Church leaders sometimes find themselves in a trap of looking for the next BIG church giver. You know, the one family who will wipe away all your worries about money and funding your ministry budget. The problem is that unless you are in an extremely small house church, one family typically isn’t going to be able to wipe every funding worry away.

If you’re waiting patiently for the next BIG church giver to walk through the doors of your church, perhaps you should consider thinking smaller. No, I’m not talking about reducing the size or scope of the vision God has given you for the church you lead. I’m talking about reconsidering the power of many people giving a little.

For example, say you’re looking to raise $40k for a special ministry project. You’ve been unable to secure the funding through a small group of generally large, faithful donors within your congregation, what next? Have you considered raising funds through a special monthly subscription?

Consider this: If you could find 84 people to commit to $20/month for 24 months or $480 total, you would have essentially raised $40,320.

Wikipedia raised $2 million dollars in the final three weeks of December 2008. (Yes, right in the middle of the “dip” that is now generally being accepted as a recession.) 50,000 members of their community responded with a total of $2 million. That’s an average donation of $40/person.

Sometimes when the big dollars don’t appear, think smaller.

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