A church really depends on the goodwill, trust, and some would argue guilt as the means to stay afloat. No one is forced to give their money and so to keep the doors open; donors must have faith and then trust that their contribution is being used to do good things.
Many non-profits are in a similar situation although they typically don’t play the guilt card (not that we would ever do this) wherein members are reminded that there is an ample moral foundation to share what you have with those in need. Non-church, non-profits typically have a more sophisticated approach to cultivating donors and a broader array of ways on how they can recognize donors.
Church’s might put a plaque or have minor ways of recognizing donors, but most typically don’t issue annual reports categorizing donors by amount given and recognizing their largest donors. These activities might be effective for non-profits but the perception is that they are inappropriate for churches. So my question is what is appropriate for churches?
How should or maybe should parishes recognize the people who contribute? Some would clearly say no that giving to a church is a response to faith and giving is and should be its own reward. Recognizing donors is potentially tainting the motivation most have when they give and publicizing donors or donations is inappropriate.
On the other side of the coin, many donors are subjected to sophisticated cultivation techniques by other non-profits and presumably respond to these techniques which may decrease their giving to the church. If their college or high school president asks them to go out to lunch and tells them about the grand vision they have and that their name will appear here or there. Doesn’t this seem more motivating than a form letter from the pastor and a listing of your contributions for tax purposes?
Should churches do anything to make their case? Ideally, the people running the church believe in what they are doing and should believe that if they did more of it the world would be a better place. So shouldn’t church leaders be motivated to get as many contributions as possible to do as much good as possible? Shouldn’t we be cultivating people who have the potential to further our mission and vision?
Our parish decided to have several events to give supporters a chance to meet our new pastor and hear him talk about what he sees as the potential vision for the church. If you were going to start having these meetings, who would you start meeting with first? We decided to sort people by the amount they contribute and this has caused some hard feelings. I don’t know what the answer is but I guess I think we are doing the right thing.
I also think it’s important to give all parishioners the same opportunity however and so it’s a matter of who goes when. Above all we want to make sure we are supportable (people will be motivated to support what we do) and that by one means or another we have the resources to continue the extremely valuable work we are doing.
