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how does your congregation raise money?
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?
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Interesting question regarding building ownership. I'm not sure I even know the exact situation in each of the different congregations I've been part of. In the Anglican church it's more complex, I think the buildings are owned by the church as a whole, not by the specific congregation; and then they have a requirement for each congregation to send money upstream. Where I am currently, we own the building and it means lots of maintenance costs as it's an old building. I know of congregations that meet in schools (premises not in use on a Sunday) so they don't have those issues to deal with. (My fellowship back home uses a building and I don't remember if it's owned or rented.) Another difference between different congregations is salaried staff - I know of churches where the pastor's role is unpaid and he'd be doing something else for a living; in the Anglican church again I think it's centralised, I don't think the congregation pays the clergy's stipends directly; in my current fellowship we do have a few salaries to pay.
I've come across a variety of different takes on the question of tithing, it's not a clear cut thing. Some do assume that you must bring the full 10% to the church (and the church does support other causes, so it's not like it all goes just to keep the church going); and then out of the 90% you've kept you can give to charity, as a separate thing. But that's not the only view, and my understanding from the Bible is that part of the tithe went to charity. I see the principle as something like this: show your gratitude to God by regularly giving back to Him a regular part of what you have received (and it's also a way of practising our trust in Him; support your congregation by giving regularly; giving back to God doesn't necessarily have to mean giving to your congregation, if you see someone in need and you feel God wants you to give him something then that can also be part of the equation.
I don't think people put in less due to less people being seen putting stuff in - because we don't see who is or isn't putting stuff in. The bag is passed round whilst we're singing, we're all focused on the song and nobody is going to be looking around to see who is or isn't putting something in the bag.
oops. I see I forgot to close my parentheses :(
(and it's also a way of practising our trust in Him); support your congregation...
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