Sixpence Giving

The Sixpence team initially set out to create giving methods that overcome the leading barriers to giving. However, in talking with pastors and believers, we realized that much of the framing of generosity in our churches was unhelpful, or even rooted in faulty theology. Since 2020, we've been on a mission to bring churches giving experiences that disciple, emphasize community, and bring in those who have long felt unneeded and/or uninspired to participate in the Church financially.

Stemming from an interest in missions, I studied Global Development in undergrad. During these studies, I read Richard Stearn's ""Hole in Our Gospel"" and learned that American Christians only give about 2.5% of their income to the Church. I steadily became increasingly interested in exploring how young believers in the Church could be ""activated"" and enabled to participate fully in the work God has laid out before them, particularly as relates to our collective giving.

Later, while working at Starbucks, I was struggling to participate in the Church financially myself. Barely covering my costs with an $11/hr wage and with my income varying by up to $1,000 in any given month, preset monthly giving was out the window. One-time giving, alternatively, was difficult to remember. I could use roundups and other creative methods for saving and investing accessibly, but desired for church giving to be just as enabling and accessible. Eventually, I set out to enable this vision with Sixpence.

The majority of Americans who identify as Christian do not participate in local churches financially, particularly among Millennials and Gen Z. We believe this is strongly because giving methods and conversations in the Church today ignore the necessities of accessibility and muddy financial realities. Pre-set monthly giving is a good fit for the less than 50% of our congregants who are salaried, while those with variable incomes have no sustained giving methods to match their lifestyles.

We didn't want to create another giving platform that does the same thing as everyone else and just tries to capture a share of the market. Instead, we went back to the basics to take a fundamentally different approach. Why "do" Christians give? What is the actual Scriptural basis for communal generosity? Why "don't" believers give? We set out to create a platform that fundamentally changes the giving experience to emphasize the reasons people give and lessen the reasons they might not.

Christopher holds a B.A. in Global Development and a M.Sc. in International Business. After working as a digital marketing consultant out of grad school, Christopher became the Development Director at Fathers' UpLift, utilizing his skills in content, digital, and story to take the organization from $700k ARR in FY19 to an expected $2.6M-$3M ARR for FY22. Christopher is passionate about enabling the Church, believing it is God's Plan A, B, and C for the mobilization and display of the Gospel.