If you’re like most church leaders, you probably only think about fundraising when there's a major building project or significant one-time financial need on the horizon. Aside from special capital campaigns, your church likely relies on weekly tithes and offerings for your funding. While the weekly gifts from your congregation can be sufficient to keep the church running, there are other giving opportunities—beyond the offering plate—that can drastically increase your church’s incoming donations all year long.

I was recently talking with a good friend about approaches to funding ministry. Some have a “crisis approach”—going from need to need. But, we agreed that the better way is to develop a stewardship/generosity culture instead. You could say that a scarcity mentality versus one of abundance is related to these approaches.

In my last blog series, I discussed why planned giving is essential to ministries—today and in the future. This fact is becoming increasingly apparent as we learn more about donors’ giving tendencies. Studies have found that major gifts are outpacing smaller donations across the board. So, now more than ever, it’s essential for your church or ministry to have an established planned giving program so you can accept these larger gifts.

Thanksgiving is a great time to stop and think about thankfulness and generosity. These two things go hand-in-hand. As we give thanks to the Lord for His many blessings, it should remind us to be generous with all He has entrusted to us.

In parts one and two of this series, we learned that 90 percent of people’s wealth is in non-cash assets and $41 trillion worth of assets are currently being transferred by baby boomers. What this means to you is that now is the time to act. Now is the time to make sure those who support your ministry are aware of the many giving options available to them during this wealth transfer— and to ensure you are equipped to receive these types of gifts.

In my last blog post, I explained that your supporters typically have 10 percent of their wealth in liquid assets—such as checking and savings accounts—and 90 percent in non-cash assets like real estate, wills, stocks, IRAs, etc. So, how do you address this 90 percent and provide other ways to give to the Kingdom?

Whether you’re a church or another ministry, chances are you rely on the generosity of your supporters to sustain your work. While the weekly offering plate or cash donations help keep the lights on, those gifts really represent funds from only 10 percent of a person’s wealth.

While Scripture doesn’t clearly state that you should make charitable gifts from your estate, God has called you to support your church and other ministries during life. A great way to accomplish this is through your estate plan. Giving from your estate often provides an opportunity to make the largest gift to the Lord’s work you’ll ever make.

Have you ever wished you could do more to inspire your adult children to be generous and engage them in the Lord’s work? Scripture is clear that God wants us to be generous and do good works (1 Tim. 6:17–19, 2 Cor. 9:6–15)…

It has been an exciting week as we officially revealed our new name, logo, and website on Monday, October 29. The Orchard Foundation and The Alliance Development Fund are now Serving the Kingdom Together as Orchard Alliance.  If you haven’t seen it already, you can click here to view our announcement video to learn more.