Key Metrics on Giving Health
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Key Metrics on Giving Health

Mon, Jun 12th 2023 · Mark Brooks

“33 Questions to Evaluate Your Church’s Health” - that was the subject line of a recent email I received recently. It was an interesting read and provided a helpful analysis of a church's spiritual condition by evaluating key growth and health metrics. Since this is a blog about digital giving, it led me to ask what questions we should be asking to gauge a church’s giving health. What metrics should you be watching? I came up with a list of key questions you should be asking to gauge your giving health. 

Some of those questions are asked yearly, and some must be monitored weekly. With church management systems and online giving, analyzing data is easier than ever. Our church partners have, at their fingertips, tons of information to help assess their giving health and then to build out strategies based upon the findings. Here is a post about what we offer our church partners, 

https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/the-importance-of-knowing-your-giving-metrics 

First, what percentage of your overall giving is received digitally versus traditional? This leads to the question of what percentage of your giving should be digital. Our answer to that is, “it depends.” The makeup of your congregation dictates much of this. We have church partners that see nearly 100% of all receipts come in some digital form. Others are nearer 50%. Most, if not all, churches have seen digital giving increase since the pandemic. The greater percentage of your giving that comes in digitally, the less you will take in on those weekends when weather impacts attendance. It’s in your best interest to see digital giving increase. This first question leads to the next, more important question I would ask.

Is digital giving increasing or decreasing? I challenge church leaders to have yearly sign-up pushes for digital giving to see at least a ten percent increase in those signing up for digital giving. If your digital giving is not increasing, it is probably because you have yet to focus on digital giving.

Here is a post I recently wrote about this, https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/make-a-may-push-for-recurring-giving 

These two questions are the easiest to answer. Yet to look at your online giving health intensively, here are a few other metrics we would encourage you to monitor.

  • How many new (First Time) givers are responding digitally?
  • What is the breakdown of digital giving? (Web, text, mobile app, kiosk)
  • What is the breakdown of ACH vs. Credit Card?
  • How many digital transactions opted to "Cover the Fee?”
  • What total dollars were brought in by "Cover the Fee?"
  • What percentage of giving is automatic via recurring schedules?
  • What is your average donation amount?
  • What funds and ministry initiatives have received the largest response regarding donation volume? I would also want to know, what are your three biggest and three smallest weeks for online donations?

By asking these questions, you can evaluate the health and growth of your digital giving. For instance, identifying the smallest giving weeks for online donations might mean you need to put a more positive focus on giving for those weeks. If your “Cover the Fee” option is not being used, people might not know about it or understand how to use it. Each of these questions should elicit other questions. Your answers will help you craft strategies to improve your giving health.

When was your last check-up? A friend called the other day to say he had been diagnosed with colon cancer. The good news is that they caught it early, and colon cancer is one of the easiest cancers to beat if detected early. My friend has great confidence in a full recovery. My father-in-law passed away several years ago from colon cancer. He disliked going to doctors because he hated getting bad news. He avoided annual checkups and even the doctor when he began to experience pain. When he finally went to the doctor, there was nothing they could do. Our family can’t help but wonder what would have happened if he had kept all his annual physicals.

Could your church be in trouble without you knowing it? You could be heading for financial ruin if you are not current on your financial data and metrics. As our society increases its use of commerce digitally, churches must keep abreast of the latest giving methods to make giving as easy as possible. We provide 15 different giving methods! And our dashboard lets you easily analyze how giving progresses so you always know your health. Contact us today for a free demonstration of our metrics reports at support@onlinegiving.org or (615) 206-4000. We can improve your giving health!

Written by Mark Brooks
The Stewardship Coach

 

 

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