10 Ways to Make Tithing Easy

Tithing generally refers to taking the first 10 percent of your income – the first fruits or cream of the crop, so to speak – and donating it to your church or the charity or charities of your choice.

If you’re like me, you’ve always wanted to tithe your income, but sometimes it seems so hard! But it doesn’t have to be. Here are 10 tips to make tithing easy.

1. Have your employer take it off the top. Most employers offer various payroll deduction plans. Talk with your employer to see if you can have 10 percent of your gross income automatically deducted from your paycheck and forwarded to the charity of your choice. For example, many employers do payroll deductions in conjunction with the local United Way campaign. They might also accommodate your request for the charity you choose.

2. Put it in a special account. Set up a special account just for your tithing funds. Many employers are linked with credit unions and will accommodate your request to take a specific amount or percentage from your paycheck each pay period and deposit it into a specific account. This could be a separate savings account or even a Christmas Club account – the proceeds of which you can donate to the charity of your choice when you receive the check each fall.

3. Write your charitable checks first. Good intentions can fade fast when it comes to bill-paying time. You might be tempted to give “what’s left” instead of your first fruits. This kind of defeats the purpose of tithing and can lead to guilty feelings instead of the positive feelings you want to get from the act of tithing. Before you sit down to pay your bills, write the check for 10 percent of your gross income out to your church or charity and mail it out.

4. Sign up for your bank’s automatic debit service. Most banks and businesses are happy to use automated debit services that withdraw certain funds from your savings or checking account on a particular date each month. You don’t even have to write a check. You sign an authorization and the money just comes out automatically. Our bank gives us a lower interest rate for using this service to make our car payment and pay our mortgage each month. Our life, health, and disability insurance automatically come out of our checking account on the same date each month, as well. Many utilities and phone companies encourage this option now, and recently, our church suggested it. Simply designate the specific amount to withdraw on a specific date each month and the money will automatically be transferred to the church or charity’s bank account and deducted from the balance in your account.

5. Tithe your time instead of your money. If you’re like me, cash is sometimes hard to come by. (I’m also really short on time, but sometimes that’s in more plentiful supply than money!) Take a look at your working hours. Assuming you work a 40-hour week, 10 percent of your working time would come out to 4 hours. Consider volunteering 4 hours each week to your church or the charity of your choice. Perhaps that means reading to kids at the library on Saturday mornings or walking dogs at the local animal shelter. Whatever charity you support, this may be the easy answer for you!

6. Tithe your talents instead of your money. Similar to tithing your time, look at your individual skills and talents. Is there something you can offer your church or charity – some talent or skill you possess that equates to monetary value? Perhaps your church needs a bookkeeper. Normally, they would hire someone for $60 per month to keep the books. Donate your talent in lieu of your cash and do the bookkeeping for your church at no charge!

7. Donate a possession of value. You’ve been meaning to tithe all year. Now you look back and you haven’t given nearly what you had planned. Take a look at your income. Compute 10 percent of gross – the standard amount of tithing. Now look around your home. Do you have something you no longer need – something of value that your church or charity might use or sell to generate income – of that same approximate value? Perhaps it is a used car you no longer need or one you were planning to trade in. Why not donate it instead? Maybe it’s some furniture or an appliance you really don’t use? Whatever the item, if it honestly has value, your donation/contribution could become your tithe.

8. If money is really tight, consider getting a part-time job entirely for the purpose of “giving something back.” Maybe you could work at a gas station one evening a week or work part-time for your local library, nursing home, or other facility and dedicate that specific income to your local charity. Because it’s “extra” income aside from your regular job, it won’t impact your “normal” finances.

9. Combine cash, time, and talent to arrive at your tithe. Maybe money is in short supply, but you can give a little bit. Give what you can and make up the difference between what you can donate in cash and what you want to give in time and talent as suggested in numbers 5 and 6 above. Who says it has to be all one way or the other. Mix it up!

10. Contribute through organizations that offer a gift-matching program. For example, some organizations will match your gift of up to $50 or $100 per family member to the charity of your choice or specific charities you may regularly support. You can write a separate check for each member of your family and essentially double your gift or the impact of your gift. Now that’s an offer that’s too good to refuse! Talk about making tithing easy!

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