Church Giving Statistics for 2025: Who’s Giving, When, and How Much?

As a leader, one of the toughest challenges you face is raising money. It’s easy to feel like things are harder than ever, but church-giving statistics might prove otherwise.

Let’s start here. Did you know that charitable giving approached the half-a-trillion mark in 2021? 

Charitable giving approached the half-a-trillion mark in 2021. Share on X

Out of that, 67% came from individual donors, and 27% of the funds went to religious organizations. That’s over $100 billion dollars given directly to churches—an average of over $300,000 per church. 

That said, in 2022, charitable giving dropped for just the 3rd time in the last four decades. In addition,  the number of givers in America plummeted from two-thirds 20 years ago to just under 50% now.

We’re in interesting times, for sure. 

If you’re wondering about the current state of church giving, here are a few key statistics from recent years that you should keep in mind. 

Use them to help inform your end-of-year giving campaigns, build new fundraising strategies, and hone next year’s budget.

So, let’s start with the real questions most church leaders ask: who’s actually tithing, and how much are they giving? 

Who Gives to Churches

Who Gives? And How Much Do They Give?

According to Overflow, only 5-10% of church attendees follow traditional tithing behavior. That’s no surprise.

Disappointing? Sure. Surprising? Not really.

However (and this is a big however), this small crew is committed to their giving. More than three-quarters of them give beyond the 10% mark. In fact, 77% of committed tithers tithe above and beyond a 10% tithing amount. 

77% of committed tithers give above and beyond 10%.Everyone in church matters. Financially speaking, though, this makes tithing donors a critical core of any church’s budgetary needs. Share on X

Not many people tithe, but it’s clear that those who do understand generosity. 

Tithers Vs. The Average Giver

So, very few church attenders tithe 10% of their incomes to the church. What about everyone else? 

When asked, 69% of adults said they had donated to a church within the last year. 

In 2021, Church Salary analyzed the average church offering per person and found that the yearly range was somewhere between $1,144 and $3,432, which averaged out to $2,262. In 2022, that number rose to $2,848.

So the question becomes, well, is that a tithe? 

The answer, of course, is no. Based on the 10% tithe model, the average person would have to have an annual income of $28,000 per year for $2,800 in giving to be a tithe. 

The average per capita personal income was $65,423 in 2022, which means the average yearly donation is just 4.35% of household income.

In other words, very few individuals are genuinely tithing. The larger donations from actual tithers and over-and-above givers skew the data, leaving the average less than 4.35%.

That said, the fact still stands that tithers aren’t the only form of funds flowing into the church. Many are still giving in some capacity or another. 

There are encouraging trends when it comes to the next generation. 90% of Millennials consider charitable giving an essential part of living their lives. This ethical belief has launched them into the forefront of the charitable landscape.

Barna reports that 30% of Gen Z and Millennials are aware of the part they’re playing, too, and consider their peers more generous than their elders. In contrast, Baby Boomers tend to take a more cynical stance, with 53% claiming younger folks don’t give as much.

There is an increasing number of individuals who care about where their money goes, especially when it’s contributed via online channels. 

Barna says 69% of digital donors either completely or somewhat agree that they have “a strong curiosity about unfamiliar things.” This is far above analog donors. In other words, digital donors are open to new ways of giving and are generally more curious about what the church is doing. 

Regarding the youngest donors around today, over half of Gen Z (51%) say they have given in some form to a charitable organization. This number is low, but as we’ll see in a minute, it’s an important one for church leaders to pay attention to.

A Small Percentage of Donors Represent a Disproportionate Share of All Giving

According to Nucleus, only 2.85% of gifts are greater than $1,000.  Similarly, 43.89% of gifts are under $100. 

On the one hand, that can sound depressing. 

But let’s break it down further. 

Even though 43.89% of gifts are under $100, that translates to just 8.39% of overall giving volume. In other words, almost half the people in a church collectively contribute less than 10% of all giving. 

And while only 2.85% of all gifts are over $1,000, those donors represent  27.34% of overall giving volume.

In other words, a small number of donors represent a meaningful percentage of all giving. 

This is also supported by Barna, who surveyed a group of what we’ll call “high-capacity givers.” Looking at U.S. adults making at least $300,000, they found that nearly everybody in this group (96%) engages in annual charitable giving.

So what do you do with this? 

First, every gift is meaningful; you want to nurture every giver. But similarly, if you have a group of people in your church who have the spiritual gift of giving (yes, it’s a spiritual gift), you want to honor that gift and help them develop it.

In the same way you encourage and celebrate key volunteers, you may want to consider doing the same for a group of donors who have the capacity to give and the gift of giving. When people exercise their spiritual gifts, the church thrives.

When People Give

As much as giving is important every month, not all months are created equal when it comes to giving patterns. 

Here’s a ranking of all 12 months of church giving from data gathered by Nucleus: 

1. January = 7.60% of all giving giving to churches
2. February = 7.26% (the lowest giving month)
3. March = 8.34%
4. April = 8.24%
5. May = 7.38%
6. June = 7.43%
7. July = 7.54%
8. August = 7.75%
9. September = 7.97%
10. October = 8.11%
11. November = 8.05%
12. December = 14.34% (the highest giving month)

Now, revisit the list in descending order, and you’ll see some surprises:

1. February = 7.26%
2. May = 7.38%
3. June = 7.43%
4. July = 7.54%
5. January = 7.60%
6. August = 7.75%
7. September = 7.97%
8. November = 8.05%
9. October = 8.11%
10. April = 8.24%
11. March = 8.34%
12. December = 14.34%

January isn’t the lowest; February is. And that’s followed by a spring and summer slump.

However, note that the highest-giving months are April, March, and December. 

I don’t know many (any?) leaders who prioritize March and April as key giving months. Perhaps that should change. 

Rather than competing with reality, it’s easier to cooperate with it. Months when people are already giving more generously are great months to talk about giving and encourage generosity. 

Plus, with the rise of digital giving, data from Nucleus shows that Sunday is no longer the day where 90% of giving takes place. In fact, just over a quarter of all giving now happens. Friday (hint: payday) is the second most popular. 

1. Sunday = 27.23% (most popular)
2. Monday = 11.84%
3. Tuesday = 10.18%
4. Wednesday = 11.79%
5. Thursday = 11.82%
6. Friday = 17.35%
7. Saturday = 9.79% (least popular day)

Giving is now a seven-day-a-week practice, and your communication should acknowledge that.

What People Give To

Speaking of wanting to know where the money is going, many churches spend almost three-quarters of their income on staff and buildings — staff and facilities consume over 7 out of every 10 dollars.

Sure, the way churches spend their money tends to vary (there are a lot of factors that contribute to this), but the overwhelming cost for most churches is personnel.

In 2019, Tithe.ly reported that, on average, 49% of finances go toward paying staff. In comparison:

• 23% go to the facility
• 11% on missions
• 10% on programs
• 6% on dues

That means over 7 out of 10 dollars go toward staff and facilities. Look, there’s a strong argument that this, too, is ministry (your ministry is your people and you have to have a place to meet).

But it leaves a big question: Are your staff and facility focused on maintenance or mission? In the future church, if your mission isn’t the main focus, there won’t be much left to maintain. 

Are your staff and facility focused on maintenance or mission? In the future church, if your mission isn’t the main focus, there won’t be much left to maintain.  Share on X

How Donors Like to Give 

Cash, Check, Digital Giving, Crypto, and Stock

In the mid-2020s, it’s clear that we are now a cashless society.  Sprung from a culture of envelopes and passing the plate, the church must quickly catch up with this trend. 

People just don’t carry cash in substantial quantities on them anymore. Sure, they might have a few bucks, but most ministries seek more than a handful of crumpled-up dollar bills in the offering plate each Sunday.

If you don’t have easy, obvious, and strategic ways for people to give to your church digitally at this point, your church is living in the 20th century, not the 21st. 

If you don’t have easy, obvious, and strategic ways for people to give to your church digitally at this point, your church is living in the 20th century, not the 21st.  Share on X

In addition to our culture becoming cashless, it’s also evolving into different forms of currency and wealth. Money alone represents less than 10% of all wealth. The rest is in stocks, real estate, and, yes, even cryptocurrency. 

Cryptocurrency is one example of the sea-change we’re facing. Many churches are providing ways for those with cryptocurrency to donate, and it’s creating a steady flow of smaller donations in digital currency.

Stocks are another substantial form of philanthropy that most churches still miss. 

33% of stock donors give over $1,000 at a time. Overflow attributes this to the long-term aspect of investing in the stock market. As stock market-based wealth grows over time, those willing to give do so by donating larger chunks of their invested assets — at least, they do when that’s an option.

Recurring Giving 

A few decades ago, recurring giving was done by making a specific decision to write a check or give cash week after week. There was no easy way to automate giving.

That’s changed dramatically. 

The bank won’t loan you money without setting up automatic loan payments, no mortgage holder will lend you money without setting up automatic withdrawals, and even cell phone providers don’t offer services without setting up automatic payments.

Why don’t more churches give members a chance to automate their giving as well? 

From the donor’s point of view, it streamlines the giving process, making it hyper-convenient. It also automates their generosity, making it less likely they’ll forget and making it possible to give when they’re not in the building. 

(Remember the stat above about the most popular days to give?)

For church leaders, this introduces a remarkable sense of consistency. Knowing your donors are giving on autopilot provides you with a baseline of funding you can generally count on coming in regularly. 

Interestingly, churches that accept giving online see a 32% increase in overall donations.

With that said, there’s still resistance to digital giving among Christians. 

While Barna reports that 44% of U.S. adults are digital donors, analog donors are skeptical of whether their donation will even reach the organization they’re giving to. 

While half of digital donors (50%) strongly agree they are confident that their donations will reach the intended organization or cause, this is double the percentage of analog donors (26%) who say the same. In fact, one in 10 analog donors (10%) goes so far as to strongly disagree that their donation would be received by the organization.

On the plus side, according to Overflow, 39% of online donors are weekly givers. That stability is a powerful way for modern churches to keep their books balanced and understand what they’re financially capable of doing over the long term.

Automate donations and you will get even more systematic generosity.

So, What Do You Do With This? Here’s Some Application.

While we’ll dig into some specifics for financial strategies churches can adopt in 2025 further down, let’s take a minute first to appreciate the power of what this ministry-related financial data means in the context of successfully leading a church.

1. Make Data-Driven Decisions

Once you know the data, use it to make practical decisions using the data above as well as your own past giving and fundraising stats.

Having an awareness of church giving statistics, like digital donations, recurring giving, and demographic trends, can help you tailor the way you approach raising funds in your church. You can make informed, data-driven decisions as you set budgets, make financial plans, and build stewardship initiatives.

2. Realize Some People Are Okay With Giving to Overhead 

Paying extra fees can be a detracting factor in setting up online giving portals. You don’t want a third-party tool skimming two or three percent off the top of every donation.

One way to address this is by asking your donors to step up. It’s been shown that most donors are unaware of how expensive processing fees are for online transactions and that many are willing to cover them once they know.

Don’t be afraid to make any reasonable ask like this. It gets your donors involved in sparking financial generosity within your church. This is a particularly helpful conversation with your high-capacity donors. 

3. Leverage Outside Resources To Help You

Another thing to consider is the abundance of online tools that can help you navigate the constant change.

If you’re looking for ways to increase giving and generosity, you might want to consider my course The Art of Building a Generous Congregation In it, I break down ways to develop a culture of generosity and help you avoid the awkwardness (and stress) that comes with handling church finances and talking about money at church.

Generis’s church tool is also a great way to improve your ministry’s financial activity. This is an online resource that can help guide you through the process of setting financial goals for your church.

4. Make Talking About Money a Normal Conversation

Finally, take the time to teach your congregation about Biblical money management. The best time to do this? When you’re not trying to raise money. Just weave it into your normal teaching schedule. 

A lot of church leaders don’t want to talk about money because they think people don’t want to talk about money.

That’s just not true. Think about it. Do you know anyone who doesn’t talk about money in some way every day? 

There’s hardly a family in your church or community that doesn’t have a daily conversation about money, or in some cases, a daily argument about money.  

People talk about whether the Target run was too expensive, whether they should buy a new house, how they can swing a mortgage renewal, new trucks and SUVs, whether to sell the old minivan or drive it for longer, or whether they can afford to put the kids in travel sports. 

Couples get granular about money as they debate whether they should buy name brand at the grocery store or save money by buying generic instead. 

People talk about money and think about money every single day. And couples end up breaking up over it. 

Speaking into the void that culture has created around how to responsibly and faithfully handle money will bring hope to your church. They’re talking about it every day. Why can’t you talk about it more often? 

If you don’t address money from the platform, people spend it in a theological vacuum.  What if it’s biblically unfaithful NOT to talk about money?   

What if withholding that conversation denies your church one of the most important forms of pastoral care you can give them—helping them get out of debt and learn to live responsibly and generously with the money God has given them. 

It also models for couples how to have hard conversations to learn & prioritize what matters to their family.

If you don’t address money at church, people spend it in a theological vacuum.  What if it’s biblically unfaithful NOT to talk about money? Share on X

Who will bring them help or hope if you don’t?

Still nervous to talk about money? Here are seven ways to talk about money in church.

5. Kickstart Generosity and Giving at Your Church

Okay, so what do all of these takeaways look like in action? There are many ways to implement financial improvements across a ministry, and often, these depend on where your church is spiritually and the size of your leadership team and its resources.

Still, some strategies apply to most situations. Here are a few examples:

• Think of giving as a weekday conversation, not just a Sunday conversation. Since people give all week long, bring up the subject from time to time mid-week.
• Co-operate with the calendar; don’t compete with it. If April, March, and December are the top giving months, talk about giving in these months. When you do, you’ll amplify the generosity that’s already in the room. 
• Create tailored stewardship initiatives: Don’t treat all donors the same. Help people develop their spiritual gift of giving. 
• Develop enhanced financial planning teachings: Again, helping your church members understand how to thrive and prosper on their own is the beginning of a larger, healthier church. Invest in financial planning sessions and strategies that teach your congregants how to handle money not just successfully but in a Godly manner, too.
• Shake up your offering moment: Leaving your offering moment in the same format in perpetuity is a great way to kill the giving momentum. Consider shaking things up to challenge and re-energize your congregation’s generosity.
• Get more creative with your offering options: Sure, you may not be an investor. You may not be comfortable with digital currency, either. But a lot of your congregation probably is. Consider how you can incorporate things like stock and crypto options into your donation channels.

You don’t have to rewrite the financial playbook to improve your church’s giving this year. Instead, consider clear, targeted strategies like these that you can integrate into your existing giving activities to take them to all-new levels as you look for ways to create an impact as a church in 2024.

And if you’re looking for a step-by-step plan to implement it all, be sure to check out The Art of Building a Generous Congregation.