Free Resources

Optional Donation

I provide these resources free of charge. I incur costs to keep this site updated, maintained, and secure, however, so I greatly appreciate any donation you can make to support my efforts.

Buy Me a Cup of Coffee

(one cup or a hundred, your choice)

Personnel

Employee or Independent Contractor  A list from the IRS to help determine whether a person should be an employee or not. When in doubt, choose “employee;” it’s more paperwork but less potential hassle later.

Employee Manual Template  A “get the ball rolling” church personnel manual. Feel free to copy and replace text with your own information.

Personnel Salary Ranges  A template for publishing salary ranges (but not actual ranges themselves; those are for you to decide).

Monthly Mileage Log Form

Budgeting

Budgeting Line Item Detail

Personnel Budget Spreadsheet

 

Endowment

Endowment Funds Subaccounting

Fund Agreement Template

 

Gifts of Stock & Mutual Funds

High-low Spreadsheet for Stock Gifts  A spreadsheet to calculate the value of stock gifts.

Mutual Fund Gift Letter  A form letter for acknowledging mutual fund gifts. Change only the yellow highlighted items.

Stock Gift Letter  A form letter for acknowledging stock gifts. Change only the yellow highlighted items.

Church Resolution on Sale of Stock

 

Safety and Security

Crisis Management (what to do before, during, and after a crisis)

Safety Officer Guidelines  Change only the yellow highlighted items.

Sex Offender Covenant  Change only the yellow highlighted items.

 

Building Maintenance and Security

HVAC Equipment List

Utilities Spreadsheet  This file should be used to compare utilities expenses year over year to see how much is being spent on utilities and to plan ways to implement energy-saving measures.

Capital Needs-Investment List

 

Finances

Donor Letter  Donor Letters for specific items should never have a value placed on the item by the church. That is the donor’s responsibility – if necessary, the donor will have to justify that deduction to the IRS.

Contribution Letter Template  Donor Gift Statements should be emailed and/or snail-mailed five times a year: in January for the previous year; in April for the first quarter; in July for the second quarter; in October for the third quarter; and in the first two weeks of December to encourage year-end giving. Use this template as the cover letter for your donor gift statements.

Practical Ways For ChurchesTo Have More Money – January 2013

Developing Revenue Streams by Steve Law (adapted from George Bullard)

Treasurer’s Report Template  Here are two templates for the regular treasurer’s report in a format simple enough for non-numbers people to understand. One is a quarterly report and the other is a monthly report – they are on separate tabs. This is an “executive summary” report for the church so the members can see how much money the church has, what designated funds there are, where the most recent month’s expenses were spent by major department category, where the year-to-date expenses stand, and how these figures compare to the annual budget. This spreadsheet is pre-formatted; there are comments so that if you change any of the rows, there are instructions about how to ensure the formulas still work. If you can’t get it to work, let me know and I’ll walk you through it. To use the spreadsheet, just enter the data in the fields highlighted in yellow, change the month end date, and all the fields will populate themselves. Print the report and inform the church about their finances.

Gift Acceptance Policy

Monthly Gifts & Offerings Budget Calculation

Credit Card Agreement  Change only the yellow highlighted items.

Records Retention Schedule

Handling Money During the Week

Annual Revenue Projections  This file gives a 98% accurate projection of your annual receipts. Insert your church’s historical data in order to get the results.

Weekly Giving Detail  Input your weekly giving in this spreadsheet to track how much is given. If you publish your monthly or year-to-date giving, this spreadsheet can provide the data.

 

Giving and Generosity

Tithing  An article from The Washington Post

Consider Giving to the Poor  An article from The Washington Post

10 Stewardship Issues For Every Church Leader

Good Gratuity Question

Secrets of Generous Churches

2010 Heart of the Donor Summary

Generosity Lessons from Generous Churches by Sheppard and Willard

AARP Lost Generation