| VP Good Stewardship Vestry Papers • May/June 2007• Christian Stewardship
Good Stewardship Addresses Hopes and Fears (Full Text Article)
by Kate Ferris
Nothing sends people scurrying for the sexton’s supply closet faster than hearing the footstep of the Stewardship chairperson coming down the hall. When it comes time for the annual quest for financial support, lots of parishioners say they can’t pledge for a whole year because they don’t know if they will have enough money for themselves. Yet until church treasurers are allowed to print dollar bills, the money has to come from the congregation. So a good Stewardship campaign will address the fears of the treasurer (having enough money to pay the church bills) and the parish members (having enough money to pay their own bills.)
One Stewardship campaign that worked exceedingly well for a parish provided both practical and spiritual messages about pledging. The campaign, or Pledge Season, had a contemplative theme, a definite timeframe, a mix of letters and presentations, and a celebration. As a result, pledges surpassed the goal by 9.5% and increased the number of families pledging to 72% of the total parish.
The "Stewardship is Discipleship/Discipleship is Stewardship" theme was used for three years at St. George’s (Clifton Park, NY) and achieved extraordinary success with the following key elements:
1) A Strong Stewardship Team
There are rules of thumb about the number of people who should be involved in a Stewardship campaign, such as one-third of the parish should be asking the other two-thirds. That may work great in some churches where 33% of the congregation is comfortable asking anybody for money, but that wasn’t St. George’s case. There was, however, a small committee of four or five dedicated volunteers that together had strong marketing (yes, marketing!) and communication skills, an understanding of the financial issues of the parish, and deep faith.
Marketing skills? Marketing is not necessarily a term one associates with church. Yet the principles are similar whether communicating why to spend money on a particular brand of toothpaste or to give to the operation of God’s holy church.
At St. George’s, the Stewardship Committee was led by two co-chairs who served staggered, three-year terms on the Vestry. This allowed for those who raised the money to see how church funds were spent and to understand the issues of the parish as a whole. The Committee included two or three people to spread the work around and to groom others to take over the leadership positions when Vestry terms ended. The committee members were not necessarily the largest pledgers, but were people who had giving as a high priority in their lives.
2) Spend Money to Raise Money
It takes money in order to do a first rate job of raising money. It doesn’t have to be much, but it has to be enough to put forward a professional and polished campaign. People give when they are approached in a professional and tasteful manner. Some churches prefer to buy pre-packaged programs that have a theme, graphics and a universal message that is suitable for any church at any time. All the church really needs to do is follow the guidelines about when and how to distribute the materials and personalize a bit. These can be effective, but depending on your budget, they may not meet every church’s needs.
The "Stewardship is Discipleship" campaign was home-grown, and all the materials were designed and produced specifically for the campaign. The stationery, note cards, posters, and bookmarks, had a consistent and professional look to them. With a budgeted amount to spend, the Committee could design a campaign that could reach the congregation in a variety of formats.
A word of caution: Materials produced on cheap paper on a worn out photocopier won’t do. Paper and graphics should be of good quality and look professional. Some may say that these expenses are better spent elsewhere. Yet a campaign that does not reflect well on the church or strive for excellence is not likely to raise as much money.
3) A Thoughtful Stewardship Theme
The theme of "Stewardship is Discipleship/Discipleship is Stewardship" was particularly apt for St. George’s. It tied in with the mission statement and a popular component of its Adult Christian Education. As "a family of disciples joyfully reaching out in love, to nurture, teach and heal in Jesus’ name" the congregation understood the importance of discipleship in Christian life. Also, for several years, clergy and lay leaders had offered a series of year-long Adult Ed courses entitled "Disciple: Becoming Disciples through Bible Study" produced by Abingdon Press. For the participants in these 32-week classes, there was a daily focus on how to be a disciple.
The Committee took it a step further and reminded the congregation that to be a good disciple, one also must be a good steward of all the gifts of time, talent, and treasure that God has given. It is a "mark of discipleship" for the people of God to give back a portion of what God has placed in our care. St. George’s encouraged proportional giving, whether that was one, five, or ten percent, the full tithe, of one’s income. The Committee understood that it can be unnerving, in our materialistic and uncertain world, to think of giving away a proportion of one’s income, but this was where being a true disciple came in. Feeling God’s love for us, we trust that God will provide for all that we need and we can give gladly and freely in thanksgiving.
The Committee successfully used a theme and a message that tried to replace the fear of not having enough money for personal use with the joy and thanksgiving of being able to make a generous gift.
4) A Clearly Defined Time Schedule
A campaign that doesn’t have a clear beginning and end tends to lose its focus, whether held in the fall or in the spring. St. George’s has run its annual Stewardship campaign, lasting only six weeks, in the spring for several reasons:
Pledging to the church does not get lost in the end-of-the-year rush of other charities seeking support.
The priority of pledging to the church does not get confused by the financial crunch of the Christmas holidays.
Spring pledging separates the budgeting process from the giving process.
(Admittedly, this last reason can make things confusing since when the budget year begins January 1 and the pledge year begins July 1. However, treasurers are usually good at knowing when they are going to run out of money, regardless of where they are in the fiscal or the pledge year.)
The Pledge Season was kicked off one or two weeks after Easter and ran for six weeks. The dates were approved well in advance to make this a time to focus on Stewardship. Because campaigns that drag on grow wearisome for all involved, the Pledge Season ended promptly as scheduled.
5) A Mix of Practical and Spiritual Messages in Different Formats
People respond to different messages. Some understand that unless they pledge, the church cannot meet its financial obligations. Others respond to the biblical teachings about giving first fruits or giving back to God. The "Stewardship is Discipleship" campaign made an effort to balance the type of messages people were given.
On the practical side, charts explained where the money was spent on different ministries, such as Outreach, Worship, Education, and Administration. On the spiritual side, individuals gave examples of how church funds enabled them to carry out these ministries.
Just as people respond to different messages, they also respond to different formats. The campaign offered a variety of "contacts":
1) During Lent, a "spiritual" letter was mailed to all members of the congregation, asking them to consider their reasons for giving to St. George’s and announcing the plans for the Pledge Season.
2) Spiritual and practical messages ran in the monthly "Dragon’s Tale" newsletter.
3) The official "kickoff" of the Pledge Season was announced at all services the first Sunday after Easter.
4) A personalized letter was sent to each parishioner after Kickoff Sunday. There were four versions of the letter:
For major pledgers, they were thanked for the actual amount of their pledge made the prior year and asked to increase it if possible.
For smaller pledgers, they were thanked for the actual amount of their pledge made the prior year and asked to increase it by 5% if possible.
For newcomers, they were asked to become pledgers and to consider proportional giving.
For non-pledgers, they were asked to become pledgers and to consider proportional giving.
5) Weekly messages appeared in the service bulletins throughout Pledge Season.
6) Weekly presentations were delivered from the pulpit at each service. In addition to at least one sermon by the clergy, other members of the congregation spoke each week on what motivated them to pledge to St. George’s.
7) A brief announcement was made at the beginning of various group meetings, such as the choir, Men’s Group, Daughters of the King, Stephen Ministers, etc. to remind people to pledge and to answer any questions they might have.
Some may consider this number of "contacts" overkill, but in this age of such great media bombardment, it often takes that many times before someone gets the message.
6) Follow Up, Say Thank You, and Celebrate
Follow up was an important part of Pledge Season. For those people who had not made their pledge yet, a letter was sent or a phone call made, gently reminding them that the deadline was near. (In truth, no Stewardship person has ever not accepted a pledge even if it came in late, but keeping to the timeframe did remind the pledger of the urgency to follow through.) There were times, however, when there were issues needed to be addressed, whether a person was no longer in a position to make a pledge or was upset with something going on in the church (locally, diocesan-wide, or nationally). These calls were made by knowledgeable Stewardship committee members who could tactfully respond to the needs or concerns of the parishioner.
While it is easy to remember to say thanks to the big pledger, it is just as important to say thank you to the small one. Even if it was only a dollar a week, every pledge was thanked in writing. Each gift was a gift from someone’s heart and that deserved a grateful thank you.
Finally, at the end of Pledge Season was a celebration. Continuing the theme that "Stewardship is Discipleship/Discipleship is Stewardship" there was a joint celebration on Stewardship and Discipleship Sunday. It was a day when all outstanding pledge cards were due in and students completing any of the "Disciple" classes received their pins. The day was celebrated with a potluck picnic, and with God’s blessing, held outdoors as a feast for the whole parish.
A tremendous amount of planning went into running the Pledge Season, but then, the Stewardship Committee was charged with raising a tremendous amount of money. It required a great deal of thought, the right group of people to carry it out, a theme and messages that resonated with the congregation, and a variety of ways of getting through to people. In the end, the treasurers were pleased, the church members opened their hearts and their wallets, and the Stewardship Committee…well, people didn’t flee to the sexton’s closet any more when they heard their footsteps in the hall.
Kate Ferris was co-chair for Stewardship and Capital Campaigns for St. George’s Episcopal Church in Clifton Park, NY from 2000-2005. She is a consultant on board leadership and strategic planning. She can be reached at kferris2@nycap.rr.com. |
