Step One:
Gather the Data
Gather the Data
Money talks. So what is it saying about our church? As church leaders we need to know our numbers.
In this first step, one person on behalf of the planning group will gather some financial data to help see what is really going on.
They will also generate an anonymous giving profile and an initial draft budget.
The final Knowing our Numbers Report will be discussed by the planning group as they build the Case Statement.
Using the ‘Knowing Our Numbers’ worksheet, begin to work through the steps below.
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The Getting Started video will give you a quick overview of to the process of gathering the data and generating a financial report for the planning group.
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We start with the big picture; a broad canvas for our ministry, mission and stewardship: total income and expenditure and the money we hold in our reserves. This information comes from the Return of Parish Finance (Anglican) or from our church accounts.
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Planned giving is most often our biggest source of income. Average giving levels are helpful, but they don’t tell the whole story. A simple giving profile is a bit more work but it offers more understanding, helps us see the skew in giving and gives greater confidence as we ask people to review their giving.
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The next task is to create a very simple budget with one purpose. We simply want to identify a weekly giving target for our Giving in Grace programme. We want to adequately, even abundantly resource the ministry and mission of our church.
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We are all God’s people and we are all different. Our Gift Array offers a range of giving options that enable everyone in the congregation both to respond to and to be challenged about the level of their gift.
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When the numbers are ready we can quickly print off the pictures that tell our financial story. The Knowing our Numbers report is circulated to the planning group for discussion and review in the preparation of the Case Statement.
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We need enough financial information to inform our discussions and we want to keep it simple. But there are optional tools in the Knowing our Numbers spreadsheet if we want to dig deeper: an anonymous age giving profile, restricted funds and more.
The person preparing the Giving Profile can use the ‘Knowing Our Givers’ worksheet.
Please see the guidance videos below
How to use the sheets provided
Each video takes you step-by-step through the spreadsheets above to develop a robust financial plan to present to your planning group. The videos below walk you how to complete each step.
Step Two: Adding the finance history
Optional step: Digging deeper
Step Six: Printing the report
Step Three: Adding the giving history - a giving profile
Step Four: Planning the budget
Step Five: Planning for giving increases - the gift array
Next step, Build The Case
The data you have collected here will provide the basis for your case statement in the next step.
Gather the Data
Build the Case
Design the Programme
Prepare the Literature
More Resources