The organisation Stewardship recently commissioned a report to understand better how to help their partners - churches, charities and Christian workers – invite generosity and grow support.
The key highlights are as follows:
1. Regular church attendance more than doubles propensity to give
Practising Christians, who attend church, and read their Bible on a monthly basis, are more likely to give to every type of cause including their church.
2. Engaged faith leads to engaged giving
Practising Christians are most likely to budget to give monthly donations to their chosen Christian causes.
3. An appeal or personal approach triggers spontaneous giving
The research showed that most giving is reactive, rather than proactive. People need a prompt to consider giving.
4. Those who trust the causes they support are likely to be more generous to all causes
We found that those who trusted their church ‘a lot’ were much more likely to be regular donors across all causes (giving at least once a month).
5. People will feel more driven to give if they feel connected to a ministry or cause that can make a difference
The decision to give again, sign up for regular giving digitally, or increase giving is often a result of seeing the impact of giving, as well as feeling appreciated and connected to the cause.
6. Fewer people give to Christian workers, but the donations made to them are higher than for other causes
One of people’s top reasons for giving to Christian workers in the quantitative phase was ‘I could see how my money would be spent to directly benefit someone’.
7. Two key barriers to giving are feeling unable to afford to give and a lack of trust that donations will be used well
50% of those surveyed said that they can’t really afford to start giving or give more (it is worth noting this research was conducted in November 2023, when the cost-of-living crisis was acute), but we should also consider other barriers to giving.
8. Those who discuss their giving tend to give more themselves
Over 1 in 5 (22%) of those who give more than 11–15% of their income discuss their giving with friends or family more than every few months. Over 3 in 5 (61%) of those that give less than 1% never discuss their giving.
Further information is available here, and a pdf of the report can be downloaded (with an email address) from here.
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