Episode 010 | Are you Ready for #GivingTuesday? | GenerosityLabs.org

Generosity Labs | Church Giving, Stewardship, Fundraising

Is your church ready for #GivingTuesday?

In this episode, Kenny sits down with one of the most respected leaders regarding generosity, stewardship, and giving, Chris Willard.

They talk about how to encourage not-yet givers to be regular givers and how participating in #GivingTuesday can help spark generosity and giving in the hearts of people in your church and outside of your community.

Check out their conversation below.

WEBSITES MENTIONED

Year-end giving guide by Generis.com

leadnet.org

CONTACT INFORMATION

Blog: ChrisWillard.me

HIGHLIGHTS

[00:53] I started working at Leadership Network. I am the director of generosity and initiatives. In Leadership Network, what we try to do is to put churches into groups and we try to encourage them to kind of dream big about strategies that can really help them be more effective in the church. And the area that I lead is the area of generosity and stewardship and giving.

[1:35] Most of the work I am doing is trying to work with pastors who are trying to really create a revolution of generosity and stewardship and giving in their churches.

[2:09] We are entering a season talking about #GivingTuesday. #GivingTuesday, if you haven’t heard about it before, basically, is the Tuesday that follows Black Friday.

[3:04] #GivingTuesday is the place where I have given to things that are not necessarily connected to my church or to some of the ministries that I support.

[3:21] #GivingTuesday has encouraged me to give those gifts over the years and I think it’s a genius idea.

[4:07] Last year, 2016, there was 1.56 million individual gifts. And I think the total amount of donation over 40% growth over the year and I think it raised over $168 million this past year. That’s pretty size-able.

[4:33] I think churches need to get involved in Giving Tuesdays.

[4:54] I think the church is really in a perfect position to encourage people or to leverage the whole idea of #GivingTuesday.

[6:21] You need to raise money and draw attention not to your church but for what the church stands for.

[6:48] I think it would be a great way for a church to get a not-yet giver, to give a modest gift for the very first time.

[6:59] The reason people are sometimes a little bit suspicious about giving at churches is because churches haven’t done a great job with this topic.

[7:24] You can start to say in your congregation, “Look, if you’ve never given here in our church, we will encourage you to make Giving Tuesday your very first time to kind of get involved.”

[8:41] Probably, right now, here we are, in the beginning of October, it’s a little too early to start talking to your congregation about your year-end giving strategy, but it is definitely not too early for your team to start planning.your year-end giving strategy. And, in fact? You might also be a little bit behind. Christmas is coming, Kenny. It’s going to be here before you know it and we got to get ready for that.

[9:17] As the timing, when you’re going to be talking to your congregation about year-end giving, so you’re right. Because Giving Tuesday is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, it’s the perfect place to be the launching point for your year-end strategy. And if I could, I would encourage anybody, it’s a free download, on the Generis website, we got a free year-end giving guide. Look for the year-end giving guide. It is an awesome tool that gives you from start to finish what you need to do to put together a really effective year-end giving initiative.

[10:48] Anytime I hear a church leader say, “I am afraid if they give that money there, they won’t giv