Yesterday one of my clients emailed me the following question. He wrote, “I have a question for you. Someone just sent a pledge in the mail today for $4,000. They also sent the entire amount in as well. Should we acknowledge them in a letter of thanks? How should we thank them, and maybe encourage them to think of us next year as well?” This layman intuitively knew that his church needed to respond in some way. He is far ahead of most churches in America. Most churches make a deadly mistake of either ignoring donations or taking them for granted.

I wish my own church were a bit better at this. For three weeks I have been getting letters every Tuesday about my lack of a pledge to the annual budget. It is clear that on Monday’s someone in the office checked the list of those that had not pledged and cranked out another letter. It always came on Tuesday. My wife finally came home after being in Oklahoma tending to her ill mother and we put our pledge card in the offering plate on Sunday. Yesterday, the first Tuesday after putting our pledge in the plate, there was no mail from my church. To be fair maybe some acknowledgement will come in the next few days. However I can not help but wonder why the appeal letter was mailed on a Monday arriving at my house on Tuesday and nothing acknowledging our commitment came in the same timely way.

Churches are sometimes their own worst enemies when it comes to raising funds. The list of things they do wrong fills book after book. There are at least two major mistakes they make that I want to point out in this post in hopes that you and your church will avoid them. Making these mistakes can and will cost you thousands of dollars in support.

Deadly Mistake Number One: Taking donors for granted. Too many churches just assume that members will give. Of course your members are suppose to give. Of course it is a biblical requirement. Of course it is our obligation. You however should not take that for granted.

Thirty three years ago my wife married me. She loves me, faults, there are many, and all. As Christians we understand that we are obligated to love one another. Yet it would be a tragic mistake if I did not continually tell her I loved her and worked to show her by my actions that I love her. I assume she loves me. I will never take her love for granted.

When I was a Senior Pastor I had a man come to see me to explain why he and his wife were leaving our church. He had come to know Christ while listening to me preach one Sunday. I was stunned. His reasoning further stunned me when he said, “You never tell this congregation that you love us.” Of course I loved them! I had however made a cardinal error. I had assumed that they knew I loved them. Assumption is a nasty disease that will hurt you.

Lesson Number One: Don’t take your members donations for granted!

Deadly Mistake Number Two: Never saying thank you. Have you ever held a door open for someone and they never thanked you but simply breezed through like that was what you were suppose to do? How did it make you feel? It probably caused you to be slightly indignant. It might have even made you question ever holding open another door. If you never acknowledge the donations made by your members you give them the same mis-givings. Never saying thank you is much akin to taking donors for granted. Together they can combine to make a one two knock out punch to your ministry.

The other day I read a fundraising blog, I read about fifty a day, that gave the advice of personally writing to top donors. They talked about how in this rush to use technology that sometimes a personal touch can go a long ways. I have to confess that I do so much on a computer that I can hardly write by hand! However think about it. Do you still go to the mail box daily in hopes of something other than bills? How would your donors respond to a thank you note written by you? While you might not be able to do that for all your donors should you not find some way of saying thank you?

Think again about my illustration of opening the door for someone. When a person smiles at you and thanks you for your kindness how does that make you feel? It makes you feel like doing it again and again. So, why would it be any different to do this for your donors? You should develop multiple ways to thank your donors both publicly and privately. It could mean in the end thousands of dollars to your ministry.

Lesson Number Two: Continually thank your donors!

I wrote back to my client who asked about acknowledging the gift that it was indeed a good step to take. I told him that I would simply thank the donor and not mention future gifts. In thanking this donor for their gift that alone would pave the way for future gifts to come.

I wonder how many gifts are lost because we take for granted that people will give and then when they do give we never say thank you? Don’t make these mistakes in your ministry.

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group