If you’re like most churches, you report on tithes and offerings every week and do a quick analysis of the amount given based on attendance. This is a good way to see how your tithes are coming in week-to-week, but are you really evaluating who is giving and who has stopped giving?
What if you could segment your givers into different groups and then form a communication strategy that increases stewardship and discipleship opportunities within these groups? Here are some basic steps to help you better understand how to segment your givers.
To start off, let’s do a quick analysis:
1. Export all your givers into an excel worksheet and sort according to the size of the gift (based on a 12-month giving cycle).
2. Now that you’ve got your list, highlight and group everyone into the following giving ‘bands’ based on the following:
- Band 1: $1-$199
- Band 2: $200-$999
- Band 3: $1,000-$4,999
- Band 4: $5,000 – $9,999
- Band 5: $10,000 and up
3. How many givers do you have in each band? Is there a particular band that is larger than another? Where are there discipleship opportunities?
This “bucketing” approach allows you to better understand how givers are growing in their stewardship. Take this analysis even further by examining the current year against the previous year. Perhaps your most important comparison point is against your own history—to learn if you’re gaining ground, treading even, or losing ground.
Once you have this analysis done, you can start to form a communication strategy around each of these groups. Where can you grow stewardship?
If you’re using MortarStone, the new “Giving Band Composition Report” adds insightful and actionable data to better assess your giving—and is available for both FREE and PREMIUM subscribers.
This report helps you to answer questions like:
- How many people are in each giving band?
- What portion of income do they give?
- What is my dependency on my financial leaders?
To get more information on how to connect these insights to grow your giving, contact us for a FREE consultation and software demo. We’re here to help! Remember, without a plan, data is, well…data. However, combine insight with strategy…and it becomes a discipleship opportunity.