Church Funding

1,279 Views | 7 Replies | Last: 1 mo ago by CrackerJackAg
CrackerJackAg
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AG
Anyone here have experience in this department? Specialized lenders, advice etc…?

Resources or best practices etc….?

Obviously any info here would be appreciated.

If anyone with some knowledge and experience was willing to have a chat I would appreciate 10 minutes of their time.

cgh1999
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Are you asking about operational funding or financing real estate?
AGC
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CrackerJackAg said:

Anyone here have experience in this department? Specialized lenders, advice etc…?

Resources or best practices etc….?

Obviously any info here would be appreciated.

If anyone with some knowledge and experience was willing to have a chat I would appreciate 10 minutes of their time.




If you're talking real estate, the baptists have a loan corporation with lower interest rates available, assuming you're orthodox in belief.
Windy City Ag
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I help with the finance committee on a fairly large and prosperous Methodist church. Despite having an active and generous group of supporters, they often lean on Foundation Loans and general Church financial assistance. You should be looking to your larger Church leaders and affiliated faith foundations for any and all options.

Ditto for insurance. They use the WesPath option provided by the United Methodist Church.

Obviously you will need as group of interested and able parishioners to serve as a set of eyes and ears for the Church Budget. I have never seen an effective preacher that gets into it to manage a budget and they usually make a terrible hash of it.

Build good relationships with your parent Church contacts as they can either be an incredible helping hand or force you into situations you would otherwise avoid. We had to swallow and old failing church not too far away and that has been a ton of work.


And many of the best practices within a Church are no different than at a corporation. Make sure to have:

1) a thorough budgeting process

2) a proper tracking process to make sure spending and cash flow are tracking . . . this is almost always a fail inside churches

3) oversight of cash disbursements and check writing

4) a strong offertory counting process. Sadly, there have been some five fingers discounts that had to be dealt with over the years.

5) a good culture of expense minimization. Make sure bids on any service are shopped. I have often been frustrated and church spending being farmed out to friends of the church at elevated rates.





TSJ
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I know this is a little tangential, but Saint Vladimir's released this book Money and Salvation by Andrew Geleris. It goes over a financial giving and how that can be implemented in your Parish. It's not the nuts and bolts, but I would see if SVS press has a way to contact Dr. Geleris and see if they can help you with your specific questions.

https://svspress.com/money-salvation-an-invitation-to-the-good-way/

We read this in our Parish book club this past spring and gave me better perspective on giving.
CrackerJackAg
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Thank you guys so much for the info!

It's early and in the early decision making process as to whether I want to be working with others heading this up at all.
one MEEN Ag
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When dealing with money, trust but verify. Your biggest threat regarding handling money is some trusted church member slowly taking money away from the church. Usually starts small under the guise they deserve it because of their service. I've heard stories of churches where they weren't good at tracking money, were too trusting of key individuals, not enough eyes on the cash, and come audit time lots of lots of money is missing. Churches usually don't go guns blazing to the DA to prosecute so it doesn't make the news a lot. But it does happen.
CrackerJackAg
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one MEEN Ag said:

When dealing with money, trust but verify. Your biggest threat regarding handling money is some trusted church member slowly taking money away from the church. Usually starts small under the guise they deserve it because of their service. I've heard stories of churches where they weren't good at tracking money, were too trusting of key individuals, not enough eyes on the cash, and come audit time lots of lots of money is missing. Churches usually don't go guns blazing to the DA to prosecute so it doesn't make the news a lot. But it does happen.


That's terrible.

I know some say all sins are the same in the eyes of God.

I don't agree.
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