George Barna recently completed a survey on giving trends over the last three months. It's a little disturbing. No doubt the past three months have been some of the most tumultous in history. Stock market crashes. Market swings. An uncertain economy. Job losses. The list is exhaustive. What's been the effect on giving?
1. 20% of households have decreased their giving to churches;
2. nearly 19% have decreased their giving to chruches by as much as 20% and 11% had decreased their giving by 50%;
3. 22% have stopped giving to churches altogether;
4. upscale household were most likely to decrease their giving;
5. giving to non profits is down by a whopping 30%!
Giving to churches is likely to be down by $3-5 billion dollars in this 4th quarter.
The message to non profits is clear. Control spending. Work harder at donor relationships than ever before. Pursue foundation grants. As cash tightens, pursue non cash donations. Non cash donations are tangible assets like cars, boats, etc that can be sold to produce case for the ministry. For non cash donation services, look at www.idonate.com.
--William High is the President of the Servant Christian Community Foundation (www.servantchristian.com). Christian Foundation Grants (www.christianfoundationgrants.com) provides a membership service for non profits to search for foundation grants.