In Developing a Personal Habit of Giving,
You’ve Got to Start Somewhere

By Jennifer Furla, Executive Vice President
Kansas City

My friend was asked to chair the annual Stewardship Campaign for his local church in his rural Illinois community of 100,000. He and his wife were fairly new to the community and, on the combined incomes of a school teacher and nonprofit director, were at the top of their church’s annual giving levels.

“Other members ask: ‘How can you do it?’” he shared.

“Well, my parents said a long time ago: ‘Start when you are first married with just $5 a week and add $2 each week for every year.’”

The math works like this:

Year One: $5 times 52 weeks equals $260.
Year Two: Add $2 per week, for another $104.
Year Three: Add $2 more per week, for another $104.
And so on.

“We’re getting ready to celebrate 30 years together and we are now giving $3,300 a year.”

But his giving doesn’t stop there. This man and his family have pledged to his organization’s capital campaign and his church’s building campaign. He makes an annual commitment to his college and he’s a keystone giver to his local United Way. In all, they give about $8,000 a year to their church and other charities.

His response when he was asked to chair his church’s Stewardship Campaign?

“Sure, I’ll be glad to do it and get up and give my testimony. I won’t need notes to do it because it’s what I’ve always been taught to do and what I believe is right. You just need to start somewhere. $5 a week is less than a McDonald’s meal or a daily coffee and donut. Is that too much to give up so you can give to your church and to God?”

He who dies with the most toys does not win.

Randy Alcorn, in his book The Treasure Principle, says that giving to God’s Kingdom in appropriate amounts is contrary to the American Dream: He who finishes with the most cards in his hand wins. But, asks Mr. Alcorn, have you ever played one of those card games where the player who runs out of card first wins? At the end of the game, every card left in your hand counts against you.

The point of The Treasure Principle is to give to God first and to give sacrificially – “Grace giving,” he calls it. He goes further to talk of even “reverse tithing” where a family might retain 10 percent of their income and give away upwards of 90 percent of what they earn.

Extreme? Maybe, but consider the school teacher and nonprofit director who are giving away upwards of $8,000 a year, with nearly half of that going to their church.

We might not consider a McDonald’s meal or a coffee and donut much of a sacrifice, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

What if each of us started a habit of charitable giving with just $5 a week and committed to adding another $2 per week thereafter for life? What if we started young? Where would our giving be? What good could we bring to the causes we care most about? What if we instilled those values in our children?

Consider a local Rescue Mission that starts each year at ground zero, needing to raise nearly $5 million in private contributions to keep its doors open and serve more than 12,000 of its city’s homeless and needy. The bulk of their donations come from the nearly 23,000 individuals who give small amounts – $5, $10, $15, $20 at a time – to support their mission and programs. Contributions to that Mission increase by more than 10% per year. A percentage from new donors, to be sure, but much of that increase comes from donors who reach deeper into their pockets each year to give a little more.

An underlying theme of The Treasure Principle is that we can never match the blessings that have been given to us. Show your thanks and remember:

You’ve got to start somewhere.