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Churches everywhere are planning year-end giving right now. Your team may already be pulling together a year-end giving report (or “impact report”) and drafting the emails for your year-end giving campaign. Throw in Thanksgiving, Giving Tuesday, and Christmas, and it’s a busy season. It can feel like there’s never enough time to get it all done!

Obviously, numbers and stats will be the hefty bulk of your report. How many first-time guests walked through your doors, the number of small group participants, how many kids came to VBS, and more, all show real growth at your church—and your people should see them.

But numbers can only say so much. Stories and testimonies that inspire generosity carry a huge and important weight, demonstrating how God has moved mightily in people’s hearts at your church over the last year.

These stories will put names and faces on those black-and-white statistics and give your year-end giving numbers a personal touch. They show your congregation how Jesus has been working in people’s lives all year long, in your church and your community!

Let’s take a look at the three simple steps your church can take to find the right stories that will inspire generosity in your congregation. After all, the holiday season is truly a season of generosity and a time for sharing heartwarming stories of God’s faithfulness. 

3 Steps to find stories that inspire generosity

Sharing powerful stories and testimonies is crucial for your year-end giving strategy. Gathering testimonies can be time consuming, but it is well worth it. That’s why it’s important to start gathering testimonies as soon as possible, preferably all year long. But if you’re just now starting, that’s okay too! Just make sure you get started right away. 

So, where do you begin? Here are three steps you can take for gathering testimonies for your year-end giving strategy.

Step 1: Bring your staff into the project

Gather your staff together for a team meeting to discuss the project. Let everyone know you’re looking for powerful testimonies that demonstrate your church’s impact. Then, ask each staff member to contact two to three people who come to mind. 

Your year-end giving season is a chance to celebrate every win from many different corners of life over the past year. Your prison ministry coordinator might reach out to a few inmates they’ve gotten to know. Your children’s ministry director might ask some parents if their kids can do a fun Q&A for a video that plays on Sunday morning. And your outreach or discipleship director may know people with amazing salvation stories who were baptized this year. 

Think about everyone your church has reached: members, first-time guests, kids, students, parents, small groups, local schools, and the people your homeless ministry serves. If someone can say your church changed their year, their story could be shared for God’s glory. 

The point is that each staff member knows a unique demographic to reach out to, so you’ll end up with a wide range of voices and possibilities.

Before anyone makes a call, pray together as a church staff. Ask God to bring the right stories to light so people are drawn to His saving grace and to the ministry happening in your church.

Step 2: Choose your format for maximum impact

Next, decide how you’ll share the stories and in what format. Here are a few questions to talk through with your team:

• Do you want a video testimony series, or one video that weaves several stories together (or both)?
• Will these stories be written up for your year-end report or newsletter?
• Should the videos tie into your Christmas series, or run separately?
• Will you pull quotes or short written stories into your year-end email campaign?
• Will these testimonies be included in a written booklet, online, in video, or in social posts? 

Whatever you choose, always get consent before you share anyone’s story. Tell each person exactly where it will appear, whether that’s on a Sunday screen, in print, or in an inbox. When children or youth are involved, get permission from a parent or guardian beforehand. 

Here are a few ideas for bringing these stories to your congregation:

• Spotlight specific people. Share the story of a family who found hope through your counseling ministry, a student whose faith came alive at summer camp, or a missionary who reached more people because of your church’s support.
• Create a video testimony series. Short videos work well during Sunday services, on social media, and in giving emails.
• Print stories in your year-end giving report. A photo and a few paragraphs next to your ministry numbers give readers a face to connect with the figures.
• Include every age group. Children and youth often share with a sweet and refreshing honesty that adults remember long after Sunday. Just make sure a parent signs off first.

Step 3: Start the conversations

Once your staff has a list of names and has decided on the right format for your year-end campaign, instruct them to reach out to potential people in person. A phone call works well, but a one-on-one coffee often works better! People open up when they feel heard and aren’t rushed. If, however, your church has a large congregation, sending out emails looking for testimonies may just be more practical. 

Technology can make this outreach much easier, especially when you want to reach many ministries at once. With Groups & Messaging in your church app, you can send one announcement to a single group or to several groups at the same time. Your youth pastor can post a request in the student group, and your recovery ministry leader can share it with the people they walk alongside each week. You can even add a quick poll to see who’s interested in sharing, then follow up by direct message to set up a time to talk.

Next, make an announcement from the pulpit on Sunday morning, letting your congregation know you’re collecting stories about how the church has made a difference in their lives. Put a QR code on the screen and in your bulletin so anyone who wants to share can do so right away. You may be surprised by who scans it and how many stories are shared! 

A donor who reads about the single mom who found a community through your moms’ group will remember her the next time they give. And truthfully, just one or two testimonies done right and shared on a video with great editing and b-roll can be all you need for a great year-end giving campaign. 

Share your stories everywhere your people are

One great testimony can reach far beyond a single Sunday morning. Your congregation sees your church in many places throughout the week, so plan to share each story in more than one spot. Reusing a story also gets more out of the time your team spent interviewing, filming, and editing.

Here are a few places to share your stories during year-end giving season:

• Sunday services. Play a testimony video before the offering or right after the sermon. Hearing a story together as a church family has a powerful impact. 
• Your church app. Add testimony videos to your church app so people can watch them again and share them with friends. A push notification is a simple way to let everyone know a new story is ready to watch.
• Your church website. Give your stories a home on your website, like a year-end impact page that visitors and first-time guests can find. With Subsplash Media, you can use one-click publishing to send a video to your app, website, and podcast at the same time.
• Year-end giving emails. Open each email in your campaign with a different story. A photo and a short paragraph are enough to make a reader stop and keep reading.
• Social media. Cut 30–60 second clips from longer videos, or post a photo with a pull quote. Short clips are easy for your members to share with friends and neighbors.
• Your year-end impact report. Place written stories right next to the numbers they relate to, so a statistic about baptisms sits beside the story of someone who was baptized.

As you plan, check that each person agreed to every place their story will appear. Someone who’s comfortable with a video on a Sunday screen might not want it on public social media. A quick follow-up conversation keeps their trust and their story in good hands.

Let the stories shape your year-end giving campaign

Your year-end giving report and email campaign will include plenty of numbers, and they should. Yet stories are what make those numbers mean something to your people. A testimony puts a real face on a statistic and helps donors see exactly who their generosity reached this year.

Start gathering stories now, even if you only collect a handful before December. Pray over the process, invite your staff and congregation in, and give every storyteller the care and consent they deserve. When your church hears how God moved through its ministry this year, you'll have given them a clear reason to keep giving in the year ahead.

Want to make year-end giving simple for your donors? See how Subsplash Giving can help fuel your mission all year long.