Telling Stories

Posted on July 24, 2011 Written by

Here are two secrets – people that give money to churches and other non-profit organizations really, really want to know what their money was used for. AND, if you tell them and it is a compelling and life-changing story, they’ll give you more money.

Most churches do a poor job of telling stories to their constituents. Churches just presume that people will continue to give “because that’s what the Bible teaches.” Sorry, that doesn’t cut it any more. Our society has trained people, especially the under-40 crowd, to ask questions about “what happened to my money.” They want to know – they expect and demand to know. There are two consequences:

  • Tell people where their money went
    • Once people see the good things that happened as a result of their money, they will tell others about it and, very often, give you more money. Telling stories is a game-changer: people will step up to the plate like they’ve not done before and they’ll tell others the stories they are hearing. Telling stories is huge!
  • Don’t tell people where their money went
    • If you do not prioritize telling people about how their money was used and you just presume that money will continue to come in, then you continue to operate as you are now. You may not see a decline in giving but you will probably not have an increase either.

How do you tell people? That’s easy. Every way you possibly can.  Use every medium possible from print to social media to illustrations in sermons to my favorite, completely altering the offering time.

Telling stories during offering time
The offering time has changed in the past couple of decades. It used to be a time for special music to show off some piece the choir or a soloist worked on and wanted to fit in the worship service. Not any more. Offerings need to be interactive and here’s how.

  • Every Sunday of the year, have a story about how the offerings have been used. You’ll need to coordinate the stories – don’t just insert stories – make them relevant to the message and/or to something going on in the life of the church at that time.
  • If you don’t have 52 stories, you’ve got serious problems and they’re not financial – your church is dying because you’re not aware of how at least 52 lives have been affected by your church.
  • Take 3 or 4 minutes each week during the offering to tell a story in different formats
    • Use videos of different things, slide shows, live interviews on stage, narratives, songs by children, conversion and baptism stories, etc.
    • Alter the format each week to keep the story-telling time fresh and interesting
    • Give each ministry of the church (missions, education, worship, fellowship, care, and administration) two or three times during the year for them to tell an interesting story about their ministry and how people’s contributions made all the difference.
    • If you’re doing a live interview, rehearse with the people you’re interviewing so that you’ll know their story and can help them get over their nerves about standing in front of “the whole church.”
    • When planning a story, think about the end first. What do you want people in the pew to hear and take home? Then backtrack till you come to an appropriate place to start the story. But always, always think about the end of the story first and then decide how to start the story.
  • Tell stories about
    • The youth mission trip that you’re raising money for, that is going out next week, and that just came back. That’s three times to tell the same story with different angles each time.
    • The Vacation Bible School that is coming next week and that happened last week. Two times for stories.
    • People!!! Every story is about people – every story must be centered around a person or group of people. Stories should have names (first name is enough) of lives that have been changed because of what people gave. I can’t emphasize this enough – even if the story is about how members gave money for a building, then talk about who will use that building and why!

Critical Elements
There are two things that need to be in every story-telling time. These two things need to be used every week and they need to be said in different ways so that these words are honest and genuine, not a refrain that everyone tunes out.  Here they are:

  • Thank you
    • Say thank you every time you can. People like to be thanked, even if they only gave a couple of bucks. If people are shown appreciation and not taken for granted, they’re more like to give next time. Say thank you as often as you can and be innovative in the ways that you use those words.
  • Generosity
    • Use the words generous and/or generosity as often as possible. Generosity has replaced “stewardship.” There are no negative connotations to generosity while stewardship can have some minor misunderstandings. Use these words – generous is a more accurate depiction of what God has done for each of us in opening his hand to share with us his wealth of love and in spreading his arms out to die for us and in holding us close to him in times of our distress.

We need to encourage our constituents to be generous, like God, and thank them for their generosity. Tell them stories about how generous God has been with us and how their own generosity has changed the lives of so many people.  So please, TELL STORIES!!

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: budget, church finances, communications, generosity Tagged: , , ,

HVAC

Posted on July 8, 2011 Written by

Heating and air conditioning are HUGE consumers of a church’s budget – somewhere in the 5% to 10% range depending on the energy efficiencies of the buildings. There are direct costs to buy and install the equipment, to pay the electric and gas bills, and to pay for ongoing maintenance of the equipment itself including regular PM (preventive maintenance). There are also indirect costs of taking staff time to oversee this equipment and to handle the distraction of members who become obsessed with the temperature.

To save money in this area you need to know and control several things:

  • What the temperature is when it comes into the room
  • How long the conditioned air is on
  • Where conditioned air leaves the room
  1. To control the temperature for the air coming into a room, I set all the thermostats at
    1. Occupied Heat (people using the room during heating season), 68 Fahrenheit
    2. Unoccupied Heat (the room not used during the heating season), 60
    3. Occupied Air Conditioning, 74
    4. Unoccupied Air Conditioning, 80
    5. You don’t want to set the unoccupied temperature too high or low – that will cause the unit to have to work extra hard to get to the occupied temperature when it is called for. The occupied temps are just inside the “uncomfortable” zone – the temps are still comfortable but because they are at the limit, they save large amounts of money than if they were right in the middle of the comfort zone. Frankly, there is no comfort zone that meets everyone’s needs – I hit the edges of the range and then rely on people to dress accordingly, but they still complain. Keeping your building temps within these ranges will save your budget thousands of dollars – I highly encourage you to do this.
  2. To control how long the conditioned air comes into the room, there are several cool pieces of technology
    1. These are great because they can turn a unit on and off when the room is being used according to the program that is keyed into it. This ensures that the units are running only when someone has told the unit to run. Most programmable units have some sort of temporary override button or control. The override is to ensure that when there is an unscheduled meeting, the unit can be turned on in order to get the room to the occupied temp (whether heat or A/C).
    2. The bad news about programmable thermostats is that they rely on humans. Humans have a tendency to want to mess around with thermostats. I’ve found thermostats with the date and time changed (which plays havoc with the schedule that was originally programmed). I’ve also seen thermostats with the programmed temp and run times completely changed. And it doesn’t matter if the thermostat is behind a locked casing or a locked screen, that is just a challenge to some people to figure out how. The human factor is pretty frustrating.
    1. Programable thermostats – this technology has been around for quite a while
  3. The latest piece of technology which I plan to try in a few places pretty soon is a thermostat with a motion sensor. The idea is that when the motion sensor comes on due to movement, it turns on the thermostat which in turn may (or may not) call for the unit to bring the room to an occupied temp.
    1. There are several good things about this:
      1. You only need to program the thermostat (these motion sensor stats are also programmable) for the times of the week when people will definitely be in the room. The rest of the week the unit will turn itself on when it senses motion in the room.
      2. The thermostat will keep the unit on so long as movement is sensed and when it comes on, it will stay on for 15-20 minutes (whatever is programmed when it is setup).
      3. This device completely eliminates the human error element and that is a huge relief.
      4. You will see immediate savings because the unit is running only when it needs to run – not when the room is empty (even though a meeting was scheduled).
    2. There are several bad things (or perhaps I should say, “unknown things”):
      1. The unit will turn on whenever a custodian comes into the room to get one chair or when kids are playing “hide and seek” in the room.
      2. If the unit turns on and off several times a day, it can shorten the life of the unit by several months or even years. That can be mitigated by lengthening the “on” time for the unit to 20-30 minutes but that will also decrease the savings.
      3. These thermostats are not cheap. And, if the thermostat controls temps in several rooms, you’ll need to install a sensor in each major room controlled by the stat so that if someone enters a room, that sensor will “see” the person and turn on the unit (even though the actual motion sensor thermostat is a couple of rooms away). Installing the extra sensors is not cheap either.
  4. There are only just so many places conditioned air can leave a room
    1. That is a huge expense to most churches – let me suggest that you begin phasing in the windows over a 5 or 10 year time period. Divide the church up into 5 or 10 sections and begin replacing windows one section at at time. Doing it in phases will not consume your maintenance budget in one year but spread the cost over several years.
    2. The best time to do all energy efficiencies, is at the beginning of your budget year. If you don’t have a capital budget (and most churches don’t), then spend the money in the first month of your fiscal year. Charge some of the expense to your maintenance budget and the other part to your utility budget (because your utility budget will decrease that year due to energy savings).
    3. One way to fund capital needs, is to take any “leftover” budget money at the end of the fiscal year and put that money into a fund to pay for capital items. I’ll explain this concept in another post – it’s one of my favorite ways to get things paid for without hurting the budget.
    1. Ceiling – most commercial buildings have drop ceilings for the convenience of accessing equipment and running wires without destroying a hard ceiling. However, some amount of conditioned air is lost above the drop ceiling. The good news is that it is not that much and it is usually is a layer of hot air (because hot air rises)
    2. Doors – every time a door is opened, air rushes out (or in). If the room’s thermostat is in occupied mode, then it is a great idea to keep doors closed. Hallways may or may not have conditioned air but hallways, by definition, lead to doors that go to the outside.
    3. Walls – yes, walls leak air. If you can, insulate them in order to keep conditioned air inside the room. Insulating a wall after it is built is not cheap and it is very messy. But it can lead to energy savings.
    4. Windows – this is probably the place in a room where conditioned air is lost the fastest. Windows leak like a sieve. I highly encourage you to get double-paned, energy efficient windows in all your openings.
There are significant and real savings is in controlling the temperature in the building.

 

Lead On!
Steve
Filed Under: budget, buildings, facilities Tagged: , ,

10 Ways for a Church to Have More Money, Guaranteed (part 1 – saving money)

Posted on June 22, 2011 Written by

There are two different ways for a church (or any organization) to have more money: spend less and receive more. I want to give five ideas in each category that every church should implement so they can have more money to spend on their God-given mission.

5 Ways to Save Money

  • Install Motion Detectors Everywhere!
    • Humans are quite imperfect especially when it comes to turning things off (or on). That’s where motion sensors come in. I use motion sensors for everything: dispensers for paper towels and soap in bathrooms; for urinal flush valves on toilets and urinals; for lights in halls, bathrooms, classrooms, and offices; and soon for thermostats in classrooms and offices.
    • Motion sensors save money by ensuring that lights and thermostats are on only when a human is present; that toilets get flushed; that only a certain amount of paper towel and soap is dispensed; and that lights are on only when people are moving around. Yes, it costs money to install these, but they pay for themselves in both dollars and in public relations.
    • Motion sensors for lights have cut the electric bills in the church I work by 20% per year. Members think it is cool that their church is so progressive – they like to “show off” their church and talk about how “green” we are. It’s a way cool thing!
    • Full disclosure – you’ll need to buy batteries for the sensors but in the long run, you will save money with the sensors.
  • Invest in Energy efficient lighting and less inventory
    • Most of the building I administer has 4 foot fluorescent lamps. In the past two years I’ve been a multi-year process of changing all my T-12 lamps to T-8s (and in a few years, once the price has come down, to T-5s). I’ve removed my 2×2 fluorescent fixtures and replaced them with 2×4 fixtures and put in T-8s.
    • T-8s are 30% brighter and are 30% more energy efficient than T-12s. I’m saving money, I’m helping the environment, I’m reducing the different types of lamps I have around here so I can buy just 4 foot T-8 lamps. I love the KISS principle – keep it simple, stupid. That’s what I’m doing!
    • Here’s how I found the money to make this happen: at the end of one fiscal year, I explained to my electrician what I wanted to do and asked him to come the first couple of weeks of my fiscal year. I gave him a budget of what I could spend on the project. When he had spend the total amount allocated for that year, he stopped installing T-8s. When I got his bill, I paid half of it out of the maintenance budget and the other half out of the utilities budget. My rationale is that the efficient fixtures are going to save money that would have otherwise been spent on electricity. I’m repeating this as many years as I have to and my electrician loves getting the money that would have gone to to the utility company!
  • Pay bills by ACH and online
    • Use technology to pay your bills without paper. I calculate that every paper check costs about $1 between the check stock, ink, envelope, and postage. Every ACH costs less than 30 cents. After writing several hundred checks a year, you’ll save hundreds of dollars.
    • Paying bills online also means you keep the money in your bank account longer. Keeping money in your account means more interest income during the year, too (well, that would be IF the banks were paying more interest than they are now at half a percent per year).
    • Paying bills online also means that you can track your payments and be assured that the money actually reached the vendor and didn’t “get lost in the mail.”
    • Work with your bank to make this happen. They’ll be glad to help.
  • Use Email and Voicemail Heavily
    • Communication with members must evolve from beyond the Ben Franklin post office system. That’s been around for 200 years, move on to something more efficient, effective and a whole lot cheaper!
    • I email statements of contribution to every person who gives money. Emailing statements of contribution saves me about $750 every time. I still snail mail 450 statements of contribution every time at a cost of $450 ($1 each for postage, envelope, paper, and ink). Believe it or not, I’ve not had any resistance to this method of getting statements of contribution – the business world has helped people become accustomed to email in all its forms.
    • Various ministries email or voicemail different groups (small groups, teachers, choir members, etc.) about upcoming meetings or opportunities. The ministers have learned which method is better to use with which group. Some age categories prefer a voicemail and we have PhoneTree to send out messages that way – it is slower than email but effective. Other ages like emails. Oh, I’m not (yet?) to tweeting or mass texting but I’m sure that will come along.
    • My administrative assistant also emails the weekly bulletin every Thursday or Friday to everyone in our database with an email (and give them the opportunity to “opt out”) and she also emails the monthly news-magazine. We use Constant Contact for some of our communications, too.
    • Find ways of using mass communication methods that don’t involve postage or paper. You can save some serious money by getting away from paper. It will save lots of paper and younger mindsets will appreciate the church helping the planet!
  • Bid out contracts regularly
    • Every 3 to 5 years put all of your regular contracts out to bid. This includes EVERYTHING from your food supplier, elevator contract, dumpster, commercial property insurance, copiers, postage meter, financial audit, custodian supplies, etc. I can’t stress this enough.
    • In times like this, some companies are so hungry they’ll really cut their prices just so they can get business to keep their employees (so they don’t have to lay off anyone). They know they won’t make a profit but they will also retain good talent.
    • Some companies gave you price when times were good and with a weak economy, they are willing to do anything just to keep you as a customer, even in the middle of a contract. They want you to stay with them and they’re willing to void a current contract, reduce their fees, and renew you for several years at a cheaper rate.
    • Recently I cut our commercial property insurance by 42% saving the church $18,000 per year. I got a smaller postage meter because we don’t have the same volume of letters as we did five years before. I upgraded to a color copier for less than what I was paying for a black & white copier. We talked with our bank and got a good rate on our fees. AND, I made sure that none of these savings affected the service we are getting.

Lead On!
Steve

Next post: 5 Ways to Make Money

Filed Under: budget, church administration, church finances, planning, strategy Tagged: , , , ,

Offerings

Posted on February 19, 2011 Written by

Offerings are to many worship leaders one of the most awkward times of a service. So, they fill it with special music to distract people from the passing offering plate. I regret that. I’d like to offer a different way of viewing the offering time but one that will require some work and planning.

The offering takes about 90 to 120 seconds in the average church. I suggest that in that time, you tell a story. Tell stories about how the offerings have been used in the past week to tell how a missionary did some really cool work, how a family was fed, how a minister did some counseling, how a teen publicly said he was going to be a Christ-follower, how a mission team to Africa did some awesome things, what the youth trip this summer will be doing, how many kids were at Vacation Bible School and what they studied, etc. Find 52 stories in a year and tell the church how their money is being used.

Younger generations (under 40) want to hear stories about specific people being helped with the money they give to the church. That will motivate them to continue to give and give more money. Older generations like to hear the stories, too.

So, use the offering time to TELL STORIES. After all, that’s what Jesus did!

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: budget, church finances, strategy Tagged: , ,

Churches as Businesses

Posted on December 1, 2010 Written by

Every so often someone will tell me that “the church is not a business and shouldn’t operate as such.” Just as frequently, I get the comment, “the church really is a business.” So, which one is correct? Well, let me say unequivocally, both are right. Here’s why and why not.

Churches are businesses in that they have the same basic building blocks of a business – every church has:

  • operating budgets
  • staffs
  • “products” (in churches it is “intangible religious benefits” in IRS terms)

Churches are not businesses in that they have a different purpose

  • Their goal is to give to people, not get from people
  • Their goal is empower people to give away more to other people

The foundational structure of every church is business-like. The programming of churches is not necessarily business-like. However, I need to clarify one area there where churches should be more like a company: evaluation.

Churches shy away viscerally from evaluating their programming. They hide behind the phrase “but if it helps just one person, it was worth it.” After 35 years in church work (I worked in a Christian bookstore as a teenager), I feel that churches must evaluate almost everything they do. They can’t hide behind the trite phrase of helping just one person – I do not believe God honors that (or better said, God blesses even more those ministries that are regularly evaluated and improved). The church today must evaluate its staff, buildings, and programming.

Staff: many churches do an acceptable job of evaluating staff but it is frequently a look back and not setting goals for the future. Staff (from the pastor on down) need to be assessed on what they did in the past 6 or 12 months against goals that were established for those staff. Too infrequently bosses fail to set expectations for staff so that there is nothing against which to measure the staff. Then you have the hard part, staff that is not performing need to be encouraged/mentored if they have potential. But if there is no chance that a staff member is going to succeed in your church’s environment, then that person needs to be terminated. Termination is very hard on everyone but in the long run it is beneficial to the rest of the staff and the church. In the words of Spock from Star Trek, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” Pruning is hard, but it leads to greater growth in the next season.

Building: this represents sunk costs. A church has already built and paid for those bricks and mortar. But the evaluation should be, “is what this building was originally built for still a viable option or should we change the building to meet future needs?” Buildings can be retro-fitted (for a price, yes) for needs that the church leadership feels is coming up. Do not be wedded to the past “just because we’ve always done it that way.” Years ago I learned how the new anti-termite pesticides work: the chemical inhibit the termites from shedding their old skin when they outgrow it. Thus, the termites strangle inside their old skins. Don’t let your church do that – change your skin as often and necessary to keep the church from killing itself.

Programming: by far, this is the most politic- and emotion-laden area of church work. People have invested their own blood, sweat, and tears in their pet ministries and feel that any mention of cutting them is a threat to them personally. Evaluation is not acceptable and they play their trump card almost immediately – “God is using this ministry.” My grandparents decided that a car was better than a horse and buggy; my parents decided that telephones are better than letters; my generation decided that computers are better than typewriters; the next generation is totally committed to the internet (which is replacing just about everything!). Change is painful but evaluation is an absolute necessity if a church wants to grow or not lose ground.

Evaluation is a matter of opinion – not everyone will evaluate the same program or person the same way. Church leadership needs to determine how the evaluation will occur and how the results will be implemented. That cannot be explained in a blog – every church has a unique culture and that culture must form part of the decision-making/evaluation process. But please heed this note of warning: to do nothing, to not evaluate things on a regular basis, is to ensure that the church will continue its present track with no heed to the future of the church. If you want a biblical example, read Acts 15 when the church in Jerusalem struggled with whether or not to permit Gentiles to be part of the church. Enough said.

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: budget, church administration, church finances, church financial statements, leadership, wisdom Tagged: , , , , ,

Personnel as a Percentage of the Entire Budget

Posted on October 14, 2010 Written by

Every year the question comes up, “Is the personnel budget too big?” Some people actually mean, “Are we paying the staff too much?” and that is a question that hurts. In reality, it shows the ignorance of the person asking the question more than anything – they have no idea what their staff does. But more often than not, the intent of the original question is concern over the size of the staff (number of employees) and is that cost appropriate for our church. Here are some figures that I gathered from my local colleagues regarding their church’s 2011 personnel budgets:

  • 40.00%
  • 53.58% – does not include food service or custodial personnel
  • 48.00% – does not include custodians; church also pays $400,000 in debt service
  • 54.00%
  • 47.80%
  • 52.60%
  • 55.76%

From this data, you can tell the personnel team, inquiring church members, and curious onlookers that a range of 40%-60% is within the “normal” range. Feel free to use this info and share it with others – it might help you from those who feel the staff is paid too much or the staff is too big.

BUT, the real question is, “How much staff do we need to do what we want to do?” That is a completely different question and it is too deep to unpack here. However, I do want to wade in ankle-deep.

Most church staffs grow organically – that is, stafff members are added progressively every year or two as the church grows. This is the normal and customary route. Oh, we need someone to help the youth minister, hire a part-time middle school coordinator; our seniors are feeling neglected, hire a retired minister (he can use the income) to take care of the seniors; our current custodians aren’t cleaning the building well, hire another one.

Let me suggest a better method – strategic growth. Strategic growth is more painful in the short run but far more productive in the long run. Because of the time needed, cuts in staff that result from this, and the ensuing time needed to educate members and implement the new structure, I suggest that churches only do this at most every five years.

Strategic growth, in a nutshell, is when church leadership (ministry council, elders, etc.) looks at the “five-year plan” that every church should have. Simultaneously, the council gets a conservative estimate of income for each of the next five years. With those two pieces of info, the council decides what is the #1 goal for the next five years (that thing, without which, the church would cease to exist) and then funds that with staffing, programming, and building money. The council then decides what is #2 and funds it appropriately and so forth until the estimated money runs out.

When the council has run out of money to fund its strategic plan, all other items on the priority list are cut. That means that some staff will be cut, some buildings may not be built or may be renovated, and some programs and ministries will no longer be done. That is going to please some members and anger others – this is where the hurt and pain come in. You’re not going to please everyone, but you will please God as the church uses its resources (staffing, building, and members’ time for ministries) in a strategic method.

A lot more can be said about this but I think you get the idea of where to go from here. I do feel that if strategic staffing and programming is implemented, you’ll be able to look back and be amazed at how far how fast the church went.

So, next time someone asks, “How big is our personnel budget?” return the question with one of your own, “Are we spending personnel dollars in the right way?”

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: budget, church finances, church staff, leadership, strategy Tagged: , , , ,

Change

Posted on May 17, 2010 Written by

I heard it last week from my financial assistant: of the reported revenues for the prior week (total of $56,000), around $29,000 came in the offering plate. That means that about $27,000 came to the church outside the offering plate: in stocks, online gifts, mailed in offerings, etc. This is a change: for years churches felt that the offering plate was their primary source of revenues. Well, I can document that as of last week, things are noticably changing – only 52% came in the offering plate.

That is huge for churches. Church financial leadership must understand that the way of giving and supporting church work has already changed. If churches are not on the “change bandwagon,” then they are leaving some financial gifts “on the table” and not in their offering plates.

So, what are you doing to facilitate giving to your church? Are you making it easy for people to give in new ways? Or are you still relying on the offering plate to provide 100% of your revenues?

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: budget, church finances Tagged: ,

A Penny Saved …

Posted on April 28, 2010 Written by

I just filled up my gas tank (for future history, today gas was selling at $2.759 in Richmond, VA). Whenever I get gas, I look around the ground for pennies. I didn’t find any today. I haven’t found any pennies (dimes or nickels) for several months. This is one of my indicators of the economy.

A few years back, when the economy was doing quite well, I almost always found loose change when I filled up with gas. It seems that in those days, it wasn’t worth the effort to pick up pennies or nickels and people just left them when they were dropped. Not any more.

About a two years ago I noticed that there were fewer and fewer coins on the ground. About 18 months ago I noticed they were almost all gone and officially, in spring 2009 there wasn’t any more loose lying around. Here’s my prediction, when you fill up with gas (or go through a fast food drive through) and you see coins on the ground, then you’ll know that the economy is back and healthy. Here’s my second prediction, you really won’t see those coins on the ground until about six to nine months after the economy has turned the corner.

What I’m talking about in the context of churches is this question, “When will people feel generous again?” For church economics, two things have to change:

  1. The economy has to turn around in a visible, tangible way. Actually, as of right now (barring a major economic or terrorist event), the global economy is making steady headway out of the mires of 2008-2009. In about 3 months (summer 2010), the US and other first world countries will be on the financially-healthy rebound. But just because things are better financially does not mean people will be charitable or generous.
  2. The second thing is that people have to feel financially-healthy in order to be generous. The feeling of angst that people have right now (will I have a job tomorrow?, will I have enough to pay my bills?, etc.) must be eased a lot before they will respond to church pleas to give more. Churches need to help educate members to get in a more personally financially-healthy place (Crown Ministries and Financial Peace University). When churches do that, then their members will feel more generous. It takes people about 6-9 months after the economy has turned around for them to feel charitable.

Two questions for you:

  • Are you helping people get their financial house in line with God’s plan for their financial house so they can be more generous faster?
  • Or are you waiting till you see pennies on the ground as your indicator of when people are feeling more generous?
Lead On!
Steve
Filed Under: budget, church finances, planning, wisdom Tagged: , , ,
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