Church Giving Calendar: A Month-by-Month Plan for Generosity
When should your church talk about recurring giving, year-end gifts, giving statements, or summer giving? This data-backed church giving calendar shows what to focus on each month—and when to make the ask.
Most churches plan their giving year around the program year. There's the fall kickoff, the Easter series, and the stewardship month someone picked years ago and nobody has questioned since.
Your givers follow a different calendar.
That's why we created this church giving calendar: a month-by-month plan based on a full year of giving data from about 53,000 churches that use Tithely. It shows what to focus on, why each month matters, and even which day of the week to make the ask.
Think of it as a church giving calendar—or a year-round church stewardship calendar—built around when people actually give rather than simply when your programs happen.
Want it on one page? Download the free Generosity Calendar and keep it next to your planning calendar.
Why your giving plan needs its own calendar
The program year tells you when people show up. Giving data tells you when they give. Those two calendars overlap, but they aren't the same, and the gaps between them are where churches lose momentum.
Most church giving statistics tell you how much people give. This data tells you when. Here's what a year of giving looks like across about 53,000 churches:
- 39% of all gifts arrive on Sunday.
- 15.4% of weekly dollars arrive on Friday, the busiest day outside Sunday.
- 13.3% of monthly dollars land on just two dates: the 1st and the 15th.
- 11.8% of the whole year's giving happens in December.
None of that is visible from the pulpit. But it changes when you should make an ask, what you should measure, and where your team should spend its time.
That's why the calendar works best as a shared plan. Pastors can use it to time teaching on generosity. Church administrators can use it to schedule emails and texts. Finance teams can use it to forecast cash flow and spot the summer dip before it arrives.
The one rule behind the whole calendar
Before we get to the months, there's one rule that applies to every one of them:
Every dated ask lands on a Thursday or Friday, or on the 1st or the 15th. Not Tuesday.
The content of your ask matters. But the timing decides whether people read it while the money is still in their account. Fridays, the 1st and the 15th are common paydays, and the giving data follows them. An email that arrives on payday meets a giver who can act on it. One that arrives on a Tuesday meets a giver who is already budgeting around rent and groceries.
In practice, that means three small changes:
- Schedule giving emails and texts for Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.
- When you ask people to set up recurring gifts, name the 1st or the 15th as the date.
- Line up campaign deadlines with a Friday or the 1st of the month, not the middle of the week.
The Generosity Calendar, month by month
The calendar breaks the year into four seasons. Each one has a clear job, and each month has a single focus, so your team always knows what matters most right now.
January and February: Start the year with trust
January: Explain the new deduction and send giving statements early. Starting with the 2026 tax year, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts to charity ($2,000 for married couples filing jointly). Most of your givers have never had this benefit, and nobody else is likely to tell them. Mention it when you send statements. Send accurate statements early in the month, because a correct, on-time statement builds trust before you ask for anything else.
February: Report last year's impact with specifics. Follow the statement with a clear picture of what giving made possible: real numbers, real names (with permission), and real outcomes. "We served 1,200 meals" lands harder than "Thank you for your generosity." Giving is still on people's minds from their statement, so this is the right moment to connect dollars to ministry.
March to May: Build a budget that survives the summer
March: Run your first recurring giving push. Ask people to switch just one gift to recurring. It's a small, specific ask, and March leaves enough time for the habit to stick before summer. Remember the rule: name the 1st or the 15th as the date. For scripts, setup tips and ways to promote it, see our complete guide to recurring giving for churches.
April: Make Easter giving easy for first-time guests. Easter brings more first-time visitors than any other Sunday of the year. Walk through your online giving path on a phone, the way a guest would. Can they give in under a minute without creating an account? Is the QR code or text number on the screen and in the bulletin? Fix anything that adds friction.
May: Summer-proof the budget. This is the last month to act before one-time giving dips. Check what share of your giving is recurring, and review failed payments from expired cards. A quick note asking givers to update their payment details can save a surprising amount of summer giving.
June to September: Hold steady, then re-engage
June to August: Watch participation, not dollars. In the summer months, one-time gifts run 5.4% below an average month, while recurring gifts run 1.7% above. In other words, recurring giving is what carries a church through the summer. Track how many people give each week rather than how much comes in, and don't panic over a light Sunday.
September: Re-engage lapsed givers by name. The fall restart is the year's best window for reconnecting with people who stopped giving. Skip the mass email. Have a pastor or staff member reach out personally, and lead with relationship rather than the ask.
October to December: Finish the year strong
October: Talk to your largest givers about stock, DAF and QCD gifts. Gifts of appreciated stock, donor-advised fund (DAF) grants, and qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) from IRAs often take planning. Have these conversations now, before givers sit down with their financial advisors for year-end planning, not after. If your church isn't set up to receive these gifts yet, start with our guide to stock and crypto giving for churches.
November: Build the December plan. Set your dates, your goal, and one specific story that shows what year-end giving will do. If your ask is multi-year, such as a building or debt-reduction campaign, a pledge campaign fits well here. For more ideas, see these simple ways to encourage year-end giving for churches.
December: Execute. December holds 11.8% of the year's giving and runs 42% above an average month. The giving is weighted heavily toward the end: December 31 alone accounts for 1.3% of the entire year, and the last four days account for 3.3%. Weight your communication toward the final two weeks, and plan a short, clear reminder for the 31st.
Reading this in the fall? Start here. You haven't missed the most important part of the year. Here's what to do in the next few weeks:
- This week: Make a short list of your largest givers and schedule conversations about stock, DAF and QCD gifts.
- By mid-November: Lock in your December dates, goal, and story.
- Before December 15: Draft your final-two-weeks emails and your December 31 reminder, and schedule them for Thursdays, Fridays, or the 31st.
- In January: Send accurate giving statements early, and explain the new deduction for non-itemizers.
Sunday is still the heart of giving, but it does a different job than you might expect. It's where the most people give, which makes it the best measure of participation. Larger gifts tend to come during the week, when people are at home with time to think, often around payday.
So keep making giving easy on Sunday, and send your thoughtful, planned asks on Thursday or Friday.
Source: Tithely internal transaction data, calendar year 2025. Figures are aggregate and de-identified, and are reported as shares rather than amounts.
Download the Generosity Calendar
The whole plan fits on a single page you can print for your next staff meeting or share with your finance team. You get:
- All 12 months, each with its focus and the reason behind it
- The one timing rule that applies to every ask
- The weekly giving rhythm, with what to do about it
Download the free Generosity Calendar
The calendar shows when. The full report shows why.
Every month on the calendar traces back to a finding in The Generosity Gap, Tithely's church generosity report. If you want the reasoning behind the plan, or you need to make the case to your board or finance committee, the full report has it.
Inside, you'll find:
- How people actually give: rhythm, device, and where the dollars sit across about 53,000 churches
- The concentration problem: why fewer donors are carrying more of the load
- What changed in the tax code, and who it helps
- Seven moves that work, each tied to a specific finding and ordered by effort
- The Generosity Health Check: a 15-minute scored self-assessment for your church
Want a quick read on where your church stands first? Take the free church financial health check online. It takes about 15 minutes and scores itself.
Get the full Generosity Gap report, free
Frequently asked questions
What is a church giving calendar?
A church giving calendar is a year-round plan for when a church will communicate about generosity, recurring giving, special gifts, stewardship, and year-end giving. Rather than treating giving as a single annual campaign, the calendar helps church leaders match each message to the times of year when givers are most likely to take action.
What is the best day to ask for church donations?
Thursday or Friday. Friday is the busiest giving day outside Sunday, bringing in 15.4% of weekly dollars across about 53,000 churches. Giving also peaks on the 1st and 15th of the month, which together bring in 13.3% of monthly dollars. Avoid sending planned asks on a Tuesday.
When do most people give to church?
Most gifts (39%) arrive on Sunday, but Sunday gifts are the smallest of any day of the week. Larger gifts tend to come during the week, especially on Friday and around the 1st and 15th. Across the year, December is the biggest month by far.
How much of a church's annual giving happens in December?
About 11.8% of the year's giving happens in December, which is 42% above an average month. The end of the month matters most: December 31 alone accounts for 1.3% of the year, and the last four days of December account for 3.3%.
How can a church keep giving steady over the summer?
Grow recurring giving before summer starts. In June through August, one-time gifts run 5.4% below an average month, while recurring gifts run 1.7% above. Run a recurring giving push in March, and audit failed payments in May.
What is the new charitable deduction for non-itemizers?
Starting with the 2026 tax year, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts to qualifying charities, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. Encourage givers to talk with a tax professional about their own situation.
Plan around how people actually give
Your program year will always shape church life. But when you plan giving around how people actually give, every ask lands at the right moment, your team works from one shared plan, and the summer dip and the December rush stop being surprises.
Start with the season you're in. Then keep the calendar where your whole team can see it.
Download the free Generosity Calendar, and when you're ready to go deeper, get the full Generosity Gap report.
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Chris Dunagan is a marketing strategist focused on church tech and digital engagement. He helps churches grow through SEO, email campaigns, and tools like Tithely and Breeze ChMS, with an emphasis on online giving, content strategy, and digital outreach.
Most churches plan their giving year around the program year. There's the fall kickoff, the Easter series, and the stewardship month someone picked years ago and nobody has questioned since.
Your givers follow a different calendar.
That's why we created this church giving calendar: a month-by-month plan based on a full year of giving data from about 53,000 churches that use Tithely. It shows what to focus on, why each month matters, and even which day of the week to make the ask.
Think of it as a church giving calendar—or a year-round church stewardship calendar—built around when people actually give rather than simply when your programs happen.
Want it on one page? Download the free Generosity Calendar and keep it next to your planning calendar.
Why your giving plan needs its own calendar
The program year tells you when people show up. Giving data tells you when they give. Those two calendars overlap, but they aren't the same, and the gaps between them are where churches lose momentum.
Most church giving statistics tell you how much people give. This data tells you when. Here's what a year of giving looks like across about 53,000 churches:
- 39% of all gifts arrive on Sunday.
- 15.4% of weekly dollars arrive on Friday, the busiest day outside Sunday.
- 13.3% of monthly dollars land on just two dates: the 1st and the 15th.
- 11.8% of the whole year's giving happens in December.
None of that is visible from the pulpit. But it changes when you should make an ask, what you should measure, and where your team should spend its time.
That's why the calendar works best as a shared plan. Pastors can use it to time teaching on generosity. Church administrators can use it to schedule emails and texts. Finance teams can use it to forecast cash flow and spot the summer dip before it arrives.
The one rule behind the whole calendar
Before we get to the months, there's one rule that applies to every one of them:
Every dated ask lands on a Thursday or Friday, or on the 1st or the 15th. Not Tuesday.
The content of your ask matters. But the timing decides whether people read it while the money is still in their account. Fridays, the 1st and the 15th are common paydays, and the giving data follows them. An email that arrives on payday meets a giver who can act on it. One that arrives on a Tuesday meets a giver who is already budgeting around rent and groceries.
In practice, that means three small changes:
- Schedule giving emails and texts for Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.
- When you ask people to set up recurring gifts, name the 1st or the 15th as the date.
- Line up campaign deadlines with a Friday or the 1st of the month, not the middle of the week.
The Generosity Calendar, month by month
The calendar breaks the year into four seasons. Each one has a clear job, and each month has a single focus, so your team always knows what matters most right now.
January and February: Start the year with trust
January: Explain the new deduction and send giving statements early. Starting with the 2026 tax year, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts to charity ($2,000 for married couples filing jointly). Most of your givers have never had this benefit, and nobody else is likely to tell them. Mention it when you send statements. Send accurate statements early in the month, because a correct, on-time statement builds trust before you ask for anything else.
February: Report last year's impact with specifics. Follow the statement with a clear picture of what giving made possible: real numbers, real names (with permission), and real outcomes. "We served 1,200 meals" lands harder than "Thank you for your generosity." Giving is still on people's minds from their statement, so this is the right moment to connect dollars to ministry.
March to May: Build a budget that survives the summer
March: Run your first recurring giving push. Ask people to switch just one gift to recurring. It's a small, specific ask, and March leaves enough time for the habit to stick before summer. Remember the rule: name the 1st or the 15th as the date. For scripts, setup tips and ways to promote it, see our complete guide to recurring giving for churches.
April: Make Easter giving easy for first-time guests. Easter brings more first-time visitors than any other Sunday of the year. Walk through your online giving path on a phone, the way a guest would. Can they give in under a minute without creating an account? Is the QR code or text number on the screen and in the bulletin? Fix anything that adds friction.
May: Summer-proof the budget. This is the last month to act before one-time giving dips. Check what share of your giving is recurring, and review failed payments from expired cards. A quick note asking givers to update their payment details can save a surprising amount of summer giving.
June to September: Hold steady, then re-engage
June to August: Watch participation, not dollars. In the summer months, one-time gifts run 5.4% below an average month, while recurring gifts run 1.7% above. In other words, recurring giving is what carries a church through the summer. Track how many people give each week rather than how much comes in, and don't panic over a light Sunday.
September: Re-engage lapsed givers by name. The fall restart is the year's best window for reconnecting with people who stopped giving. Skip the mass email. Have a pastor or staff member reach out personally, and lead with relationship rather than the ask.
October to December: Finish the year strong
October: Talk to your largest givers about stock, DAF and QCD gifts. Gifts of appreciated stock, donor-advised fund (DAF) grants, and qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) from IRAs often take planning. Have these conversations now, before givers sit down with their financial advisors for year-end planning, not after. If your church isn't set up to receive these gifts yet, start with our guide to stock and crypto giving for churches.
November: Build the December plan. Set your dates, your goal, and one specific story that shows what year-end giving will do. If your ask is multi-year, such as a building or debt-reduction campaign, a pledge campaign fits well here. For more ideas, see these simple ways to encourage year-end giving for churches.
December: Execute. December holds 11.8% of the year's giving and runs 42% above an average month. The giving is weighted heavily toward the end: December 31 alone accounts for 1.3% of the entire year, and the last four days account for 3.3%. Weight your communication toward the final two weeks, and plan a short, clear reminder for the 31st.
Reading this in the fall? Start here. You haven't missed the most important part of the year. Here's what to do in the next few weeks:
- This week: Make a short list of your largest givers and schedule conversations about stock, DAF and QCD gifts.
- By mid-November: Lock in your December dates, goal, and story.
- Before December 15: Draft your final-two-weeks emails and your December 31 reminder, and schedule them for Thursdays, Fridays, or the 31st.
- In January: Send accurate giving statements early, and explain the new deduction for non-itemizers.
Sunday is still the heart of giving, but it does a different job than you might expect. It's where the most people give, which makes it the best measure of participation. Larger gifts tend to come during the week, when people are at home with time to think, often around payday.
So keep making giving easy on Sunday, and send your thoughtful, planned asks on Thursday or Friday.
Source: Tithely internal transaction data, calendar year 2025. Figures are aggregate and de-identified, and are reported as shares rather than amounts.
Download the Generosity Calendar
The whole plan fits on a single page you can print for your next staff meeting or share with your finance team. You get:
- All 12 months, each with its focus and the reason behind it
- The one timing rule that applies to every ask
- The weekly giving rhythm, with what to do about it
Download the free Generosity Calendar
The calendar shows when. The full report shows why.
Every month on the calendar traces back to a finding in The Generosity Gap, Tithely's church generosity report. If you want the reasoning behind the plan, or you need to make the case to your board or finance committee, the full report has it.
Inside, you'll find:
- How people actually give: rhythm, device, and where the dollars sit across about 53,000 churches
- The concentration problem: why fewer donors are carrying more of the load
- What changed in the tax code, and who it helps
- Seven moves that work, each tied to a specific finding and ordered by effort
- The Generosity Health Check: a 15-minute scored self-assessment for your church
Want a quick read on where your church stands first? Take the free church financial health check online. It takes about 15 minutes and scores itself.
Get the full Generosity Gap report, free
Frequently asked questions
What is a church giving calendar?
A church giving calendar is a year-round plan for when a church will communicate about generosity, recurring giving, special gifts, stewardship, and year-end giving. Rather than treating giving as a single annual campaign, the calendar helps church leaders match each message to the times of year when givers are most likely to take action.
What is the best day to ask for church donations?
Thursday or Friday. Friday is the busiest giving day outside Sunday, bringing in 15.4% of weekly dollars across about 53,000 churches. Giving also peaks on the 1st and 15th of the month, which together bring in 13.3% of monthly dollars. Avoid sending planned asks on a Tuesday.
When do most people give to church?
Most gifts (39%) arrive on Sunday, but Sunday gifts are the smallest of any day of the week. Larger gifts tend to come during the week, especially on Friday and around the 1st and 15th. Across the year, December is the biggest month by far.
How much of a church's annual giving happens in December?
About 11.8% of the year's giving happens in December, which is 42% above an average month. The end of the month matters most: December 31 alone accounts for 1.3% of the year, and the last four days of December account for 3.3%.
How can a church keep giving steady over the summer?
Grow recurring giving before summer starts. In June through August, one-time gifts run 5.4% below an average month, while recurring gifts run 1.7% above. Run a recurring giving push in March, and audit failed payments in May.
What is the new charitable deduction for non-itemizers?
Starting with the 2026 tax year, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts to qualifying charities, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. Encourage givers to talk with a tax professional about their own situation.
Plan around how people actually give
Your program year will always shape church life. But when you plan giving around how people actually give, every ask lands at the right moment, your team works from one shared plan, and the summer dip and the December rush stop being surprises.
Start with the season you're in. Then keep the calendar where your whole team can see it.
Download the free Generosity Calendar, and when you're ready to go deeper, get the full Generosity Gap report.
podcast transcript
Chris Dunagan is a marketing strategist focused on church tech and digital engagement. He helps churches grow through SEO, email campaigns, and tools like Tithely and Breeze ChMS, with an emphasis on online giving, content strategy, and digital outreach.
Most churches plan their giving year around the program year. There's the fall kickoff, the Easter series, and the stewardship month someone picked years ago and nobody has questioned since.
Your givers follow a different calendar.
That's why we created this church giving calendar: a month-by-month plan based on a full year of giving data from about 53,000 churches that use Tithely. It shows what to focus on, why each month matters, and even which day of the week to make the ask.
Think of it as a church giving calendar—or a year-round church stewardship calendar—built around when people actually give rather than simply when your programs happen.
Want it on one page? Download the free Generosity Calendar and keep it next to your planning calendar.
Why your giving plan needs its own calendar
The program year tells you when people show up. Giving data tells you when they give. Those two calendars overlap, but they aren't the same, and the gaps between them are where churches lose momentum.
Most church giving statistics tell you how much people give. This data tells you when. Here's what a year of giving looks like across about 53,000 churches:
- 39% of all gifts arrive on Sunday.
- 15.4% of weekly dollars arrive on Friday, the busiest day outside Sunday.
- 13.3% of monthly dollars land on just two dates: the 1st and the 15th.
- 11.8% of the whole year's giving happens in December.
None of that is visible from the pulpit. But it changes when you should make an ask, what you should measure, and where your team should spend its time.
That's why the calendar works best as a shared plan. Pastors can use it to time teaching on generosity. Church administrators can use it to schedule emails and texts. Finance teams can use it to forecast cash flow and spot the summer dip before it arrives.
The one rule behind the whole calendar
Before we get to the months, there's one rule that applies to every one of them:
Every dated ask lands on a Thursday or Friday, or on the 1st or the 15th. Not Tuesday.
The content of your ask matters. But the timing decides whether people read it while the money is still in their account. Fridays, the 1st and the 15th are common paydays, and the giving data follows them. An email that arrives on payday meets a giver who can act on it. One that arrives on a Tuesday meets a giver who is already budgeting around rent and groceries.
In practice, that means three small changes:
- Schedule giving emails and texts for Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.
- When you ask people to set up recurring gifts, name the 1st or the 15th as the date.
- Line up campaign deadlines with a Friday or the 1st of the month, not the middle of the week.
The Generosity Calendar, month by month
The calendar breaks the year into four seasons. Each one has a clear job, and each month has a single focus, so your team always knows what matters most right now.
January and February: Start the year with trust
January: Explain the new deduction and send giving statements early. Starting with the 2026 tax year, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts to charity ($2,000 for married couples filing jointly). Most of your givers have never had this benefit, and nobody else is likely to tell them. Mention it when you send statements. Send accurate statements early in the month, because a correct, on-time statement builds trust before you ask for anything else.
February: Report last year's impact with specifics. Follow the statement with a clear picture of what giving made possible: real numbers, real names (with permission), and real outcomes. "We served 1,200 meals" lands harder than "Thank you for your generosity." Giving is still on people's minds from their statement, so this is the right moment to connect dollars to ministry.
March to May: Build a budget that survives the summer
March: Run your first recurring giving push. Ask people to switch just one gift to recurring. It's a small, specific ask, and March leaves enough time for the habit to stick before summer. Remember the rule: name the 1st or the 15th as the date. For scripts, setup tips and ways to promote it, see our complete guide to recurring giving for churches.
April: Make Easter giving easy for first-time guests. Easter brings more first-time visitors than any other Sunday of the year. Walk through your online giving path on a phone, the way a guest would. Can they give in under a minute without creating an account? Is the QR code or text number on the screen and in the bulletin? Fix anything that adds friction.
May: Summer-proof the budget. This is the last month to act before one-time giving dips. Check what share of your giving is recurring, and review failed payments from expired cards. A quick note asking givers to update their payment details can save a surprising amount of summer giving.
June to September: Hold steady, then re-engage
June to August: Watch participation, not dollars. In the summer months, one-time gifts run 5.4% below an average month, while recurring gifts run 1.7% above. In other words, recurring giving is what carries a church through the summer. Track how many people give each week rather than how much comes in, and don't panic over a light Sunday.
September: Re-engage lapsed givers by name. The fall restart is the year's best window for reconnecting with people who stopped giving. Skip the mass email. Have a pastor or staff member reach out personally, and lead with relationship rather than the ask.
October to December: Finish the year strong
October: Talk to your largest givers about stock, DAF and QCD gifts. Gifts of appreciated stock, donor-advised fund (DAF) grants, and qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) from IRAs often take planning. Have these conversations now, before givers sit down with their financial advisors for year-end planning, not after. If your church isn't set up to receive these gifts yet, start with our guide to stock and crypto giving for churches.
November: Build the December plan. Set your dates, your goal, and one specific story that shows what year-end giving will do. If your ask is multi-year, such as a building or debt-reduction campaign, a pledge campaign fits well here. For more ideas, see these simple ways to encourage year-end giving for churches.
December: Execute. December holds 11.8% of the year's giving and runs 42% above an average month. The giving is weighted heavily toward the end: December 31 alone accounts for 1.3% of the entire year, and the last four days account for 3.3%. Weight your communication toward the final two weeks, and plan a short, clear reminder for the 31st.
Reading this in the fall? Start here. You haven't missed the most important part of the year. Here's what to do in the next few weeks:
- This week: Make a short list of your largest givers and schedule conversations about stock, DAF and QCD gifts.
- By mid-November: Lock in your December dates, goal, and story.
- Before December 15: Draft your final-two-weeks emails and your December 31 reminder, and schedule them for Thursdays, Fridays, or the 31st.
- In January: Send accurate giving statements early, and explain the new deduction for non-itemizers.
Sunday is still the heart of giving, but it does a different job than you might expect. It's where the most people give, which makes it the best measure of participation. Larger gifts tend to come during the week, when people are at home with time to think, often around payday.
So keep making giving easy on Sunday, and send your thoughtful, planned asks on Thursday or Friday.
Source: Tithely internal transaction data, calendar year 2025. Figures are aggregate and de-identified, and are reported as shares rather than amounts.
Download the Generosity Calendar
The whole plan fits on a single page you can print for your next staff meeting or share with your finance team. You get:
- All 12 months, each with its focus and the reason behind it
- The one timing rule that applies to every ask
- The weekly giving rhythm, with what to do about it
Download the free Generosity Calendar
The calendar shows when. The full report shows why.
Every month on the calendar traces back to a finding in The Generosity Gap, Tithely's church generosity report. If you want the reasoning behind the plan, or you need to make the case to your board or finance committee, the full report has it.
Inside, you'll find:
- How people actually give: rhythm, device, and where the dollars sit across about 53,000 churches
- The concentration problem: why fewer donors are carrying more of the load
- What changed in the tax code, and who it helps
- Seven moves that work, each tied to a specific finding and ordered by effort
- The Generosity Health Check: a 15-minute scored self-assessment for your church
Want a quick read on where your church stands first? Take the free church financial health check online. It takes about 15 minutes and scores itself.
Get the full Generosity Gap report, free
Frequently asked questions
What is a church giving calendar?
A church giving calendar is a year-round plan for when a church will communicate about generosity, recurring giving, special gifts, stewardship, and year-end giving. Rather than treating giving as a single annual campaign, the calendar helps church leaders match each message to the times of year when givers are most likely to take action.
What is the best day to ask for church donations?
Thursday or Friday. Friday is the busiest giving day outside Sunday, bringing in 15.4% of weekly dollars across about 53,000 churches. Giving also peaks on the 1st and 15th of the month, which together bring in 13.3% of monthly dollars. Avoid sending planned asks on a Tuesday.
When do most people give to church?
Most gifts (39%) arrive on Sunday, but Sunday gifts are the smallest of any day of the week. Larger gifts tend to come during the week, especially on Friday and around the 1st and 15th. Across the year, December is the biggest month by far.
How much of a church's annual giving happens in December?
About 11.8% of the year's giving happens in December, which is 42% above an average month. The end of the month matters most: December 31 alone accounts for 1.3% of the year, and the last four days of December account for 3.3%.
How can a church keep giving steady over the summer?
Grow recurring giving before summer starts. In June through August, one-time gifts run 5.4% below an average month, while recurring gifts run 1.7% above. Run a recurring giving push in March, and audit failed payments in May.
What is the new charitable deduction for non-itemizers?
Starting with the 2026 tax year, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts to qualifying charities, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. Encourage givers to talk with a tax professional about their own situation.
Plan around how people actually give
Your program year will always shape church life. But when you plan giving around how people actually give, every ask lands at the right moment, your team works from one shared plan, and the summer dip and the December rush stop being surprises.
Start with the season you're in. Then keep the calendar where your whole team can see it.
Download the free Generosity Calendar, and when you're ready to go deeper, get the full Generosity Gap report.
VIDEO transcript
Most churches plan their giving year around the program year. There's the fall kickoff, the Easter series, and the stewardship month someone picked years ago and nobody has questioned since.
Your givers follow a different calendar.
That's why we created this church giving calendar: a month-by-month plan based on a full year of giving data from about 53,000 churches that use Tithely. It shows what to focus on, why each month matters, and even which day of the week to make the ask.
Think of it as a church giving calendar—or a year-round church stewardship calendar—built around when people actually give rather than simply when your programs happen.
Want it on one page? Download the free Generosity Calendar and keep it next to your planning calendar.
Why your giving plan needs its own calendar
The program year tells you when people show up. Giving data tells you when they give. Those two calendars overlap, but they aren't the same, and the gaps between them are where churches lose momentum.
Most church giving statistics tell you how much people give. This data tells you when. Here's what a year of giving looks like across about 53,000 churches:
- 39% of all gifts arrive on Sunday.
- 15.4% of weekly dollars arrive on Friday, the busiest day outside Sunday.
- 13.3% of monthly dollars land on just two dates: the 1st and the 15th.
- 11.8% of the whole year's giving happens in December.
None of that is visible from the pulpit. But it changes when you should make an ask, what you should measure, and where your team should spend its time.
That's why the calendar works best as a shared plan. Pastors can use it to time teaching on generosity. Church administrators can use it to schedule emails and texts. Finance teams can use it to forecast cash flow and spot the summer dip before it arrives.
The one rule behind the whole calendar
Before we get to the months, there's one rule that applies to every one of them:
Every dated ask lands on a Thursday or Friday, or on the 1st or the 15th. Not Tuesday.
The content of your ask matters. But the timing decides whether people read it while the money is still in their account. Fridays, the 1st and the 15th are common paydays, and the giving data follows them. An email that arrives on payday meets a giver who can act on it. One that arrives on a Tuesday meets a giver who is already budgeting around rent and groceries.
In practice, that means three small changes:
- Schedule giving emails and texts for Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.
- When you ask people to set up recurring gifts, name the 1st or the 15th as the date.
- Line up campaign deadlines with a Friday or the 1st of the month, not the middle of the week.
The Generosity Calendar, month by month
The calendar breaks the year into four seasons. Each one has a clear job, and each month has a single focus, so your team always knows what matters most right now.
January and February: Start the year with trust
January: Explain the new deduction and send giving statements early. Starting with the 2026 tax year, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts to charity ($2,000 for married couples filing jointly). Most of your givers have never had this benefit, and nobody else is likely to tell them. Mention it when you send statements. Send accurate statements early in the month, because a correct, on-time statement builds trust before you ask for anything else.
February: Report last year's impact with specifics. Follow the statement with a clear picture of what giving made possible: real numbers, real names (with permission), and real outcomes. "We served 1,200 meals" lands harder than "Thank you for your generosity." Giving is still on people's minds from their statement, so this is the right moment to connect dollars to ministry.
March to May: Build a budget that survives the summer
March: Run your first recurring giving push. Ask people to switch just one gift to recurring. It's a small, specific ask, and March leaves enough time for the habit to stick before summer. Remember the rule: name the 1st or the 15th as the date. For scripts, setup tips and ways to promote it, see our complete guide to recurring giving for churches.
April: Make Easter giving easy for first-time guests. Easter brings more first-time visitors than any other Sunday of the year. Walk through your online giving path on a phone, the way a guest would. Can they give in under a minute without creating an account? Is the QR code or text number on the screen and in the bulletin? Fix anything that adds friction.
May: Summer-proof the budget. This is the last month to act before one-time giving dips. Check what share of your giving is recurring, and review failed payments from expired cards. A quick note asking givers to update their payment details can save a surprising amount of summer giving.
June to September: Hold steady, then re-engage
June to August: Watch participation, not dollars. In the summer months, one-time gifts run 5.4% below an average month, while recurring gifts run 1.7% above. In other words, recurring giving is what carries a church through the summer. Track how many people give each week rather than how much comes in, and don't panic over a light Sunday.
September: Re-engage lapsed givers by name. The fall restart is the year's best window for reconnecting with people who stopped giving. Skip the mass email. Have a pastor or staff member reach out personally, and lead with relationship rather than the ask.
October to December: Finish the year strong
October: Talk to your largest givers about stock, DAF and QCD gifts. Gifts of appreciated stock, donor-advised fund (DAF) grants, and qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) from IRAs often take planning. Have these conversations now, before givers sit down with their financial advisors for year-end planning, not after. If your church isn't set up to receive these gifts yet, start with our guide to stock and crypto giving for churches.
November: Build the December plan. Set your dates, your goal, and one specific story that shows what year-end giving will do. If your ask is multi-year, such as a building or debt-reduction campaign, a pledge campaign fits well here. For more ideas, see these simple ways to encourage year-end giving for churches.
December: Execute. December holds 11.8% of the year's giving and runs 42% above an average month. The giving is weighted heavily toward the end: December 31 alone accounts for 1.3% of the entire year, and the last four days account for 3.3%. Weight your communication toward the final two weeks, and plan a short, clear reminder for the 31st.
Reading this in the fall? Start here. You haven't missed the most important part of the year. Here's what to do in the next few weeks:
- This week: Make a short list of your largest givers and schedule conversations about stock, DAF and QCD gifts.
- By mid-November: Lock in your December dates, goal, and story.
- Before December 15: Draft your final-two-weeks emails and your December 31 reminder, and schedule them for Thursdays, Fridays, or the 31st.
- In January: Send accurate giving statements early, and explain the new deduction for non-itemizers.
Sunday is still the heart of giving, but it does a different job than you might expect. It's where the most people give, which makes it the best measure of participation. Larger gifts tend to come during the week, when people are at home with time to think, often around payday.
So keep making giving easy on Sunday, and send your thoughtful, planned asks on Thursday or Friday.
Source: Tithely internal transaction data, calendar year 2025. Figures are aggregate and de-identified, and are reported as shares rather than amounts.
Download the Generosity Calendar
The whole plan fits on a single page you can print for your next staff meeting or share with your finance team. You get:
- All 12 months, each with its focus and the reason behind it
- The one timing rule that applies to every ask
- The weekly giving rhythm, with what to do about it
Download the free Generosity Calendar
The calendar shows when. The full report shows why.
Every month on the calendar traces back to a finding in The Generosity Gap, Tithely's church generosity report. If you want the reasoning behind the plan, or you need to make the case to your board or finance committee, the full report has it.
Inside, you'll find:
- How people actually give: rhythm, device, and where the dollars sit across about 53,000 churches
- The concentration problem: why fewer donors are carrying more of the load
- What changed in the tax code, and who it helps
- Seven moves that work, each tied to a specific finding and ordered by effort
- The Generosity Health Check: a 15-minute scored self-assessment for your church
Want a quick read on where your church stands first? Take the free church financial health check online. It takes about 15 minutes and scores itself.
Get the full Generosity Gap report, free
Frequently asked questions
What is a church giving calendar?
A church giving calendar is a year-round plan for when a church will communicate about generosity, recurring giving, special gifts, stewardship, and year-end giving. Rather than treating giving as a single annual campaign, the calendar helps church leaders match each message to the times of year when givers are most likely to take action.
What is the best day to ask for church donations?
Thursday or Friday. Friday is the busiest giving day outside Sunday, bringing in 15.4% of weekly dollars across about 53,000 churches. Giving also peaks on the 1st and 15th of the month, which together bring in 13.3% of monthly dollars. Avoid sending planned asks on a Tuesday.
When do most people give to church?
Most gifts (39%) arrive on Sunday, but Sunday gifts are the smallest of any day of the week. Larger gifts tend to come during the week, especially on Friday and around the 1st and 15th. Across the year, December is the biggest month by far.
How much of a church's annual giving happens in December?
About 11.8% of the year's giving happens in December, which is 42% above an average month. The end of the month matters most: December 31 alone accounts for 1.3% of the year, and the last four days of December account for 3.3%.
How can a church keep giving steady over the summer?
Grow recurring giving before summer starts. In June through August, one-time gifts run 5.4% below an average month, while recurring gifts run 1.7% above. Run a recurring giving push in March, and audit failed payments in May.
What is the new charitable deduction for non-itemizers?
Starting with the 2026 tax year, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts to qualifying charities, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. Encourage givers to talk with a tax professional about their own situation.
Plan around how people actually give
Your program year will always shape church life. But when you plan giving around how people actually give, every ask lands at the right moment, your team works from one shared plan, and the summer dip and the December rush stop being surprises.
Start with the season you're in. Then keep the calendar where your whole team can see it.
Download the free Generosity Calendar, and when you're ready to go deeper, get the full Generosity Gap report.
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Chris Dunagan is a marketing strategist focused on church tech and digital engagement. He helps churches grow through SEO, email campaigns, and tools like Tithely and Breeze ChMS, with an emphasis on online giving, content strategy, and digital outreach.
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