This is my last post in the Side Door Metrics series – The series about measuring the effectiveness of “Next Step” strategies and processes. (Where you want people to go and grow after attending worship services).
Thus far, we’ve looked at:
How Metrics Can Help Your Church
Front Door Metrics (Guests come in the front door)
Side Door Metrics: (Because friends come in the side door)
>Attendance, Decisions
>Small Groups
>Serving
The last Side Door Metric is in the area of Financial Giving.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8 that believers should excel in the grace of giving. And, if you think about it, all the previous steps in the assimilation process are about giving as well:
> We give our Praise & Worship to God. We give of ourselves to obey and apply the Word
> We give of ourselves in relationships with others in a Small Group
> We give of ourselves in service to others
So it naturally follows that giving of your financial resources for Kingdom Work makes perfect sense.
There’s no better “investment” one can make than in the souls and lives of others thru Loving God, Loving and Serving Others with our time, talents and resources.
So, without further ado, here are 10 Giving Metrics:
Track Weekly/Accumulate Monthly:
1. # of 1st Time Givers – are people progressing to the point of giving? How many?
I highly recommend a note from Pastor when someone gives for the first time. He doesn’t have to know the amount, but just acknowledge the gift and thank them.
2. # of Givers – How many are giving overall to the ministry General Fund? Is this increasing or decreasing?
3. $ Gave – Simple. How much did the church receive? Every Pastor and Finance Team on the planet wants this info on a weekly basis. Is this trajecting up or down?
Account for the one-time large gift. Large gifts are great but, they can mask other issues. Pastor usually wants to know so he can thank that person anyway. Again, Pastor doesn’t have to know the amount but oftentimes he knows already because he was approached in advance by the donor.
On a side note, to eliminate variability of this weekly metric, I’d recommend viewing this as a rolling 6 week avg to see the real trend. You can take the large gifts out if you prefer.
Add these in Monthly:
4. $ per Giver – Simple metric of the average monthly gift per giver. Other ways to look at are weekly per and annual per giver.
5. Per Capita Giving – I like to look at this for Students and Adults. This can go down if adding lots of new folk as it usually takes a while for them to start giving, especially new believers. However, you want this # to eventually come up as a sign more people are getting it and taking a step of faith.
On the flip side though, Per Capita Giving can go up as attendance declines – thus creating a false sense of security. It could be an early warning sign. If people are leaving, sometimes the ones not financially invested tend to leave first. Givers may not be too far behind.
6. As it relates to the # of first time givers and the # of total givers, it’s useful to track % Giver Turn. Knowing these two metrics, you can calculate the # and % of givers that did not give in the following month.
Large % fluctuations may need digging into. This is just a high level look each month only as part of an “early warning system”. As part of my upcoming Back Door Metrics post, we’ll look into lost givers in a bit more detail.
Quarterly:
As in previous posts, take a look at the above each quarter. Compare to prior quarters, years, goals and benchmarks.
If Digital Giving is part of your Stewardship Strategy (online giving, text giving, kiosks etc), you’ll want to track:
7. $ and % Digital – Set a goal and track it.
8. % Digital Givers Recurring Gifts – This is ultimately where you want people to move – to automate their giving.
Check out The Rocket Company if you need coaching and resources to help in the area of digital giving.
If you have Financial Education as part of your Stewardship Strategy:
9. # in Financial Class – most people in your church need this. How well are you doing in getting people the help they need.
10. % Completed Class – how many are completing the class? If many are not, why? Is the class too long? Are the materials effective, is the presenter boring?
As an additional measurement of the effectiveness of these classes, you could look at class graduates a year later. Did they start giving or increase their giving? Don’t get me wrong here, the purpose of the classes is not to get people to give. The purpose is to help people reach the financial goals they have – to get out of debt, to live within their means and to become good stewards of what God provides. However, being a good steward (manager) of God’s resources means we give to the local church. That being said, the church can’t measure if they’re living on budget and saving for their goals or calling, but we can measure whether or not they are growing in the grace of giving.
That’s it.
I hope you have a plan for tracking the effectiveness of your strategy and how well they’re being executed or working.
I wrap of the series of posts regarding Ministry metrics with this one – Back Door Metrics.