Lifting the bonnet: the planned giving profile
Building an anonymous giving profile helps us look under the bonnet of our giving. It helps us discover more and see the skew in giving which is so common.
Churches usually look at income, expenditure and reserves; many will look at average giving levels. A planned giving profile adds helpful information. Let’s be clear from the get-go: it is always anonymous.
Your giving profile will lift the bonnet to see the engine that drives congregational giving. There’s an illustration on pages 3-4 of the example Knowing our Numbers report. You may be surprised by what you discover.
Understanding skew
Your giving profile will show a distinctive pattern of giving found in almost every church: a few big givers and a larger number of lower level givers. In the 2025 Anglican Giving Survey 13% of givers gave 54% of total giving - or 87% of givers gift just 46% of total giving. This pattern is called skew and it’s not only about different incomes. Skew seems to be a product of variable incomes, variable giving and a lack of correlation between income and giving.
The median gift
The problem with giving averages is that they disguise this skew in giving. A church with 100 planned givers might have a giving average of £10pp/pw. But 6 in the church give £25 a week, and 9 give £15pw. Some people must be giving less than £10 to get that weekly average. The median gift is better - so what it it? Line up those 100 people from the smallest gift to the largest. The gift of the person right in the middle is the median. From experience, the median gift is roughly 60% of the average gift. So, give or take, the median gift is £6 with half of people giving less than that, half more.
Where does this get us?
Remembering the planned giving profile is entirely anonymous. The Knowing our Numbers spreadsheet has an option not to separate Gift Aid and non-Gift Aid givers if planned giving numbers are low and in a small church with few givers you just wouldn’t do one. But where it is appropriate, how does a planned giving profile help us?
Well, first we may hesitate to talk money because we feel everyone is giving all they can. It’s commonly said but the planned giving profile tells a different story. So, second, the profile underpins our confidence in inviting greater giving and in the principle of differentiation. Skew is a result not just of different incomes but also of the choices we make about our giving.
Finally, the profile reminds us that regular preaching about generous discipleship matters. Skew is a fixed pattern of giving; the givers who give are always changing. Preaching and teaching generous discipleship helps nurture the next generation of big givers.
Always with us
Skew is found in all charitable giving. It’s a pattern of giving that won’t go away and its is not a failure of our stewardship ministry. But it can’t be used to justify the status quo.