10 giving metrics to review annually

Understanding both church giving and data analytics are key to healthy church growth. Listed below are some of the key giving metrics church leaders should pay attention to at least annually.

1 | PERCENTAGE OF MEMBERS WHO GIVE
How many of your church attenders give to your church on a regular basis? This is a tough question to answer without some research, but it’s good information to keep handy.

2 | GIVING GROWTH
Is your church giving growing at the same rate as your church membership? Just as your church should always be growing in members, it should also be growing in the number of regular givers. If your church is growing in attendance, but there’s a stagnation in giving, you’ll need to do some investigation. Why aren’t any new members giving to the church? Or is there a larger issue with access to giving opportunities?

3 | AVERAGE GIFT SIZE
How much are people giving each month? Start tracking the average size of monthly gifts and how many gifts fall into certain size brackets. Does your average gift stay consistent from month to month? Or is it variable? Do most members give in smaller numbers regularly? Or make larger, one-time gifts? Measuring these figures can help you to start identifying trends and predict patterns and better manage cash flow.

4 | GIVING TRENDS
What time of the month do most of your donors give? Which day of the week do your members prefer? Is there are time of the year when giving is especially high or low? Tracking giving over the course of every week, month and year can help to identify trends that answers each of these questions. For instance, did you know that 10% of giving happens on the first day of the month and the last two days combined? Did you know that 33% of church giving happens on Sunday? But that still leaves two-thirds of giving that happens during the rest of the week.

5 | GIVING SOURCE BREAKDOWN
How do your church members prefer to give? Do they prefer an offering bucket, a kiosk or mobile giving? By measuring how many donations comes through each of these sources, you can figure out how and why your church members like to give best. By determining which sources most people prefer to use, you can focus on making those sources easier to use and more accessible. If no one is bothering to use the giving kiosk, why have one? If half of your giving comes through mobile gifts, perhaps there’s a way to enhance that option.

6 | PERCENTAGE OF PLEDGER VS OVERALL GIVING UNITS
It's helpful to know the number and percentage of members who are willing to make a pledge every year as an expression of their commitment to the ministry.

7 | THE NUMBER OF NEW ONLINE GIVERS
Is the percentage of online givers increasing in your church? Is there a plan to grow the numbers of online givers? Is there a plan in place for inviting people to increase their online giving every year?

8 | THE NUMBER OF NEW PLEDGERS
Similar to having a plan for growing the number of online givers, church leaders should set goals for growing this metric every year.

9 | NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE DECREASED THEIR PLEDGE
Decreases in giving may indicate changes in work situations, financial struggles or concerns about the church. It may signal a need for a pastoral visit to learn more about what's going on in a members's life.

10 | THE AMOUNTS GIVEN TO SPECIAL ONE-TIME CAUSES OR APPEALS
One time appeals are often indicators of what people are passionate about, and are willing to invest in in the future.  They can also serve as entry points for new givers.

1. Which giving metrics listed above are you already using?
2. Which giving metric do you need to pay closer attention to?
3. How might these metrics help your leaders set goals for the upcoming year?