Giving Patterns
At the Trustees' Meeting last night, Clive Stockdale showed a curious graph about giving habits. It shows about 1,600 givers giving about $500. Then the line plummets so that less about 100 givers give various amounts under $10,000. At that amount, the line shoots back up to more than 400 givers, then immediately drops back down. I would have thought a steady descent from the $500, and certainly more $5,000 givers than $10,000. Does that indicate we have more people in a higher income bracket than mid-range? Are they more likely to tithe? This has been the same giving pattern for three years. (By the way, we could use more committed givers. All three budgets are behind in meeting their budgeted goals.)
posted by M Clark at 10/19/2005 04:54:00 PM
5 Comments:
Can we do an income survey?
It sounds like the under $500 crowd are the token givers and there are a lot of them. After $500, people get a bit more serious / possessive with their money.
Around $10,000 (probably from 5-10, really) is where you start to get people who tithe and go above tithe. The fact that the numbers do surge here is encouraging.
I think many people making around 50k rationalize away the tithe, thinking that they will give more when they have more. This is unfortunate, as they are probably the majority in most churches (Tenth included), and their lack of giving, on a large scale, does affect giving levels. It is also not what God desires -- he who is faithful with little is given more, but he who is not, what little he has is taken away.
In the end, this is all God's, and we need to acknowledge that through our giving.
Just a thought...,
(a Tenth member)
It might be interesting to add the attendance type (visitor, reg attender, member) to the analysis. I suspect the < $500 are coming from visitors.
Other variables of interest:
- marital status, the larger contributions may be coming from dual-income families.
- number of budgets (general, building, missions) supported. If the number is more than 1, the person may be giving beyond a tithe, so conclusions on income may not be legitimate.
Does that indicate we have more people in a higher income bracket than mid-range?
That doesn't strain my credulity.
I am assuming those figures are YTD?
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