TL;DR
To engage younger generations, churches must meet them where they are. Our platform makes giving:
- Fast – One-tap giving with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Text-to-Give.
- Easy – Mobile-friendly experiences donors actually use.
- Secure – PCI-compliant, ensuring donor trust and safety.
Learn how we can Future-Proof Your Church’s Giving Together!
Presidents deliver State of the Union addresses to assess national progress and warn of future challenges. As we step fully into 2025, it’s time to examine the State of Church Giving—highlighting the latest trends, financial risks, and a clear path forward for sustainable generosity in your congregation.
A Stark Financial Reality for Churches: A Call to Immediate Action
The MortarStone 2024 Annual Report, "Transferring the Legacy of Generosity,"1. provides a critical look at the financial health of 537 churches and 941,000+ giving households.
Key Financial Challenges Facing Churches Today:
- 21% of total giving comes from just 1% of donors—most over the age of 60.
- Median household giving has dropped 34%—from $910 to $600 per year.
- Generational shift: Generation X has overtaken Baby Boomers in total giving, but it took significantly more donors to do so.
What does this mean for your church?
The overreliance on aging, top-tier givers presents a serious long-term sustainability risk. As these donors retire, churches must act now to engage younger generations and diversify giving sources.
3 Essential Steps to Secure Your Church’s Financial Future
1. Know Your Giving Trends
You can’t fix what you don’t track. How much of your church’s giving comes from:
- The top 1% of donors?
- Donors over 60?
- Next-generation givers (Millennials & Gen Z)?
At OnlineGiving.org, we make tracking giving trends simple for our church partners with a real-time dashboard that includes:
- Last 30 Days of Donations – Instantly see the total amount of digital donations received over the past 30 days. Adjust the timeframe with a simple dropdown to track trends and compare giving periods.
- Total Gifts – View the total number of approved transactions for any designated period. Quickly analyze donation volume and adjust the timeframe as needed.
- New Users – Identify first-time givers at a glance. Use this data to send personalized thank-you messages and encourage future engagement.
- Future Scheduled Giving – Get an accurate projection of upcoming donations to help with budgeting and planning. Know what to expect for quarterly and annual financial forecasts.
- Inactive Users – Track donors who haven't logged in or given within a selected timeframe. Re-engage them with targeted outreach to strengthen church involvement and generosity.
- New & Active Users Timeline – A dynamic visual graph that highlights trends in donor activity. See when new and existing donors are most active—typically around the 1st and 15th of each month—so you can time your giving appeals for maximum impact.
Does your current giving provider give you these insights? If not, we can help.
2. Shift the Church’s Attitude Toward Giving
Churches fear talking about money, but avoiding the conversation hurts financial discipleship.
According to the MortarStone study:
"The reluctance of churches to discuss finances has created a significant gap in discipleship. Many churches fail to connect dollars to impact, leaving givers disengaged."
The Fix: Reframe Giving as Worship
Generosity isn’t a fundraising strategy—it’s discipleship. Church leaders must:
- Regularly connect financial giving to real ministry impact.
- Reinforce that giving is an act of worship and not just a financial transaction.
- Intentionally teach generosity as part of spiritual formation.
3. Have a Clear Plan to Increase Generosity
Most churches have strategic growth plans—but no plan for financial sustainability.
If you lack a generosity plan, you’re planning to fail. At OnlineGiving.org, we provide our partners with:
- Actionable generosity plans for every season in the church calendar.
- Best practices to engage next-gen givers through digital & mobile platforms.
- Custom strategies that connect vision to giving—motivating donors to invest in ministry.
The Offering of the 21st Century: It’s Not Dead—It’s Different.
To engage younger generations, churches must meet them where they are. Our platform makes giving:
- Fast – One-tap giving with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Text-to-Give.
- Easy – Mobile-friendly experiences donors actually use.
- Secure – PCI-compliant, ensuring donor trust and safety.
Let’s Future-Proof Your Church’s Giving Together!
Call us at (615) 206-4000 or email support@onlinegiving.org to schedule a free demo today.
Your church’s financial future depends on today’s decisions—let’s make them wisely.
Giving trends are shifting fast—21% of donations come from just 1% of aging donors, and median gifts have dropped 34%. But your church can adapt with https://t.co/u2tMB6uWxC's real-time insights, engagement tools, and proven strategies.https://t.co/g9l4zWDD9M pic.twitter.com/gBffJvnhMM
— Online Giving (@onlinegivingorg) February 28, 2025
1. MortarStone, Transferring the Legacy of Generosity: The 2024 Annual Report (2024). Available at https://www.mortarstone.com.
