The Importance of Balanced Giving Segmentations

How is your church funded? Do you know the financial makeup of your givers? After working with thousands of churches, we’ve found that your giver segmentation is essential to understanding how your church is funded. Once you’ve determined the financial makeup, you can start to apply strategies that better disciple people toward a culture of generosity.

Let’s show you how this works. If you’re using MortarStone, log in to your platform and look at you giving band segmentations. Giving bands, for those not using MortarStone are the different groups of givers segmented into ‘bands’ based on their yearly giving.

For example: 

• Band 1 Givers are Households that have given $1-$200 per year
• Band 2 Givers are Households that have given $201-$1000 per year
• Band 3 Givers are Households that have given $1001 – $5000 per year
• Band 4 Givers are Households that have given $5001 – $10,000 per year
• Band 5 Givers are Households that have given $10,001 and above

Here’s an example of how a typical church is funded:

Pay particular attention to the Band 1 and Band 5 givers. From this sample church, you’ll see that Band 1 represents 14.86% (192) of the total giving households, but only gives .26% of the yearly giving. This large segment of givers could benefit from generosity discipleship classes and or FPU types of courses.

Now look at Band 5 givers, and you’ll see that over 50% of annual giving is supported by only 10.22% (132) of the giving population. This church has a top-heavy giving trend, with only a few households responsible for the majority of church funding. Funding that is dependent on a few is at risk of budget shortcomings. What happens if some of these Band 5 givers leave the church or divert their funding to other passions? How would this change the landscape of your ministry? 

Healthy churches have the following segmentation of giving: 

• Band 1: 5-10% of giving
• Band 2: 20-25% of giving
• Band 3: 25-35% of giving
• Band 4: 15-30% of giving
• Band 5: 25-35% of giving 

Note: This is not a one size fits all, rather a healthy assessment of a goal to work towards when developing good stewards who also are generous.

Where does your church financially stand? Are a few of your Top Givers supporting the majority of your annual funding? Employing just a few simple giving strategies can help you even out your giving segmentations and ensure a more stable financial future. 

Let us help you achieve your funding goals – schedule a time to talk with us – and get the strategies you need to build a culture of generous givers.