THE NUMBERS
The Numbers: How At God’s Table was supported in 2012
The tax letters for donations are out. You might be interested in the breakdown for 2012. These numbers do not include people or money that came from the sales of books and other products. Just donations.
Donor statistics 2012
593 total donors. There are 1255 people on the email list. This means 47% (662 people) who receive the daily email gave nothing in 2012 to support the community and the teaching. I was surprised.
212 gave $25 or less for the year. 212 times $25 is a lot of money. I am grateful for these donations. They really help. But it means 38% of the community gave less than $2 a month.
124 gave more than $25 but less than $50 for the year. I really appreciate your gifts. I couldn’t do what I do without supporters.
72 people gave between $50 and $100 for the year. That’s 12% of the donors. These people undoubtedly made a big difference. I need them. Thank you.
Now the summary so far: All of this means that 71% of the donors in the community gave less than $10 a month in support. I am glad to have this support and I know that for some it meant sacrifice. But I was discouraged to find so many in this group. Not simply because of the donations but because this could reflect how difficult things are for many people.
124 people gave more than $10 a month. That’s 21% of the donors. Thank you! It seems that the 80/20 rule applies to this community too.
30 people gave 35% of the total dollars. Lots and lots of thank you’s. That means 5% of the donors gave 35% of the donations.
2 gave 22% of the total dollars. That means 3/10ths of 1% of the total community gave 22% of all the money received. How can I ever express my gratefulness for the favor of both of you?
My surprise: When I look at these statistics, I see pretty much the same distribution of revenues that we find in the tax revenues of the United States. Half the people gave nothing. 5% of the people provided 35% of the revenue. 71% of the people who gave were in the middle. Why does this surprise me? I thought that this community would be different than the culture where it lives.
Imagine what would happen if the 71% who gave less than $10 a month decided to give at least $10 a month.
Even better: Imagine what would happen if the 662 people who gave nothing decided to give $10 a month to this effort. WOW!
By the way, $10 a month is the equivalent of 1 cup a coffee a week at 7-11 (and far less at Starbuck’s). It’s $0.33 per day.
I pray this will stir some to act. I would love this community to be an exception to the rule.
Thank you for the update, very interesting, am stired towards giving more!!!
Shalom
You have described the Pareto principle… also known as the 80-20 rule. 80% of the peas come from 20% of the pods. 80% of the land is owned by 20% of the people. Similar variations are evident in distributions of many different kinds. Not that we shouldn’t all be more inspired to give. It’s just highly unlikely that the 80% would all of a sudden do something very abnormal. Let’s hope they are part of the 20% in some other aspect of ministry and distributing the love of the Lord in some other way.
Yes Armond. I agree and hope so too.
When I first read the report I thought of the poverty/brokenness common among those ready to receive the gospel message. I hope the numbers are somewhat a reflection of that and not simply an indication that we haven’t been changed by the Spirit. I think we have. I know I have.
Blessings 🙂
Thank you for this financial update. Do these figures include amounts paid for downloads or just donations? I have really appreciated you studies since finding you this past year and I want you to stay encouraged…. I have found your download format and paypal to be well thouht out and implemented. Sincerely , Ruth
This does not include payments for downloads and products since donations are a different tax category.
I am thinking that your donation only total might not be an acurate reflection of your supporters. Thinking of myself, I either purchase a download or donate not both….I hope this information has been helpful to you. Ruth
That’s a valid point, but the truth is that all the purchases only amounted to 10.8% of the total, so as you can see, it nearly all comes from donations.
Thank you, Skip for this.
Don’t you mean 53% never contributed anything? 662/1255 🙂 It’s slightly worse… 🙁
Yes, of course. Only 47% contributed.
Considering that taxes are mandatory, and the attitude that ‘everything is free on the internet’ — I would think that this community IS starting to break the norm. I think it speaks well of the quality of content and discussion made available here.
In a ‘virtual world’ without the social pressure of a weekly offering plate passed around, and with participants already giving (in many cases) to the congregation where they physically attend — I would not take the numbers pessimistically.
I appreciate this ‘place’ and everyone here, and thanks to God for His provision.
Skip: I live in Canada. I’m not sure if your “tax letters” extend this far. Please advise. Also can you direct me to the paypal info. thanks
We sent a tax donation letter to everyone on the list regardless of country. You can access the PayPal option at
skipmoen.com/donate
Thank you.
Skip,
Do your figures account for married couples? I’m wondering if some of those people who “gave nothing” are spouses of people who did give, and who do support you but they just put the donation under one name. Also, what about donations from people who are not on your email list? What are those figures?
I am glad that you recognize hard financial times as a factor; it is not that you are doing anything wrong or that people do not want to support you.
Donations are tracked by email address so if a married couple has multiple addresses but uses only one email to donate, then only one donation source is recognized. However, it is quite unusual for me to have two email addresses for a married couple and send to both of them. It does happen, but not often. When a married couple give under tow different email addresses, both addresses are recognized as individual donors. So, it is quite unlikely that 53% of the people who did not give are represented by this exception.
I do not receive donations from people who are not on the email list OR whom I did not send a tax letter to. Because At God’s Table is a 501(c)3, I am required by law to recognize and report every donor. The numbers you see represent every donor regardless of email address.
Bottom line: something like half of the readers didn’t provide support. I think prior blog comments confirm two indisputable facts. 1. Internet users are accustomed to FREE on the internet and therefore do not think about the support issue and 2. some percentage of Christian readers still believe that God’s word should be free
And, of course, lots of people are having a hard time these days, in spite of the media trying to convince us that things are better.
All these sheep are in your hands. Your words are the voice of a shepherd. They will dance to the sound of your harp.
Skip, you have convinced/convicted me. I have been meaning to give, but just have not been able to for one reason or another. But I have realized how much I am gleaning from this teaching and cannot afford to lose it. I am committing myself to a small monthly amount and am sure that it will increase in time. Years ago, my Pastor had little writtings that were on the church bulitan that were powerful . I saved everyone and have them today…for 15 years…I am so glad I kept them for future reference. He is in his 80’s now and I still glean as much as I can when he speaks the Word, because I know it will not be forever. Just like TW, I shudder to think what would happen if it stopped. We have all been brought to TW for a reason and a purpose, no coincidence, we better not take it for granted.
I do think that this community is different and I am glad because of it. I’m certain that Wiki wishes 47% of it’s users gave support. So while the profile is similar to that given through taxation, I’m sure it’s not a representative of ‘free’ web sources.
This is not an excuse that all who genuinely benefit from Skip’s teaching and comments from the community should not contribute, but it is definately a testimony of a cultural change because, unlike taxes, everything that was given was given freely.
I suppose the lesson is not necessarily regarding donations to At God’s table, but to recognise those people, whoever they are that bring benefit into our lives (across the net or otherwise) and bless them and also, as with the work Skip does, have the opportunity to silently benefit others in the process.
Also following on from what Skip said about only 10% of his income coming from downloads and sales, I would really recommend all of these supplimentary teachings. There’re really good and I just wish there was more of them.
Thanks Andy. And I wish there were more things to download too. But there’s just me doing all this with Patrick’s help, so it goes slow.