Budget Archives - Church Operations Toolkit

6 Practical Ways to Achieve Excellence on a Budget

We’ve all experienced seasons where the budget is a bit tight – especially when the economy isn’t thriving. However, we still want to provide the absolute best for our communities and congregations. So how can you achieve operational excellence on a shoestring budget? Here are some practical tips you can implement at little, to no cost: Tip #1: Find the grammar police Look for a volunteer who is a perfectionist when it comes to correct spelling and grammar. Ask that individual to proofread all of your written communications. This includes the church website, social media posts (yes, grammar still counts in social media), brochures, letters, flyers, worship lyric screens, etc. Poor grammar and misspellings are perceived as a lack of professionalism and excellence. Build your church’s professional image and reputation by being a stickler in this area. All without breaking the budget. Tip #2: Honor volunteers Honoring volunteers involves respecting their time and efforts. For example, let’s say you decide to ask volunteers to do various beautification projects around your church on a Saturday. When you respect their time and have an organized workday, your volunteers will appreciate how well you planned the assignment and are more likely to serve again. Tip #3: Make a good first impression While God looks at the inside, people still judge by outward appearances. While we wish that wasn’t the case, we need to be aware of the first impression people get from your church facilities. Start with a facility evaluation and clean up or repair any areas that need attention. Also, take a look at the office areas. This may sound nitpicky, but a clean, organized office communicates an organized approach to serving your congregation and it provides a professional environment for your staff. You don’t need expensive artwork on the walls or brand new furniture. A simple décor that is well maintained shows that you’re an excellent steward of your resources. Tip #4: Pay attention to event details For example, if you provide childcare at an event, make sure you know how many children you’ll need to care for. Ask attendees to provide the number of children and their ages in the registration form so you’ll know how many childcare workers you’ll need well in advance. Also, consider the safety aspect of events. Make sure you have emergency procedures well developed and communicated to staff and event volunteers. Tip #5: Communicate effectively When developing communications for volunteers or event participants, consider your audience. What questions would you have if you knew nothing about your organization or the event? What would you be concerned about? How would you want to receive the information (email, phone, text message, handouts, etc.)? Tailor communications to different audiences if needed to address their varying concerns. Tip #6: Stay tuned to trends Using an outdated design scheme for a volunteer appreciation night or not knowing about a social media trend are quick ways to damage credibility and look “behind the times”. Try to stay up-to-date on current trends in social media, graphics, design ideas, etc. Ask volunteers of various ages what they think of your website, communications, videos, and social media channels. Take their feedback into consideration and make the necessary adjustments. If your logo and graphics need to be updated, check with a local community college and ask if any of their graphic arts students need some experience and will work for a reduced fee. You could get a great update and the student will gain valuable experience. These are just a few ways to ensure excellence in various areas of the church. Excellence is possible even when on a tight budget. As you make the most of the resources you do have, trust God to take your efforts and expand your capacity. Being faithful in these little things really is a big deal.

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3 Tips to Prevent Financial Fraud at Church

Jake Douglas

In 2017, authorities charged a former church employee with embezzling over $300,000. Authorities alleged the former financial secretary charged church credit cards to make personal purchases and used church funds to pay her own personal debts. This is a reminder of why we need controls to prevent fraud and steward the money God entrusts to our churches. I don’t know the leaders of the church involved, so I don’t know what controls they had at that time. However, here are a few simple steps you can take to reduce the risk of this happening at your church: Tip #1: The person authorized to make credit card charges should not reconcile credit card statements This is referred to as “segregation of duties.” If I have a church credit card (or access to them) and I’m also the sole person who reconciles those statements each month, it would be easy for me to make fraudulent charges without anyone noticing. Don’t leave that temptation in front of someone or expose your church to that level of risk. Instead, divide responsibilities. Have someone without access to church credit cards be responsible for reviewing monthly statements and monitoring charges. Tip #2: Consider outsourcing By hiring an outside company to reconcile the accounting records each month, you increase the chances of catching fraud. This is how the church in the story mentioned above found out about the embezzlement. The outsourcing company shouldn’t have direct access to your church’s bank or credit card accounts. They should be responsible for entering transactions into your church’s accounting software and/or handling monthly reconciliations and reports. Tip #3: Separate Accounts Payable Functions The person who enters vendors into the accounting software shouldn’t be able to enter invoices or print checks. Again, this goes back to “segregation of duties.” Here’s the scenario: You can set up security rights within an accounting system to divide responsibilities. This enables you to keep Joe from creating a new vendor, entering an invoice, and cutting a check to pay that fake invoice. If you don’t have enough staff members to separate responsibilities to this level, you have a couple of options: These aren’t the only internal controls you should have at your church, but they’re a good start. When people trust you with their tithes and offerings, they trust you to use and guard that money wisely. Invest the time now to put proper internal controls into place. Otherwise, you may be forced to invest time later into gathering evidence to prove fraud and deal with the aftermath at your church. Prevention is much less expensive (both financially and from a trust perspective) in the long run.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Planning for Easter

Jake Douglas

Planning an event takes time, teamwork, and lots of organization. Planning for Easter celebrations requires a bit of extra attention. Instead of surfing the web for various tools on how to plan for your Easter weekend, we thought it would be helpful to have one checklist to lead you through the entire planning process. We’ve gathered everything you need to know into one comprehensive guide to help you plan an incredible Easter for your church while also being able to pause and reflect on the season yourself. #1 — Plan Your Plan A part of planning for Easter includes creating the planning process. Follow these seven steps to pull off an amazing Easter service. Choose a Leader First things first, decide who will be in charge of coordinating Easter at your church. Make sure it’s someone who has event planning skills as well as time in their schedule. The Senior Pastor, for example, probably shouldn’t be the one handling Easter logistics, as crafting the sermon and approving the high-level plan is the SP’s focus. Whoever is in charge will need to coordinate between ministry departments — worship, children, youth, service, security, facilities, communications, etc. — to keep everyone on the same page and working toward the same goals. Don’t forget to pull in the accounting, communications, and facilities departments. They tend to get overlooked but they can have a huge impact on the success of Easter services and events. Having one person coordinating tasks is also helpful in preventing several departments from doing repetitive work. Determine the Scope There are so many things to explore when it comes to planning for Easter celebrations. Once you’ve chosen your leader, get a group together to determine the scope of your church’s capabilities. Will you include outreach events the week before, host an Easter egg hunt, or offer a breakfast gathering before service begins? You may even be thinking of putting on an Easter play. Write this out and talk it over with your department leads before moving on to step three. Finalize a Budget Creating a budget is such a crucial step to a successful Easter that we dedicated an entire blog post about it. For now, here are a few highlights: Find out if your church has a budget for Easter. If not, discuss money allocation options with your church accountant or executive pastor. From equipment rentals to decor to food, determine what your congregation will need in order to meet your scope. Draft your budget, including estimates, and send it to department leads for review. Create a Step-by-Step Plan Now that we’re counting weeks instead of months until Easter, it’s helpful to assign each task to a specific week to make sure it’s accounted for. Here is a high-level list of tasks by week leading up to Easter: Week 1: Finalize the overall theme and scope of activities for Easter weekend. This includes the sermon title, color scheme, themed décor, communion, food items, etc. Gather a planning team. Create and finalize a budget. Walk through the church campus and make a list of any repairs, clean up, or beautification work needed Week 2: Submit Purchase Requests for supplies, rentals, print jobs, etc. Finalize color scheme for Easter graphics. Determine if the church will do any outreach events leading up to Easter. Week 3: Order supplies needed for décor, guest handouts/gifts, etc. Order rentals (tables, chairs, sound equipment) Hire additional security personnel if needed. Create graphics for sermon slides, church website, social media posts, handouts, etc. Plan outreach events (if applicable). Determine volunteer needs (how many you’ll need in each role for Easter weekend). Ask for volunteers to help with church repair, clean up, or beautification projects. Week 4: Create social media posts and start scheduling them. Create Facebook ads. Finalize worship set list. Schedule worship team rehearsals. Ask current volunteers to serve during Easter weekend. Week 5: Recruit additional volunteers as needed (contact people who have served at events but not on a regular basis). Prepare volunteer instructions and training materials. Purchase supplies needed for Easter Sunday. Promote Easter services via Facebook ads, social media posts, and mass email to the congregation. Decide how to follow up with Easter guests and set that system in place. You may need additional volunteers to help with data entry or other follow-up needs. Week 6: Complete church repair, clean up, or beautification projects. Finalize sermon slides. Send any final print jobs to the printer. Encourage the congregation to invite others to Easter services. Week 7: Double check that all supplies needed for Easter Sunday were purchased. Conduct a service run-through. Conduct worship team rehearsal. Host outreach event if applicable. Put guest follow-up process into place. Put the Plan into Place Now that you have your weekly plan, assign tasks to the appropriate team member, making sure to emphasize the deadlines for each. It’s also a good idea to send email reminders to your team in the days and weeks before their task is set to be complete. When volunteers are likely dealing with a number of obligations outside of church, this is a great way to keep your church activities relevant and on track. Enjoy an Impactful Easter! If you have followed this list until now, you are ready to reap the fruits of your labor. Now, enjoy an impactful Easter! Review and Reflect Hosting a successful Easter celebration for years to come is only possible with a review of what worked and, most importantly, what didn’t. Sit down with your planning team and members of your congregation to determine what didn’t go quite as smoothly as you’d hoped. Learn from these lessons and plan better for next year. #2 — Recruit Volunteers Without a doubt, you’re going to need extra hands for Easter. By putting these tips into practice, you can start filling those volunteer roles now while adding to your regular volunteer team later. For a full discussion on working with volunteers in your church, take a look at my

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