how does your congregation raise money?

[cellio]

I'm interested in answers from all religions/denominations. (Please identify which you're talking about.)

I grew up going to a Roman Catholic church. Collection baskets were passed at Sunday services -- once for the church and, often, a second time for a special purpose (ranging from helping $disaster victims to buying a pipe organ). Members of the congregation were issued envelopes with an identifying number (not name) on the outside, so you could put cash in and still get a tax receipt at the end of the year. Children in religious school were also issued (small) envelopes; they were also numbered and I assume our coins were tallied with our parents' envelopes, but I never asked. Of course, some people (like visitors) just put cash directly into the basket, too.

This always struck me as dicey; how could an organization with regular expenses like heat and salaries and a building manage finances that way, other than by assuming that this year will be like last year? It occurs to me now that there might have also been a pledge system that I, as a child, never saw, but I'm just guessing here.

One of the things I found really refreshing about synagogues is that they have dues. When I found out about this I did a little happy-dance. Yay, no more guesswork! Join the congregation, get a bill, pay it, and everything's good. Right? (Aside: we couldn't pass a basket at Shabbat services even if we wanted to, because doing business and handling money are forbidden on Shabbat.)

Now that I've been part of congregational life for a while, though, I've realized that that's not the end of it by far. There are still special appeals, of course (we help $disaster victims too, after all), but there are also endowment campaigns, special appeals to supplement dues, fancy fund-raising dinners (with ad books, to draw contributions from non-members/businesses), and a myriad of other fund-raising activities. (I know that some congregations have a building fund with its own rules for member payments; we don't, so I don't really know how this works.) There are also fees for certain activities; the biggie here is religious school, which is a separate payment on top of dues.

My congregation -- and I assume this is true pretty much everywhere -- never turns anybody away for lack of ability to pay dues. We'll negotiate a reduced rate, sometimes quite nominal. Some of the other fund-raising is specifically to offset that. A draw from the endowment each year also offsets some expenses. I don't know if the proportion of our expenses paid for by dues is public information so I won't say, but we try to reduce that proportion by building the endowment -- through fund-raising, of course.

All of this makes me wonder when we risk hitting the point of "fund-raising fatigue" for members (I didn't grow up with this as normal so my perspective is unreliable), and what the mix of dues to fund-raising tends to be like elsewhere, and what other (fiscally-responsible) approaches are out there. What do others do? Are synagogues unique in having dues, or do churches have that too (perhaps packaged differently)? If you're a member of a church, does someone sit down with you and say "we expect you to donate $X this year"?

So, readers who belong to congregations of any sort, how do your congregations pay for expenses?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Interesting question. And my answer is going to be quite dated, because although I continued giving to the church I grew up in long after my belief went away, I still sent money their way.

I never considered any donations as tax-deductible or asked for receipts. A tithe is a tithe, and church and state are supposedly separate. I paid in cash or check and just thought "hey, they helped bring me up, so all is cool". Mostly, though, the idea of separation made me not even think of donations to any charity as different from money I simply spent.

And the donations were always optional (even if they sent out letters you could pretend not to have seen them or simply ignore them). They were never a tax, just a chance for an offering.

Methodist, if that adds any context.

[hildakrista.livejournal.com]

Well, I grew up Roman Catholic, too, and I had the same experience as you, complete with my own tiny numbered envelopes. But I'm commenting on Ben's mom's experience. It's not illuminating for your question, I think, but interesting:

Ben's mom's father was the pastor of a very small Christian and Missionary Alliance Church (protestant) in East Nowhere, PA. When he died, we were up at his tiny, poorly made house to clean it out. I came across a giant drawer full of hundreds - literally hundreds - of tiny little notebooks. On each page were names and an amount a money next to each, usually within the $1-$10 range. His salary, meaning all (ALL!) their income from his job was by weekly donations from the congregation.

Ben's mom says that the side effect of this was that if he preached an unpopular sermon, they ate beans for a month. Or if they did fundraising for something else (like housing a returning missionary for a period of time), they ate beans. If a family in the church moved or switched churches (common in small-town protestant communities during disagreements), it caused them hardships as well.

Their family offset this by the pastor also doing carpentry and odd jobs. Which the congregation also didn't like. They wanted their pastor to just be the religious guide, not have other jobs. It was, however, necessary, and carpentry was sort of OK, for obvious reasons. But growing up very poor as a child of a pastor (as did Ben, in his own turn), results in some interesting behaviors. This comedy article (http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-develop-growing-up-poor/) describes their family to a "T". Like, weirdly accurate.

Just thought you might be interested to hear about the poor side of church finances, and how it affects the employees and their families.

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

YOu might find the following podcast of interest:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/03/06/148077290/the-tuesday-podcast-what-mormons-can-teach-the-irs

It talks about how various religions fund themselves. Judiasm doesn't always have fixed dues: some congregations use a fair share plan based on income, others do set dues based on categories. I think there was an article recently in Reform Judaism on the subject; I know there was a letter to the editor on the subject in the issue I just received.

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

Our temple (Reform Judaism) charges dues, but we don't have a whole lot of cushion. We don't have our own building. We share our rabbi with another congregation because we can't afford to pay for full-time rabbinical services.

We have annual dues. If I remember correctly from last year (the pledge paperwork should be coming around again soon), there are suggested dues levels based on income gradations. But nobody needs to submit a pay stub, so that's all based on honor system. We don't turn anyone away for being unable to pay more than a nominal amount, but if I understand correctly, you still have to fill out the paperwork annually or it is assumed that you are no longer a member.

We also do silent auctions and annual used-book sales and other things like that.

We did have a financial crisis not all that long ago (I think it partly stemmed from people being behind on their pledges), and there was a big mandatory meeting where we had to vote on whether to pay more or make a hard choice of which painful cut to make. But instead people stood up and offered to pay X amount on top of their pledge, and other people seconded that offer (and I suspect a lot of people who weren't paid up, paid up PDQ). So there was enough extra money raised that no hard choices needed to be made.

[meiravberale.livejournal.com]

Interesting to hear your take on this, I'd never thought about it this way. To me it seems natural that we trust God for the finances, and I love hearing the finance report every year and seeing how He has provided. We're there to do His work after all.

My experience over the years includes various churches in the UK (Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, Evangelical Free Church) plus a Messianic fellowship in Israel - in all these places it's been up to each person to prayerfully decide how much they give, whether it's in regular giving (which can be through the weekly collection or through a bank standing order) or in one-off special donations to specific causes; but some teach about the importance of tithing and suggest a minimum level (I've heard 10% and also 5%); and in the Lutheran church people were encouraged to make an annual pledge, which I found very off-putting at the time but this feels like a lifetime ago so I don't know how I'd feel now. I'm currently in an Evangelical Free Church and there is encouragement to tithe but absolutely no pressure and no one keeps track of how much each individual gives, it's considered to be something that is between the individual and God. There are collection bags that are passed round and no one else sees what you put in.

[mortuus.livejournal.com]

In the Mormon church, we pay 10% tithing (it's supposed to be 10% of increase, but how you define it is up to you; you'll find contentious debates online on whether that means net or gross income and that sort of thing, but the only official thing from the church is 10% of increase, so use your own best judgement and thought and prayer about what that means to you). There are envelopes in a little cubby thing that is usually next to the bishop's office, so you just grab one and fill out a little form and hand it to the bishop whenever you cross paths with him (I usually track him down in the hallway after church) or mail it to him. [I'd love it if the church would set up an easy way to do it online; tithing is the only thing I write checks for anymore ;-)] There's no assessment or anything like that, so it's just up to you to pay or not or pay some. In addition to tithing, there's other things like a fast offering, which is however much you want to donate during the monthly fast to help the poor and needy within your own congregation (this was the fund my bishop pulled from to help me get above my medical bills last year). Those two, tithing and fast offerings, are the most common ones, but there are other things too, like the humanitarian fund (like for disaster relief stuff), or missionary support, or smaller things like summer church camp for the congregation's teenagers. All of those go in the same envelope with the slip filled out showing how much should go where.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

My mom is on the board (they call it something else) for one of the oldest Episcopal churches in the US.

They have the advantage of a) a significant endowment, and b) property owned by the church not currently being used by the church. None of the money they collect over the course of the year (except for special appeals - disasters, etc.) actually gets spent in the year they collect it. Instead, they budget forward using in the money generated by the endowment + projected rental income + a percentage (I think it's 60%) of last year's collection income as a guide. All collection income (including pledges) over a certain annual threshold gets rolled back into the endowment.

This way of planning served them well for decades, until the past five years when they had to deal with a combination of the stock market crash + sky high heating bills + the priest getting sick (he needed an organ transplant) and the church needing to suddenly pay all the living expenses for their regular (ill) priest (who was living in the rectory with his family) plus a long-term interim priest. (Note: if you pay the Rabbi's living expenses, get long term disability for him/her. They didn't and it ended up costing them much more than 15 years of premiums would have.)

Fund raising: Her church does pass the collection plate, but also has the regular congregation make an annual pledge that is done quietly, by mail, and is above anything that might be put in the collection plate. A lot of families only pledge a dollar or two per week, and that's fine. They also do special appeals (they sponsor a town in Haiti), but all their other fundraising is events - so, a church fair, a book sale, an easter-egg event, a big dinner, etc.

If you have questions, feel free to ask. They're actually very solvent, despite the recent 'perfect storm' of events that caused their budget to be a mess the past few years. One issue is that they are unable to touch the principal of their endowment, only the interest, so there is reliable income, but zero temptation to do a big thing they can't afford by drawing down the endowment. Also, the diocese can step in and help (they ended up assisting with the cost of the interim priest) if things get really dire, and I don't think that you have that extra management level.

[sambeth.livejournal.com]

Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox.

Both the churches I attend regularly send the little basket round during Sunday services. There are little Gift Aid envelopes available - Gift Aid is some kind of tax relief scheme, by which the tax you would have paid on the money you give goes to the gift recipient instead, or something.

No basket during super quick weekday services.

There ae little iron boxes marked 'candles', and 'St Francis mission to the poor' and suchlike - you put your money in there if you've either bought a candle/pamphlet or want to give for a specific mission or cause.

I have always assumed the church makes its proper money from the tithing of its more reliable attenders, because I know a few people who do this, rather than chucking a few coins in the basket.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

The synagogue I went to when I was a kid also sold tickets for seats at the high holiday services. I think this is typical, but I'm not sure.