Earthly Intent Found in Donations to Churches

For centuries, repentant sinners gave to churches hoping their generosity would get them to heaven. Today’s Christian givers are more earthly, a study has found.

In return for a dollar in the collection plate, churchgoers want new chapel drapes, day care for their children, a better choir and a renovated plumbing system. Demands for a tangible return on giving is hurting churches, the study’s authors say.

“People have a fee-for-use attitude about donating,” said Sylvia Ronsvalle, who with her husband, John, spent three years speaking to congregants in 500 churches from 19 Christian denominations. Their study became the book “Behind the Stained Glass Windows: Money Dynamics in the Church.”

“Instead of people being generous and giving because they love God or are thankful, they give to get a nursery school program, or to fix the building. It’s a consumer mentality,” Sylvia Ronsvalle said.

Church giving as a percentage of family income has decreased about 20% since 1968, according to the Ronsvalles, founders of the nonprofit religious research group Empty Tomb in Champaign, Ill. They undertook the study to determine why.

Before World War II, churches based their solicitations on comforting those in need, the study found. And many churches did not change their approach for donations after the war, when Americans had more money to give.

By the mid-1980s, church leaders facing dwindling congregations started using market researchers to learn what would attract people. By advertising new and improved programs as reasons to join a church, congregations started a trend of people shopping for parishes as if they were seeking bargains in stores, the study found.

“One pastor asked if a visiting couple would be interested in exploring membership,” Sylvia Ronsvalle wrote in the book. “They explained, ‘We plan to attend your church for Communion, but we like the music program across town and we send the kids to a third church because of its dynamic youth activities.’ ”

The approach is a sign of spiritual trouble in many congregations, said Dan Conway, a development secretary with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis and a board member of the Washington-based National Catholic Stewardship Council.

“People used to say, ‘I believe in what the organization does, and I care about our brothers and sisters because they need help.’ People don’t do that as much anymore,” he said. “Now, it’s a purchase agreement.”

The Rev. Elliott Osborne of the Philadelphian Seventh-day Adventist Church in San Francisco said he sensed the attitude among his members and took steps to change it.

“I said, ‘Don’t just give me a check and hope that I do right by it. Go to the food program and give it to them there, and if you want it to go to kids to help a school, go to the school and give it to them,’ ” Osborne said. “I found donations increased because people felt more involved with the programs they were giving to.”

The financial manager for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Ore., said new programming and outreach were the way he increased giving in his church by 90% in the last five years.

“People are here for extremely mixed motives. They’re here to have a spiritual focus, to educate their kids and themselves, to try to find out how to serve God,” Robin Haglund said.

“Things were just going along before. People would give inflationary increases. There’s no question in my mind [that] in order to attract people you certainly have to have programs that are lively and meaningful to them.”

Jim Sullivan, financial officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, found that parishioners had concerns about accountability during a yearlong, $40-million fund-raising campaign for the diocese that ended this year.

After the campaign started, he received a letter with a receipt from a woman who 30 years ago gave about $100 for a Catholic school. She did not plan to give this time around, citing the failure to build the school.

Others asked Sullivan if donations would be used to defend priests accused of sexual misconduct.

“People were worried,” Sullivan said. “They made it clear that funds collected in this campaign should only be used for the items we listed.”

To convince the skeptics, officials created a corporation outside the diocese to distribute the funds, and pledged that every penny collected would go to services. The drive attracted nearly $9 million above the goal.

Sylvia Ronsvalle said church officials need to offer programs cited by congregants, but must link solicitations for services with a spiritual message.