Your Story for Generosity Plus

Once you have completed your application and been accepted as a Generosity Plus Partner, we will ask you to provide the following information. This will assist us in the preliminary work in preparing for our first consultation.

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GENEROSITY PLUS

Congregational Profile Information

(This information is confidential)

The information we request is to build a generosity profile of your congregation and it is considered confidential.  Information about individual donors will not be shared unless it is requested by your church leadership and is in compliance with your church policy or regular practice.  This is a judgement free zone!  We need this information to create a base-line understanding of your context.  Call Bruce Barkhauer if you have any questions or concerns.

To build the profile we need the following information:

  • A list of all donors and the annual amounts they contribute along with their estimated age. (Numbers, or other designations may be used to provide anonymity if necessary, but names are preferred.)   Please plan to include information about any leadership position they currently hold or have held in the last 5 years.    Additionally, tell us how those contributions are made (electronic, check, stock/equities, etc.) and the pattern for those contributions (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.).  
  • A listing of all other income streams (endowment, rent, grants, special fund-raisers, etc.) with a five-year history of their amounts and the length/amounts of any future contracts that will generate anticipated income. 
  •  Copies of the current fiscal policies in place within the congregation.  This includes constitution and bylaws, and other written policy that pertains to fiduciary office holders and current fiscal practice.  When were these documents last undated or revised?  You may list separately any “unofficial policies” or “common understandings”, just be sure to designate them as such.
  • A five-year budget and income history – preferably month over month/year over year.  This will be utilized to discover trends related to projecting income and expense for future years.
  • What is the congregation’s stewardship history regarding if and how financial campaigns (both annual and capital) have been done in the last five years?  If you do an annual campaign tell us how you do it.  Do you receive pledges?  What is the ratio of pledged income to total income? (Pledges make up x% of total unrestricted budgeted operating income.) 
  • Do you have an endowment or trust fund?  Please provide policies that pertain to these funds and their management, as well as the amounts of the total funds and if and how they are restricted.  Do you engage in any formal process to report the activity of these funds and to encourage people to consider leaving a gift to the church from their estate?  
  • Has your church done any kind of audit in the past five years?  If so, what prompted it? (Was it prescribed policy? Was there some irregularity or transition of officers?) 
  • Is the congregation currently in debt?  If so, what is the total indebtedness and what is the current monthly payment?  Is there a sinking fund or other funds designated for debt retirement held in savings?  What is the balance of those funds?
  • Do you have any pressing capital needs or major deferred maintenance that will need to be addressed in the next 18-24 months?