makes sense. Given that this spike is likely associated with tax benefits, you may want to even go so far as to remind people that gifts to Episcopal parishes are tax deductible. More importantly, though, this is an opportunity for parish leadership to outline a few goals that the parish hopes to accomplish for the coming year and name associated costs. The newsletter should then link to your online giving page or give instructions for writing a check to your parish. (For more tips on writing an effective email blast, see Amy Simon’s article here.)

Digging a little deeper into the study, there’s a great deal to consider after the holidays. For instance:

• If your parish doesn’t have a webpage to receive online donations, please create one. Online giving will only continue to increase in the coming years.
• If your fundraising committee is wondering whether a fully-integrated online donations page is really worth the extra investment, this study points out that “loyalty factor for donors acquired through generic giving pages is 66.7% lower than for donors who give via branded giving pages.” The more parishes can do to highlight the culture of the parish (through photos, logo, etc) on the donations page itself, the better.
• While improving, fundraising through social networks such as Facebook’s Causes remains the least effective means of fundraising online. Perhaps it’s part of the strategy, but at this point email blasts and integrated online giving pages deserve much more of a parish’s time and energy.

As I mentioned in a previous post on Facebook Stewardship, the world of online giving is still very much up in the air but this study gives some very helpful insights that I hope parishes and other Episcopal organizations will use as we head into the New Year. What else would you suggest?