Pledging is Dead; Long Live Pledging!

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Why Do We Pledge: Part I

Everyone wants to be forward thinking, to be creative, to keep up with the 21st Century. So I hear people talking about how pledging to congregations is outmoded; that people don’t live the kind of life where they can plan their charitable contributions a year in advance, that people aren’t faithful and won’t support institutions, that pledging doesn’t fit in the on-demand, sharing economy. In other words, that pledging is dead.

That's me, but not a real beard. Do I look like a hipster?
That’s me, but not a real beard. Do I look like a hipster?

Well I am a pretty modern guy. Granted I am middle-aged and part of the Boomer generation (on the young end!). Yet almost everything in my life is digital. I live in a high density area and bike most everywhere, listen to lots of podcasts, make my own locally sourced food, and even use emojii 😀 . And I’m an on-demand worker; although being a consultant is not exactly Uber driving, my income is unpredictable and if my clients don’t demand support – no income. Sorry, I don’t have an urban lumberjack beard (photo is faked)!

And I completely disagree that pledging is over. It won’t work for everyone and never has, which is OK, because it works for most of our congregants – of all ages. And we give our congregants other ways to give, so no one misses out if pledging is inhibiting for them. I think our “business model” for congregations, and therefore pledging (or financial commitments as we at S4Us call them), is very much on trend and perhaps ahead of its time. Let me tell you why:

  • Our Sunday worship and other services are available to anyone without charge. These are in essence freemiums. If you like the ministries and the way they are carried out, you are invited to step into the pay model – yup pledging.
  • Also, our congregations are at essence crowdsourced. We run the annual drive every year so we can deliver congregational functioning in the following year, basically a Kick-Starter campaign. That is the way we have always rolled; we should be proud of it.
  • And as Andrew Lewis famously said about the internet, “If you are not paying for the product, you are the product.” How perfect is that for our congregations? Because in addition to supporting the congregation, a mission of any congregation is personal and spiritual transformation, so we are the product – what a great product we are! What is a key to personal and spiritual growth? Yup making financial commitments that align our values with our money – pledging.
  • Paying toward financial commitments is just a natural fit to online financial planning and banking. No more remembering to write a check to keep up with my pledge. My digital assistants help me with that and it gets done every month.
  • It this US century, where money can buy just about everything, we are really cynical about money and power. And we have found a way to support our communities and their ministries that does not favor the rich and is essentially non-commercial: uh huh, pledging. Fighting economic disparity is so 2016!
  • Guess what? Our congregations actually protect our data, don’t use it to generate big data and manipulate us, and never sell it to anyone else. I guess that is pretty old school, but sure feels good to me!

Anyway, making financial commitments to my congregation and other nonprofits works for me. It forces my husband and me to sit down at least once a year and do some financial planning. This allows us to push to give the right (generous!) amount related to the rest of our finances, and then we take it off the top of our expenses, rather than giving with the remainders of our “disposable income” (when was income ever disposable?). Some classics always seem modern!

Mark Ewert is a stewardship consultant with the Stewardship For Us team. Mark can be reached at mewert@stewardshipforus.com, via the UUA’s Congregational Stewardship Network, (http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/index.shtml), or through your regional staff.

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