Annual Report for 2010 given at our Annual Congregation meeting

2010 was a very good year for Stewardship-Joyful Giving. During the year we completed 2 major phone calling sessions with our members utilizing approximately 30 volunteers. A theme of keeping members informed and giving members the opportunity to personally vent concerns or accolades was adopted for these calling sessions. Many important matters were address as a direct result of these contacts with members. Web pages for Stewardship within our church were added to our St. Martin’s main site and the general theme “Faithful Living, Joyful Giving” was adopted as the St. Martin’s brand for Stewardship.


Our 2010 Giving Appeal was quite successful resulting in excellent anticipated 2011 results:

1. Pledges increased to 193, from 91 … a 112% increase
2. $’s anticipated from pledges increased to $624,546, from $355,000… a 76% increase
3. Overall there were 100 new pledgers (representing nearly $300,000 in pledges), 28 increases in pledges, and 37 keeping their pledge the same. Only 19 individual needed to decrease their pledge.
4. For the 2010 Giving Appeal our church offered individuals the opportunity to complete their pledge on-line by going to our website:

65 individuals/families (34%) completed their pledge on-line while 128 individuals/families (66%) completed their pledge to our church completing the personalized pledge cards.

So, our Giving Appeal effort thus far has been successful and it is anticipated that contributions from all members (pledgers & non-pledgers) will increase between 8-18% in 2011. This increase is following a downward trend since the beginning of 2008. In 2010 we have ended this downward trend with a squeaky increase in contributions for the year. Yeah!

Planned Giving work was barely begun in 2010. As a result there has been approximately $63,000 of contingencies dedicated to the Endowment Fund. These are contributions that members have designated as payable via a beneficiary designation from their retirement account or life insurance which they own.

Moving forward I will seek to continue to build a permeating culture of helping one Joyfully Give. We will ask members to complete a survey which grades how you feel about the 2010 Giving Appeal effort completed and inquire about other aspects of a Giving Appeal you would like to see utilized within our church. Calling our members twice a year will continue and we will additionally seek to put a resource in your hands where you know, at any given moment, what your contribution history year-to-date or over the years has been. The belief is that this value-added enhancement will serve to help you in your giving decisions which you make. Our goal is to have this available by August of 2011.