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Generosity Assessment: Helping Churches Face the Future
presbyterian.ca
SUMMER 2023
By Dr. Lori Guenther Reesor, author, speaker and generosity coach. She blogs at lgreesor.com and has been a frequent contributor to Presbyterian stewardship webinars, that can be found at presbyterian.ca/ leadership-webinars/#stewardship
My superpower is helping church- es talk about money. If you are a church person, you’ll know the silence and secrecy that shroud the topic of money.
One of the tools in my toolbox is a “Generosity Assessment.” Generosity begins with gratitude. I don’t just look at the giving num- bers and ages of donors, I listen to what a congregation values.
I reached out for feedback to a congregation that participated in a Generosity Assessment pi- lot project with The Presbyterian Church in Canada. The resulting email from one of the elders made my day:
I do remember your visit and how you changed our thinking about giving...Our congrega- tion completed the survey you provided...It told us a lot about who was giving, how much people in different age groups were giving, and how to plan for the future. We learned that the congregation believes [our church] is a place where people care for one another and enjoy coming together; embracing creative worship time and faith formation. And we learned that giving generously is a response to the gratitude we feel to God. I was tremendously humbled
and grateful to get an email like that. Let me explain what a Gen- erosity Assessment is about.
I did my doctorate researching Christian giving. I toured church basements, talking to faithful do- nors in five provinces. I have con- sumed so much urn coffee that I should get some type of prize. But hearing stories of why Christian donors give was the real treasure.
Giving is a faith question more than a budget question.
talking about gifts, including in wills and bequests. I met a do- nor who added his church to his will as a result of our Generosity Assessment conversation, even before the actual assessment happened. Gifts in wills can help to provide the bridge financing for the future of the church, a future that will look very different.
Just this past Sunday, I was speaking at a congregation, and I asked how many people remem- bered their dad getting paid in cash and counting it in piles on the kitchen table: first a church pile, then a grocery pile and then a pile for everything else, if there is any money left. People nodded. Every congregation has generous stories to share.
However, it is also essential to recognize that people don’t go to church like they used to. I am talk- ing about people who used to be Christian and who now identify as “none,” as in “none of the above.” Denial will not help the church face the future. It’s essential for the church to have a loving and hon- est look at present reality. What gifts does the congregation have to share? And what do congrega- tions have to teach about giving?
A Generosity Assessment pro- vides an appreciative and truthful snapshot of congregational giv- ing, in order to make the money conversation part of our faith conversation and to see hope for the future.
A version of this article first ap- peared March 9, 2023, at hilborn- charityenews.ca/articles/faith- based-fundraising-generosity- assessment-helping. Reprinted with permission.
If you would like to do a Gen- erosity Assessment for your congregation read more about it at presbyterian.ca/stewardship/ generosity-assessment and con- tact Karen Plater, Associate Sec- retary for Stewardship & Planned Giving, at kplater@presbyterian. ca or 1-800-619-7301 ext. 272.
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An unspoken appeal to guilt and obligation doesn’t inspire gener- osity, despite the popularity of this approach in many churches. I tell congregations “Jesus talks about money; we can too.” Giving is a faith question more than a budget question.
Gratitude survey
My Generosity Assessment be- gins with two questions:
• What are three things you are grateful for about your church?
• What are three ways the church uses its money that you value most?
The answers to these questions tell me—and church leadership— a lot about the congregation. I can see patterns.
How old are donors?
While I can share numbers about Canadian giving according to age, when congregations see their own data, they believe and relate to it.
I ask church treasurers to prepare donation totals for the previous year, along with estimates of how old the donor is.
Church treasurers tell me that the process of creating a spread- sheet with giving totals and donor ages is very instructive. They see the patterns themselves. The youngest donor age I’ve seen is 15 and the oldest is over 100. (My giving-by-age table wasn’t adding up to 100%, because I had failed to imagine donors over 100.) However, many giv- ers in our congregations—both in the amount they give and by the number of givers we have—are often in their seventies, eighties and nineties. When we look at the numbers, we can often see whether a congregation is two or three funerals away from disaster.
Grounded in gratitude
The testimonial from the church elder said it best, but I’ll reiter- ate: Listening to what a congre-
gation is grateful for and telling those stories back to them is my favourite part of a Generosity As- sessment. If we only looked at the numbers, we might be very discouraged; however, the stories from the Generosity Assessment offer reason for hope.
The stories that come out of the gratitude survey can be shared on Sunday mornings before the of- fering, in the church newsletter or on their website. These are also stories:
• to include on a thank-you let- ter with the annual receipts • to remember as the church
asks for bequests
The testimony of a faithful do-
nor explaining why she has faith- fully supported her church for decades is the best stewardship sermon going.
Further money conversations
The giving numbers and donor ages create a springboard for
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