29 Nov Year-End Giving: 5 Ways to increase Church Donations this Christmas

Year-End Giving: 5 Ways to increase Church Donations this Christmas

Christmas is right around the corner! Which means in no time we’ll all be stuffing our faces full of some homemade Christmas cookies and eggnog. 

But, Christmas is about much more than sugary treats. 

Did you know that nearly 33% of annual giving occurs in the month of December? The holidays are the season of giving after all, which means that the weeks leading up to Christmas are a perfect time for you to increase your church donations. 

But how can you make sure you gain the attention of your generous church members and increase tithing during December?

We know you’re busy so we’ve taken all the guesswork out of the equation with this helpful list of five ways to increase church donations this Christmas. 

Provide Context on Why Giving During the Holidays is Important

The holiday season is often referred to as the “most wonderful time of the year”. But for many people around the world, this isn’t the case. 

There are families and individuals all over who are struggling during this time, whether it’s to find a hot meal or shelter from the chilly weather. 

It’s important to relay this message to your congregation and to emphasize why giving during the holidays is more important than receiving. With more donations, your church will be better equipped to reach those who need faith in their lives. 

And, by ensuring that some of the donations your church takes in during the holidays are distributed to those in need — such as a soup kitchen or homeless shelter — you can help encourage your members to ensure that they focus on the giving part of the Holiday season as much as the receiving part. 

Offer Digital Tithing Avenues

Christmas is an exceptionally busy time for everyone, so it’s crucial that you offer your members the ability to easily donate through online and digital avenues. 

For example, by teaming up with mobileAxept, you can offer your members the ability to easily donate with their smartphone. 

GiveNow — mobileAxept’s text-to-give solution — offers the most intuitive donor experience to date. Your church members will be able to do everything from their smartphones, including registration, set up recurring payments, and editing their settings. 

To learn more about how mobileAxept can help you increase your donations for the holiday season, contact us today! And, don’t forget to check the ‘request a demo’ box at the bottom of the contact form for so you can see GiveNow in action and how game-changing this solution can be for your church. 

Use Text-to-Give Messages to Remind Them to Give 

Once you get set-up with GiveNow, you can use your new tool to send out automated text messages to your congregation members during the Christmas season to remind them to donate. 

Friday and Sundays are two days in particular where messages will be most effective, as these are statistically the days when people most often give. 

People are also most likely to open text messages than emails — in fact, 98% more likely. So, don’t waste time writing emails that will never get opened. Instead, incorporate text-to-give into your tithing strategies to ensure that your members see your donation requests. 

Incorporate Generosity-Focused Sermons into Your Services

Having your sermons centered on the idea of being generous and giving is a great way to reinforce the message of being unselfish during the holidays. Here

In addition to having your pastor use his own experience with giving to speak on its importance, it’s also important to tie in the idea of God’s own generosity. 

Bible in One Year offers a great example of God’s generosity, stating, “God’s generosity is seen in the natural world.  For example, there are 25,000 varieties of orchids. The orchid is just one of 270,000 species of flowers.” 

God was generous when he gave us life, as well as creating a beautiful world around us. This is a powerful and important message to relay to your church members. 

Referencing Bible verses is another great way to help establish the importance of giving for your congregation. 

For example, Proverbs 3:27 is a great one to speak on:

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.”

This verse talks about how, to put it simply, there are people out there who just need help. 

Not only that, but it also mentions how when you have the power to act, or when you have the means of helping those people, do not hesitate but instead be charitable. 

This is a great verse that also speaks on giving within your means.

For more Bible verses that talk about the importance of giving, visit this blog post here! 

Be Honest About Needing to Meet Your Goals 

Christmas time also spells the end of the year, meaning that it’s the chance to push for those donation goals you set at the beginning of the year.

People love coming together around a common goal and being upfront about trying to reach your goal is a great way to help increase your church donations.  

Make sure to talk about why you set your goal amount. For example, you could talk about how you set your donation goal for that number because you knew it was the amount you needed to reach as many people with your message as possible.