Leader of Finance & Generosity: Your Orientation Guide

Table of Contents

I. Document Themes 3 II. Welcome! 4 III. Our Support Model 5

1. Onboarding 5 2. Online Resources 5 3. Our Support Team 6

IV. Best Practices 7 V. Strategic Ministry Partners 11 VI. Preferred Service Providers 11 VII. More Church Community Builder Resources 12

1. Tribes 12 2. Implementation Coaching 12 3. Data Migration 13 4. Training 13 5. Equipping Content 14

VIII. Appendix 15

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I. Document ThemesThroughout the document, there are two themes to be aware of:

Tasks

You will see these checkmarks (✓) throughout the implementation guide. They denote a task. These may be appropriate next steps or links to Help Desk articles providing you with more information regarding the topic at hand.

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are easily identified by black italicized text. For example, click on the following hyperlink to take you to the Church Community Builder online Help Desk, available 24/7.

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II. Welcome! Welcome to the Church Community Builder family! To assist you with the onboarding process, we’re providing you with two key documents. First, this document provides a broad overview to help you become oriented with Church Community Builder software and services as the leader of finance & generosity. Second, we’re providing a Software Setup Guide specially designed to help leaders of finance & generosity configure and use the software, in collaboration and coordination with your church’s Master Administrator.

As a leader of finance & generosity, you are in a key leadership role, and we understand your responsibility is to accomplish it with accuracy, efficiency, and confidentiality. We’re here to help you do exactly that! At Church Community Builder, we care about church leaders and want to support the vital work you do. While we are known for our web-based software, helping you do ministry is what fires us up! We are committed to offering objective advice to aid you in your quest to do church better. We are committed to working hard to help you and your church leaders discover what is working, what is not, and how technology can be leveraged to make more disciples. Because you’ve partnered with us, we are committed to walking alongside you to:

• Challenge the status quo to revisit and revitalize strategies, processes, and procedures

• Help you simplify and streamline those processes and procedures

• Assist in combining our software with those processes to enhance your ministry

Effective process will, in large part, be driven by the DNA of your church. To help you, we created a comprehensive support model consisting of 1) an onboarding process for new church partners, 2) online resources available 24/7, and 3) a dynamic Support Team with Basic and Premier Support. Our experience with churches of all sizes and denominations has identified a number of best practices to enhance your financial operations and amplify the success of your transition to new church management software. We’ve also established deep and trusted relationships with a number of strategic partners to help you navigate opportunities and challenges that will increase your effectiveness. Furthermore, we collaborate with Preferred Service Providers who provide a tool or service which complements or integrates with our software to increase the impact of your church. Finally, Church Community Builder providers additional resources, such as Tribes, Coaching, Training, and blogs to round out our tools and services.

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III. Our Support Model At Church Community Builder, you’ll find a comprehensive suite of resources carefully designed to help you not only effectively implement the financial tools in the software, but also become more effective in your leadership role as the leader of finance & generosity. In fact, our passion is ‘Guiding Church Leaders to a Better How’ in order to assist leaders, such as yourself, in living out the calling God has placed on their lives.

1. Onboarding We know you want to begin using the software to support the work you do every day, so let’s get you started. Our onboarding process is relational, functional, and accessible. It’s relational because our Onboarding Team is your single point of contact throughout the entire process, and if you have purchased any additional services, such as Data Migration or Implementation Coaching, we will connect you with the appropriate teams. It’s functional because we’ll assist you in getting up to speed quickly though a number of resources. And it’s accessible because of our dynamic support model.

2. Online Resources We are a web-based solution, so it only makes sense to offer an online Help Desk available 24/7. Trying to figure out how to create a group? Enter financial contributions? Record attendance? Our Help Desk is well organized and easy to use, with over 300 articles and 100 videos on almost any topic you can think up. To access the Help Desk, all logged-in users can click ‘Help’ under the settings gear icon in the software. In addit ion, individuals may access the Help Desk without being logged in by visit ing support.churchcommunitybuilder.com.

Videos, articles, and community discussions are arranged in the Help Desk by topic. You can also search by keywords to find any of these resources. To see the full list of video topics, navigate to the Help Desk and click ‘Videos’. To make sure you know exactly what’s going on, we even have an article on how to use the Help Desk.

✓ Read Using the Help Desk

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3. Our Support Team Our Support Team is made up of people who have lived and worked in the local church. We understand your world and are inspired to make it better. Most importantly, our Support Team has dedicated Guides specifically focused on assisting leaders of finance & generosity with unique issues that extend well beyond ‘how do I do this in the software’. Our Guides are prepared to assist you with updating existing processes and defining new ones to maximize your impact as the leader of finance & generosity.

Basic Support

Our goal is to give you the best support possible. But what happens if the Help Desk doesn’t answer your question or you need tailored support to help you become more effective as the leader of finance & generosity? You can submit an email support ticket and we’ll help answer your questions through our email support system. One of our Guides will get back to you within one business day, and many times they’re even faster. Basic Support is available to the Master Admin and one other designated Support Contact; perhaps that will be you. If not, you should direct your questions to the Master Admin or a designated Support Contact, who can forward the question to our Support Team if necessary.

✓ Read Support and Using the Help Desk

Premier Support

Church leaders desiring quicker response times can access our Support Team through an upgraded level of support called Premier Support. With Premier Support, you’ll receive an initial response through our normal email support system within one business hour. In addition, Premier Support expands your Support Contacts to three while also providing the ability to contact one of our Guides through a phone call or online chat during regular business hours.

No matter what support option you have selected, Basic or Premier, our Guides are prepared to assist you with more than implementing the software, defining new processes, and optimizing existing ones to maximize your impact as the leader of finance & generosity. We can help identify best practices to more effectively support you, your church leadership, and your church’s members and guests.

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IV. Best Practices In addition to our support resources, Church Community Builder has identified a number of best practices to enhance your financial operations and amplify your success as the leader of finance & generosity.

1. Start using your new software for contribution and donor management right away. Many churches are tempted to wait until the start of a new calendar or fiscal year. However, we recommend immediately using the software and migrating your financial data to reap the most benefit from your new software!

2. Know the difference between managing finances and managing donors. Many churches emphasize the financial aspect of church giving, but forget about the donors themselves. Here are a few examples:

• Churches pay thousands of dollars to have their finances managed, but don’t invest in engaging members to give more

• Conversations revolve around meeting the budget rather than cultivating generosity

• Many church stewardship committees spend most of their time crunching numbers rather than taking time to cultivate stories that will inspire people to give

• The person who manages the bills and payroll also manages the donor records

It’s important for churches to make a point of deliberately caring for both finances and donors.

3. As the leader of finance & generosity, create a mid-year ‘tell-all’ giving report for your church. While creating a comprehensive giving report is something we encourage every church to do at the end of each fiscal year, taking the time to create a mid-year report and then taking appropriate action based on the numbers will help you reconnect with those who determine your capacity for ministry.

One of our favorite elements of Church Community Builder’s financial feature is the ability to create year-end giving reports. These reports are extremely accessible and easy to review, providing valuable information and insights for your donor manager. The real opportunity in these tell-all church giving reports is their ability to be customized to exclude donor names and maintain the financial privacy of your donors when others view the report.

By pulling the comprehensive report from last year, you’re able to see…

• The overall giving to your church

• Giving from January 1 to December 31 in a given year

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• Sorted reports by highest-giving donor to lowest

• A breakdown with a month-to-month view

For specifics on how to build and use the tell-all report, see the Appendix.

4. Set up online giving and introduce an option for donors to give via the web. We have partnered with BluePay, a payment processor, to allow donors to give online by credit/debit card and e-check. Donors have the option to give a one-time gift or even set up a repeating gift. They can log in to your site and click the Give tab to submit their gifts. Any donations given this way will be easily trackable and can be placed into a batch for contribution purposes. You can even enable a public online giving page, which would allow donors to give without even logging in! For more information on how to get started, see the BluePay Pricing and Application article.

• Optimize your church’s online giving experience. Taking the time to make sure giving online is easy for your donors is imperative. See seven ways you can improve your church’s online giving experience to make it easier and more convenient for people to give.

5. Connect your online giving with your church management software. This is a small change that can make a tremendous impact on your church’s finances. Integrating online giving with your church management software can create a measurable increase in overall contributions. Read about three churches that experienced an increase in generosity simply because they learned how to implement online giving.

6. Use financial reports to save you time! Here are the Big Four — the four most commonly used financial reports. If you are not using any of them, this may be a great time to look at the information generated in each of these and incorporate them into your financial processes, tracking, and planning.

• Batch Report by Category Summary: This is the best report for regularly transferring contribution totals to your general ledger.

• Individual Transactions by Batch or Date Range Detail: This is the best way to see each transaction as its own row, with a flexible search option for batches or date ranges.

• Merchant Transaction Detail Report: Use this report for reconciling your bank statements with BluePay.

• Top Givers Report: This allows you to easily see everyone’s total giving for the chosen date range along with contact and membership information. You can even organize results by family.

7. Use a MICR Scanner! If you are spending too much time entering check contribution information, a MICR scanner is a great way to speed up this process.

✓ Read the articles MICR Setup Instructions and Using a MICR Scanner to get started

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8. Record giving received at the end of every year. End-of-year giving presents two considerations for accounting purposes:

• Mail Carrier Donations: Donations will continue to come in via mail carrier through the end of the year into the first week of January. Since some of these donations will be postmarked December 31, you may consider waiting to process all end-of-year giving until the last day of the first full week in January. This helps ensure the previous year’s contributions can be entered into the same batch. Checks postmarked and mailed on December 31 should have the postdate set as December 31 within Church Community Builder. For more on how to use post dates, read the article Change Post Date for Transactions.

• Online Donations (Bank/Credit and ACH): The standard settlement times for BluePay donations are two business days for Bank/Credit transactions and five to seven business days for ACH. You may consider waiting to batch these transactions until you have received all funds in your bank account; this helps ensure that you don’t issue tax-deductible credit for donations that were never received (on account of non-sufficient funds). For a refresher on BluePay reconciliation, please see the article BluePay Reconciliation.

Regardless of how you receive end-of-year giving, if your donors typically log in to their profiles to print their giving statements, it can be helpful to send out an email on the first of January to your donors, letting them know the church is still processing end of year donations and their giving statements will be complete and accurate within a week or two. This way donors know to wait until all contributions have been recorded on their giving statements before printing them.

9. Set up and issue end-of-year giving statements. Be ready! Here’s how:

• Set Up Giving Statements

• Before you send out giving statements, ensure the correct church name and address appear on the giving statement and you have customized the giving statement message. The church name that appears on the giving statement first is set from the Settings gear > ‘General’. If you are a multi-campus church, the second title and church address displayed on the giving statement can be edited from ‘Settings’ > ‘Campus’ > (select the name of your church) > ‘General’, which will allow you to edit the campus name. Once you have edited the campus name, you can also edit the address from the Address tab.

• After you have adjusted the address, you can customize the giving statement message from the Financial tab, next to the Giving Statement Message field.

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• Issuing Giving Statements

• The best way to provide giving statements to donors is to email instructions on how they can log in to access and print their own. This reduces your administrative work in printing, sorting, folding, and mailing statements (and also saves on mailing costs!). For more information about sending donors instructions on printing giving statements, see the video on Emailing Giving Statements.

• For those donors who do not have internet access, you can still make use of the traditional method by printing and sending them via mail. See the article called Running Giving Statements.

• Consider paperless giving statements, if feasible. Read about a multi-year plan to do it.

10. Be prepared to handle gifts in kind (i.e., non-monetary). Gifts in kind (donations of stock, vehicles, clothing, or any other tangible good) can be managed by sending and filing a template letter detailing the donation, (e.g., “Thank you for your contribution of (item name), which (church name) received on (date). No goods or services were provided in exchange for your contribution.”) At the moment the gift in kind (GIK) is received, consider printing a letter for the GIK donor, signing it, scanning a copy to your computer as a record copy, and mailing it. Some churches also upload a copy of the letter to that individual's profile in Church Community Builder and file a hard copy of it. You have now fulfilled your responsibility of issuing proof of credit, and have a digital copy on file to re-print should you need it in the future.

11. Establish, communicate, and use internal controls for all aspects of your church finances in order to serve God and His people through great stewardship. Unfortunately, churches do suffer from financial embezzlement, theft, and fraud — and much of the financial loss occurs from inside the church itself! It happens every day around the world. The loss is calculated at $100 million every day according to some studies and is predicted to grow at 6% per year, reaching $60 billion by 2025.

According to Matthew Hirschy, vice president and treasurer at Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company, “The defining element of church thievery is that it’s intentional. Even if a thief’s aims are modest, the behavior is especially deceptive since these people are trusted to handle church assets properly.” Most church thieves, he says, gain access to the resources they steal through their position. So what can you do? First, establish internal financial controls in your church through a written document, reviewed and approved by your accountant and attorney. Second, consider communicating the document to staff and volunteers to set expectations. Finally, scrupulously adhere to the financial controls, with oversight from an oversight group such as your financial committee, leadership team, etc.

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The information and text within this document is provided with the understanding that Church Community Builder is not rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice or service. Professional advice on specific issues should be sought from an accountant, lawyer, or other professional. For more information specifically about legal contribution management, please refer to IRS Publication 1771.

V. Strategic Ministry Partners Our Strategic Ministry Partners represent deep and trusted relationships for us. They have huge hearts for ministry and have made a significant impact on churches we serve. Church Community Builder desires to be a resource to the churches we serve in a variety of ways. Because of our unique approach, we get to do this a lot! As we explore the processes that support your church, we often discover needs we do not address. We are not satisfied just telling you, “Figure it out and let us know how it goes.” We would much rather introduce you to a partner we trust and admire who can help you navigate opportunities and challenges that will increase your effectiveness.

VI. Preferred Service Providers Church Community Builder collaborates with other companies, our Preferred Service Providers, to help you do ministry even better. Each one of them provides a tool or service which complements or integrates with our software to increase the impact for your church. All of these Preferred Service Providers are approved, trusted partners in ministry with us, so you can count on a good experience and a high level of support and care.

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VII. More Church Community Builder Resources Church Community Builder believes that the church is called to equip people as they fulfill the mission of the Gospel. We are called to offer you a better how, and that is why we offer a variety of other services to support church leaders.

1. Tribes Ministry is about transformation, but too many of us are locked into old patterns. Looking to the newest book or conference may provide helpful information, but we know that information alone is not enough. That is why we created Tribes. A tribe is a group of peers serving in similar ministry capacities at similar-sized churches, journeying together. These relationships help tribe members discover new and better ways to thrive in their role.

As a leader of finance & generosity, you face unique challenges and opportunities. By connecting with others who can relate, you can explore, innovate, and implement new strategies to help you be more effective. Without a place to take your questions and people who can relate to the specifics of your role, ministry can feel isolating. It doesn't have to. The relationships you will build in your tribe will help you discover the answers to the questions you are asking and shape the impact you are making.

Interested?

✓ Read more about Tribes!

2. Implementation Coaching Implementation Coaching starts you off on the right foot for using our software and improving your ministry processes for how you do church. The critical thinking required for effective change management can be overwhelming. We understand the local church because many of us were previously, or are currently, in church leadership. The good news is our coaches will help you adjust your strategy, build leadership consensus, and create or refine your processes to support your overall vision. Our coaches will guide you along your journey as we share the wisdom and experience of thousands of churches who have been through what you’re going through now. Coaching streamlines the roll-out of Church Community Builder, helps you get the right people using the software, and increases long-term impact. Coaching gets you up to speed faster and with less stress!

Interested?

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✓ Read more about Coaching!

3. Data Migration Hit the ground running! Our Data Migration team can help speed up the process of transitioning from another ChMS platform so you can start using the software to support your real ministry goals. Our one-time, cost-effective services are priced based on a tiered system with several migration options, including individual profiles, contributions, groups, pledges, pictures, events, attendance, and more. We’ll take care of the data so you can take care of your people.

Interested?

✓ Read more about Data Migration!

4. Training Virtual Training

We offer web-based sessions where a training specialist teaches your staff, key leaders, and volunteers the ‘how-tos’ of the software. Learn best practices for using the available features as your trainer guides you through the concepts of each topic and provides your staff with quality question and answer time.

Interested?

✓ Read more about Virtual Training!

On-site Training

You set the schedule and let us come to you! We’ll send a trainer to your location to work in a group setting or one-on-one with your staff and/or lay leadership. We’ll work with you to determine the type of training and how much time you’ll need, schedule a date, and prepare for the event. You can schedule two or three days of On-site Training, based on your unique needs.

Interested?

✓ Check out On-site Training!

If you have already purchased on-site or virtual training, our training team will contact you about 30 days after your purchase. To schedule or to reach our training team, click on ‘Help’ > ‘Ask The Support Team’ in your Church Community Builder site. We recommend scheduling your training during the first three months of purchase so we can help you implement your software.

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5. Equipping Content At Church Community Builder, our journey will always be about assisting you in multiplying your ministry by helping church leaders be more effective in their roles. We are so much more than a software company! We are committed to providing top-notch content that will inspire, encourage, and enhance your ministry. In addition to our content, we’ve built a library full of great content from thought leaders like Chris Mavity, Alex Absolom, Aaron Fortner, and Brad Leeper. We also want to hear and learn from you. Connect with us on social media to share your insights and best practices.

Interested?

✓ See our Blog!

✓ Connect with us on Facebook!

✓ Follow us on Twitter!

6. Church Leader Advancement We know that implementing a church management software can be overwhelming, so we strive to make it as easy as possible. If you aren’t sure that you’re getting the most from your partnership with Church Community Builder, or if you’re feeling stalled, we want to help. Our Church Leader Advancement Team can point you in the right direction. That direction might be Training, Coaching, Tribes, Support Options, a Preferred Service Provider, upgrading or downgrading your software, free resources — or something else entirely. We would love to schedule a call to see how we can serve you better.

Interested?

✓ Schedule a video call with Church Leader Advancement!

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VIII. Appendix How can I build the ‘tell-all’ report?

✓ Run the Donor Analysis Report covering the period from January 1 to December 31 in a given year. This report will organize the data by month, creating 13 columns comprising each month of the year plus a total for the year. If you are uncomfortable knowing the names of donors and the amounts given, don’t select the box next to ‘Display the Donor’s Name’.

✓ Sort the Report from highest to lowest donation amount. If you want to slice and dice the data in a variety of ways, export the report to an Excel spreadsheet.

How does your donor manager use the tell-all church giving report to increase giving in the next year?

Now that you’ve got your tell-all church giving report, let’s divide the report into three parts and examine each slice. By dividing your report into three segments and making some general assumptions based on previous history, your donor manager can effectively analyze the information to create a plan for increasing giving from each of these segmented groups.

1) The Top 25% of Your Report: The top 25% of your tell-all giving report represents, by definition, your highest-giving donors. Do you notice how frequently they give? More than likely, you’ll find that about 90% of these donors are giving on a monthly basis, right? What does your donor manager do with this information?

✓ Action Step 1: Place every name in this group on a list. If you don’t want to know how much people gave, then consider providing the donor manager with a list of just the names (and not the giving amounts).

✓ Action Step 2: Your donor manager should get to know these people! All of them! This group represents over 80% of your entire giving base.

2) The Bottom 50% of Your Report: The bottom 50% of your tell-all giving report will represent, by definition, half of all your donors from the past year. However, your donor manager will probably find that the entire giving in this group will not equal the amount given by any one donor in the top 25%. What does your donor manager do with this information?

✓ Action Step 1: Make a list with every name in the group. Review the list.

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✓ Action Step 2: If any names on the list are in high levels of leadership, your donor manager may consider having an uplifting conversation with them.

✓ Action Step 3: This group is ripe for financial stewardship coaching and teaching. Our bet is you would be astonished, and sad, to discover how many of these people love your church and yet have no financial margin in their life. Determine a way to provide the resources they need to experience the joy of generosity.

3) The Rest of Your Givers (below the Top 25% and above the Bottom 50%): You’ll likely find this group will consist of new donors who have recently starting giving, former donors who have quit giving, donors who give only two or three times a year, and the occasional donor who gives one large gift a year. What does your donor manager do with this information?

✓ Action Step 1: You probably guessed it, but we recommend that you put every name on a list for review.

✓ Action Step 2: Be sure to personally thank each new donor. Consider contacting people who quit giving but are still attending (they may be experiencing financial hardship).

✓ Action Step 3: This group is ideal for introducing to online giving — particularly showing them how to set up monthly recurring giving via the online giving portal on your website.

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