Stewardship with Susan Ranous
Thursday, February 29, 2024
11 WAYS TO SUPPORT STEWARDSHIP FOR YOUR CHURCH #2
Last week, I started sharing about the VANCO stewardship booklet on the 11 Ways to support stewardship for your church. I started with the first way: How to Increase Tithing, and the eight ways to do that.
This week, I want to share the second way: Fundraising, with the first part on fundraising guidelines and the eight ways to do that. To make sure you do fundraising well, make sure all the ground rules are set and all your “ducks are in a row.”
1. Create a Clear Agenda – this is important to make sure you are only doing what you are allowed to do, by Discipline and by law.
2. Establish Protocols for Approving Fundraisers – It is important that only approved fundraisers are allowed. Having someone fundraise in the church’s name, without approval and without guidance. Develop a process that will guide the church to from idea to fruition. Who do people go to with ideas? Who has the ability to approve? Part of the protocol is to determine what the point of the fundraising is; how will it benefit your ministry, and what is the cost to start.
3. Limit the Types of Fundraising – Too often fundraising seems to be the focus of people in the church, because we “need money to stay open.” But when it becomes the focus, it can overshadow the ministry work. One of the phrases in the VANCO booklet said it this way “you also don’t want your church to become a religious flea market where you’re always pushing products unto members and visitors.” Wow! Reminds me of the scripture for the third Sunday in Lent this year. Create a list of the types of fundraisers you want to do and order them by level of importance.
4. Incorporate Systems for Financial Responsibility – A budget needs to be created for each fundraiser and the ability to track the money, etc. needs to be in place. The ability to make online donations or purchases as part of your fundraising effort is important.
5. Understand the Difference Between Ticket Sales and Donations – Basically, donations are non-taxable income, which means a gift being made with no expectation of receiving anything tangible in return. Purchases of tickets imply something else.
6. Learn About Waivers and Liability – Check with your church’s insurance carrier to make sure your coverage is adequate for what you’re planning (event, vendors, etc.) Are there waivers that need to be created and signed?
7. Event Marketing – Communication is important for everything in the church, but communicating about upcoming fundraising is also important. If people don’t know, then the fundraising won’t be effective.
8. Establishing Quality Controls – Create objectives, communicate frequently, make changes as needed, and check in with each other regularly. And once the fundraiser is over, meet to debrief. What worked? What didn’t? Approach this not as a matter of finger-pointing but of learning, so future fundraisers will be successful.
We’ll learn more next week about increasing tithing and what that means. We started with the second part of that list (fundraising) but will continue the ideas about fundraising next week.
If you wish more information on anything you’ve been reading about, please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com or susanranous@unyumc.org. I’d be happy to help or answer any questions.
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