Links for the first two parts of this series are at the bottom of this page in NOTES. The highlighted words in this post will help you follow the topics.

Your January Guide: Part 3 of 4

Regular Tasks

How are you doing on January tasks?

Of course, life doesn’t stop for these. You have plenty of things to keep up with.

• We printed our prayer letter Tuesday and will mail them on Thursday. Two days late, according to our plans, but we weren’t aiming for a bull’s eye.
• I have some more fund appeal thank-you notes to write. I couldn’t keep up, so I’ll have to catch up in a day or two. I prefer to mail these before we send out our prayer letter.
• We have a lot of medical reimbursements, so I made some time to submit a claim last week. Doing one claim every three weeks or so keeps these from piling up.
• Every 25th of the month, I address next month’s greeting cards. (Order Valentine’s cards if you don’t have any on hand.) See Make Your Greeting Card Plan for the Year.

Now for this week’s January tasks.

I planned this series in the first week of January. This past week, my topics were already showing up in MPD chatter. I’ll discuss the 14-month Partner Report and the MPGA report with a correspondence plan in mind.

The MPDX 14-Month Partner Report

Under the Reports tab in MPDX, choose the 14-Month Partner Report.

By grabbing this report within the next four weeks, you’ll have a view of the previous calendar year. If you want a record of donations, save it as a PDF file or as a paper version.

Do this every year to have a snapshot of each year’s giving.

If you exported the report, it doesn’t print well on a sheet of paper.  I use Excel to tweak the report so it will. Email me if you want me to send you instructions.

The MPGA Report

NOTE: The Ministry Partner Giving Analysis (MPGA) is a moving window (the data changes “daily”). The report most accurately reflects January through December giving after January 10th. This is why I recommend printing or saving a copy now if you want to keep your report of donations for 2024.  Get your copy before February. Print a copy of this report every year or save the sections as PDF files. The report is bigger than a sheet of paper, so the right sides are cropped for some sections of the report.

The MPGA Report is a treasure trove of information. You should dig into it every year for financial and correspondence planning. This link should take you to the MPGA (Ministry Partner Giving Analysis) Report on the StaffWeb. Or go to MPD & Donations / My Donations. Use the slider to find the MPGA report.

Sort on different columns in the report to help you make decisions.

The Lost Partners Tab

By sorting (descending) on the Last Gift column, I will know who to challenge first for a gift in 2025.

(Some on this list have retired or have gone to be with the Lord.)

Giving Frequency Analysis

We have five ministry partners giving 7  to 10 times per year.

Sorting on the “12 Mo. Gift Count” in the first section (Current Partners) reveals who these folks are. I pop over to the Reminder System on the StaffWeb* to add them for regular reminders from Cru when they miss a donation. If they’re already in the Reminder System, I will send these folks a letter and form about giving through EFT.

(*Or go to MPD & Donations / My Donations. Use the slider to find the Ministry Partner Reminders.)

The Top 50% of Your Ministry Partners Tab

Twenty-two ministry partners are giving $125+ per month. This represents half of our monthly income.

The Giving Range Analysis Tab

I make my annual correspondence plan based on our Top 50%, High 80%, Faithful Donors, and all other donors.

Using the far right column of our report, I estimate our High 80% of donors are giving $60+ monthly. That is, 80% of our income comes from everyone giving at least $60 monthly.

My third group, Faithful, is monthly donors giving less than $60 per month.

The last group is any remaining donors.

A Suggested Correspondence Plan

Divide your team into these four groups and make a plan for the year. See How to Divide Your Partners by Priority for why and how to divide your Ministry Partner team. The post concludes with ideas on planning for greeting cards and phone calls for the year ahead.

Here’s a suggested annual plan to help you think about what you might do:

	Thank Yous	Greeting Card	Holiday Card	Christmas Card	Monthly Phone Call
50% Top	twice per year	yes	yes	yes	one donor
80% High	yes	pick two			one donor
Faithful	yes	pick one
Other	yes	no	pick one

Everyone gets a thank you and a greeting card.

The 22 partners (in our case), who provide half of our income, get the most attention. The 80% group receives a greeting card (birthday or anniversary) and a holiday card (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Valentine’s for our widows). Our Faithful group receives a greeting card annually.

This year, we’d like to try two phone calls per month.

These are guidelines. For instance, if an occasional donor in the fourth group sends a large gift, you’ll want to move them to the 80% High group.

You love and appreciate all your donors. You can’t keep up with more than a hundred people equally. Take the time to plan for your communication with all your ministry partners. You’ll be more effective in communicating with them.

Here are our team communication groups for 2025:

50% Top	22
80% High	27
Faithful	42
Other	16
All	117

When Prayer Letters Are Sent through MailChimp

More of our donors receive our prayer letters through MailChimp. This makes it so important to send hand-written thank yous and greeting cards because:

• People appreciate a personal touch.
• Also, I find out about address changes for people in our MailChimp list if I mail something during the year.

This would also be true if you email a PDF newsletter.

Would creating a communication plan make your correspondence easier and more consistent?

Pick out what you would like to do from these suggestions.

Our MPD Staff Team Recommends These Reports

Check out the January 17th Stewardship Connections email, the Cru Annual MPD Plan, and anything from our MPD coaches about these two reports. The coaches use them for financial planning:

The 14-month Donation Report

• Looking over the donations for 2024 and then updating MPDX.

The Ministry Partner Giving Analysis report

• Look through the tabs, especially the Income/Expenses tab to help you complete your MPD Goal Calculator.

Consider making a stewardship appointment with one of our MPD staff here.

NOTES:

• MPD is Ministry Partner Development
• The planned series:
  • Part 1
    • Finish up EOYA tasks
    • Address January greeting cards if you haven’t done so.
  • Part 2
    • Make a year plan for prayer letters. Start your January letter.
    • Start your reimbursement spreadsheet for the year.
    • Start a digital folder for your medical PDF files.
  • Part 3
    • Make financial MPD plans.
    • Make correspondence MPD plans.
    • Finish prayer letter.
  • Part 4
    • Update the Reminder System on the StaffWeb
    • Update thank-you note wording for the year.
    • Create thank-you note story insert.
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