Five Financial Resources
April is National Financial Literacy Month, and ECF is offering five resources to help build and strengthen your congregation’s financial knowledge and capacity. Educating ourselves is the first step to being more effective about spending, saving and investing our funds for our congregational mission and ministry.
These five financial resources will enhance your financial education and decision-making.
1. Basics of Church Financial Reporting
In Basics of Church Financial Reporting - Part 1 and 2, Jerry Keucher explains how to write financial and budget reports, and ways to use them correctly to present a clear reflection of a church’s financial health. Click here to view sample vestry reports tied to the parochial report, Revenue/Expense Budget and Balance Sheet. You may also wish to view the ECF webinar entitled “Fearless Finances”.
2. Planned Giving
Healthy and vibrant future ministries in Episcopal congregations, schools, and other organizations will be built upon the legacies we leave today. Is your parish looking to jump start your planned giving efforts at your congregation? Did your parish start a planned giving program several years ago, but it stopped being active? ECF has many resources to support your parish at whatever planned giving stage you find yourself in. Take a look at Starting a planned giving program from scratch, one of the many helpful tools from ECF’s comprehensive toolkit Planned Giving on Demand.
3. Capital Campaigns & Special Appeals
Has your parish never conducted a capital campaign? ECF now has a new website of on-line resources for annual, capital campaigns, special appeals and much more, called, ECF360. To review the resources, including how-to-manuals, downloadable templates and letters for conducting a special appeal or considering a capital campaign click here. ECF360 will continue to evolve and receive additional resources. You can see what is currently available here.
4. Calculating Cost of Church Space
Your church space is a valuable asset, and one that can be used to generate income. In How Much is Your Congregation’s Space Worth?, Jerry Keucher provides key questions to consider before renting out space and shares a tool to determine what it costs to operate and how much to charge. Click here to view a spreadsheet you can download that will help you find the answer to what it costs you to use and operate your church space.
5. ECF - Endowment Management
Getting the structure of your endowment right is often the key to its success. If you want to encourage legacy gifts to your endowment you will need to explain how the money will be used, how it will be invested, how much will be spent each year, and who is in charge of making those decisions. ECF offers a complete set of sample endowment policies (as editable Word documents) that have been used in hundreds of Episcopal institutions. Click here to learn more. For a basic understanding of endowments and best practices, watch this webinar.
For more information, please contact Josh Anderson, Associate Program Director at 800-697-2858 or by e-mail [email protected].