Just because Christmas services are fuller this year doesn’t mean the offering plates will be.
Church giving has not kept up with inflation for two years in a row, according to the State of Giving report released on Tuesday by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).
“It’s the best of times and the worst of times. Attendance is up, but the amount per giver is down,” said Steve Chaney, whose accounting firm Chaney & Associates works with 1,100 US churches.
A midsize congregation in New Jersey told ECFA that its year-to-date tithing in 2024 has been flat compared to 2023 even though attendance is up 20 percent.
Another, in Indiana, said, “Our church is growing, but the economy is taking a toll on donations.”
Overall, 70 percent of ECFA member churches reported that they struggled to keep up with the impact of inflation this year.
“The headwinds of inflation have taken a toll everywhere. Goods that cost ministries and churches $100 five years ago now require $123 to fund today. This is a lot of ground to make up just to stay even,” wrote ECFA president Michael Martin in the new release.
“Other financial headwinds reported by ECFA members included downturns in available volunteers and in attracting new donors—all in an environment of economic and political uncertainty.”
That sense of uncertainty has crunched the typical year-end giving season that churches and ministries rely on to solicit donations.
“We see a lot of churches lean into it the last 30 days of the year,” when recurring givers may have more cash to give and when there’s more talk of holiday generosity in the air, said Aaron Senneff, chief technology officer at Pushpay, a digital giving platform for churches.
Congregations can receive a quarter to a third of their annual donations between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Senneff said in an interview with CT, and some see as much as 10 percent in the final three days of the year.
Meanwhile, churches face rising operating costs have to make decisions about spending while waiting for those gifts to come.
Chaney, the accountant, said that by mid-November, he’d met with four churches that decided not to do Christmas bonuses this year.
Across ECFA member churches, cash-equivalent donations dropped 1 percent last year after adjusting for inflation and 3.8 percent the year before. Donations to nonprofit ministries were also down back-to-back years, with drops of 3.3 percent and 0.4 percent.
Prior to the consecutive declines, many churches and ministries saw giving levels rise during the pandemic.
More than half (56%) of churches indicated that giving was trending higher so far in 2024 than in 2023, and around a quarter said it was the same.
Most (63%) expected that they would take in more donations this December than they did last year.
“The negative impact of inflation seems to be lessening,” said Warren Bird, ECFA’s senior vice president of research.
Part of that might be that churches are doing a better job adapting.
“Historically, the trap has been to really focus in only on revenue and making sure it is keeping up with or exceeding the prior year,” said Jake Lapp, ECFA’s vice president of member accountability. “With the impact of inflation, it is forcing organizations to consider strategies to reduce expenses and find other creative ways to reduce the impact of rising costs.”
Megachurches with wide donor bases have fared a bit better than the rest: Churches with over 8,000 in weekly attendance were the only ones whose annual giving has grown over the past decade.
Churches with revenue of $20 million and higher (the highest category in the ECFA report) have generally outpaced inflation, with donations up 3.4 percent last year and 2.2 percent over the past decade.
Churches in the smallest revenue category—under $2 million annually—also saw giving increase by 2.4 percent last year, the only other segment to grow and its first uptick in a few years.
Even more than inflation, 73 percent of churches were concerned about the struggle to recruit volunteers in 2024, ECFA found.
Senneff, at Pushpay, sees a strong correlation between church engagement and its financial health. Put simply, he said, “If you want more giving, go get more volunteers.”
People who are involved and invested, who feel a sense of belonging at church, will feel compelled to give and will be in a position to recognize the tangible benefits of their tithes in the community.
Chaney recommended regularly updating and encouraging congregants about their giving in writing, not just by email. He also said it’s more effective for churches to shift discussion of budgetary line items—mortgage payments and light bills—to talk of the church’s broader mission and vision.
The worst thing a church could do, though, is not talk about giving at all. “I don’t believe in beg-a-thons,” he said, “but we should teach on it and preach on it.”
Digital giving platforms—which can now accept payments from Apple Pay, Venmo, and CashApp—have also made it easier for churches to accept larger, “complex gifts” like stocks and cryptocurrencies. (Including securities and crypto, cash giving makes up 75 percent of annual revenue for a typical church or ministry accredited by the ECFA.)
Pushpay saw the frequency of tithing with crypto double over the past year.
With markets rallying, Chaney said more investors and business owners may opt to give stocks this year, since they can result in a bigger gift for the church while avoiding capital gains tax.
Tax deductions have helped incentivize giving, and Martin, the ECFA president, hopes to see the incoming administration once again offer a charitable deduction for those who don’t itemize on their returns.
“President Trump can make a huge and immediate impact by once again championing a charitable deduction for everyday givers,” he said.
Respondents in the ECFA State of Giving survey didn’t know which candidate would win the presidential election when they were asked about their economic outlook back in September and October, but 71 percent of churches projected that their cash donations would be higher in 2025.
Now that Donald Trump was elected, his victory spurred by a national sense of disappointment in the state of the economy, Chaney predicts that “the rebound is going to be huge.” Trump promised to end the “inflation nightmare,” and his supporters are optimistic about business, though some economists are skeptical.
While a booming stock market and strong economy tend to result in higher giving, churches and ministries look beyond the White House for financial confidence.
“We find optimism and resiliency to be core characteristics of ECFA’s membership,” Bird wrote to CT, “fueled by their trust in the Lord and the deep care demonstrated by the donors who support and pray for them.”
