Dr. Eberhard Speaks Out - "Giving Options"

The Rev. Dr. David Eberhard will do an article periodically called "Dr. Eberhard Speaks Out." He will challenge us with his thoughts and experience as a leading churchman in America. While we may agree, or not agree, he will share with us what he has learned that works in the local parish. Over his forty years of experience in the ministry, he has always tended to be ahead of the current curve of church practices, and is always "pushing the envelope" to get us to expand our thinking.

In a world that is confronted with financial turmoil and uncertain market fluctuations, people tend to pull back on making additional investment and charitable contributions. Other persons in recent years have found that they have over extended their financial resources. Endowments are not producing as healthy an investment stream as they did in the past, resulting in major cutbacks in many agencies and institutions. Some bad corporate decisions and greed, fraudulent behavior, and false promotions and untrue ads, all lead to a great skepticism.

Fortunately, in the religious institutions and parishes of America the downturn in contributions has not been as great as elsewhere. Yet the old mold of contributing only by the weekly church offering envelope is changing. Past generations usually, if they were absent on a number of Sundays, they would fill the offering envelope for those Sundays. Then they would bring them to church the next time they attended. Today, people tend to use their regular Sunday offering envelopes only on the Sundays they attend, and do not use the envelopes from past Sundays. This is why it becomes important to offer many options to individuals desiring to make a contribution to the church. We live today in a society that is always seeking options.

There are many great "stewardship" programs promoted to educate the membership to better giving practices. These usually only reach the persons who are already giving, and may increase their giving only slightly and only for a brief period of time.

Another option is to provide your donors the opportunity to contribute by credit card. The ability to use their regular credit cards, not some money market card. To make a church contribution by credit card, all one has to do is call their church financial officer. Let them know how much you wish to donate each week or month to the church, using your credit card. MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or any Novus Card, and American Express. Should you want to stop contributing by credit card just let the financial person know. This enables persons to contribute regularly if even when they are not present in church on a given Sunday. It is really easy, and more and more members and friends of our church are using this option to make contributions, to pay for events at the church, or make special gifts to the church. We refer to this as our "sixth Sunday" giving. Any bank can assist you in setting up this option of giving.

Another option is to donate appreciated securities. Generally, if you have owned securities for more than one year, not only can you take a charitable deduction base on the fair market value of the securities, but you will also avoid paying a capital gains tax on the appreciation.

Some individuals prefer to contribute via a Life Insurance policy made out to the church as a deferred gift.

A lot of persons like the option of giving for a specific item. An elderly bishop taught me, "Never put bushes in the budget, sell them bush by bush". We use a "Wish List" and publish it weekly in the Sunday bulletin, and in all newsletters. Specific items and their cost are identified, and members and friends can select an item, and pay by check, credit card, or cash. The "Wish List" option provides us with about one third of our yearly income. Persons who contribute $3.00, $10.00, or what ever in their weekly church contribution envelope, probably aren't going to contribute more via their envelope. But these same persons will select an option from the "Wish List" for $500, or whatever.

It take two things to make a church work: people and money. If you have people and no money, you are limited in what you can do. If you have money and no people than you have an empty museum. Find ways to increase your people and your money. To increase your income, seriously consider providing giving options to your members and friends.