Ep. 226: The State of Giving 2022 With the ECFA’s Warren Bird and Jake Lapp

As we approach year-end, the thoughts of children turn toward Christmas, but the thoughts of ministry executives turn toward year-end giving efforts.  And the thoughts of many donors turn toward those ministries they have given to in the past as they try to decide how much, or even if, they will be giving to them this year. One of the cliches in the philanthropy world is that the state of the stock market is a leading indicator of giving.  A rising market doesn’t CAUSE giving, but historically it has correlated with increased giving. But 2022 has turned that cliché on its head.  This year has been really bad for the stock market, yet philanthropic giving has held steady, or even increased. Given all these conflicting signals, I find this year’s State of Giving report by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability to be particularly helpful.  So I asked the two men behind the study, Warren Bird and Jake Lapp, to join me for today’s EXTRA podcast. To see our article about the survey, and from there to link to the study itself, click here.  The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.   We get database, technical, and editorial support from Stephen DuBarry, Christina Darnell, Emily Kern, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth.      Until next time, may God bless you.