ECCU Blog

We’ve been talking more lately about how deposits at ECCU are used exclusively to support member ministries. One of those ministries is the Denver Rescue Mission (DRM). Here’s a story of how God used the DRM in a significant way over Thanksgiving.

The DRM is as close to the intersection of the economic downturn and increased physical needs as any ministry. Their programs provide life-sustaining support to hundreds of people every day. And if you caught the ABC World News with Diane Sawyer on November 19, you saw just how abundantly God provided for people’s needs through one DRM program—its annual turkey drive.

A November 15 story on the ABC News website reported that “from California to Connecticut, food banks and charities nationwide report that donations of frozen turkeys—the cornerstone of a traditional Thanksgiving meal—have fallen dramatically this holiday season.”

DRM Director of PR Greta Walker was interviewed for that story. “This year has been really tough,” she said. “We started the turkey drive on November 1, and about ten days into it, we had zero turkeys. And I started to get really worried…We know that people have been struggling with the economy. We can tell with our numbers everyday. Our meal service programs have gone up 20 percent.”

Walker said the turkey shortage would have a ripple effect, because each year the 5,000 turkeys they collect are distributed to some 80 other organizations in the Denver area. So she got the word out about the shortage, and four days later she sent me an email with this message:

We started out 9 days ago with zero turkeys and now have over 11,000. We have distributed 9,000 to agencies and churches for their holiday food boxes. The community in Colorado is amazing!

Greater need often prompts greater generosity. How about at your ministry? Do you have a Thanksgiving story to encourage your fellow ECCU members? Post a comment and let us know.

The question is unavoidable this time of year: “What are you thankful for?” While it may seem routine at times, something wonderful happens when we really stop to think about it. We become thankful.

While this year has been marked with challenges, I am overwhelmed with gratitude when I reflect on the blessings in my work and ministry. Here are just a few that come to mind:

• I have the privilege of working with people who live out their faith in the workplace. I see this often in the way they care for one another. They are thoughtful, paying attention to each other’s needs. When one is walking through difficulties, the others rally around with cards of encouragement, meals, and prayer. This is truly a beautiful thing to see in the workplace.
• I am honored to work with so many ministries that are making a huge impact for the kingdom. They are a joy to work with, even when we can’t give them everything they want. As much as we want to say “yes” to every request, there are times we are unable—and yet ministries respond graciously. When they could choose to be angry or difficult, instead they give a blessing.
• And I am thankful for a board of directors who volunteer amazing amounts of time, hundreds of hours a year, without pay. They carry a big responsibility and burden, and they do it because they care about the ministry of ECCU. I am deeply thankful.

What blessings do you see in your ministry? What are you thankful for?

I’ve taken some informal polls at ministry financial management events asking “Do you budget income or expenses first?”  Typically, responses are split right down the middle.

While I can’t say one approach is categorically right and the other is wrong, there are some compelling reasons to project your income before budgeting for expenses.

For most ministries, donations are the primary source of revenue. Projecting donations, though, does not mean choosing the number that closes the gap between expenses and other earned income. Begin projecting your donations by first reviewing your mission, objectives, and strategic plans. Are they similar to the past year? Are you making any significant shifts? This important step will ensure that your ministry remains focused on what is most important to you, and that you’re assessing your income accordingly. After you have reviewed—and possibly revised— your mission, objective, and strategic plans, you can begin to determine the willingness of your donors to support those plans.

If your mission and plans are essentially the same, you can then look at historical donation data.  Look at your donors’ profiles, donation amounts, timing, and trends.  Take into consideration the economic environment where your donors live. By analyzing this information, you can now begin to make some projections for next year’s donation revenue.

If your mission and plans have changed, you have more work to do. Yes, look at the historical donation data, but also estimate the additional revenues needed for each of your new or revised programs.  Will your current donors want to support your new programs?  Or will you need to attract new donors?  From this exercise, you will have the basis to know how much income you expect to raise.

When budgeting income, involve your financial and program staff, as well as your leadership and board to make the most realistic assessment possible.  Finally—and this is important—consider a portion of the income to be a surplus that you won’t plan on spending.  This provides an internal funding source for future program expansion, related capital projects, or contingencies.

So, three steps to get you started in your budgeting process:

1.)    Review your mission, objectives and plans

2.)    Budget income

3.)    Plan expenses

What do you think of this process? Is there another way that you’ve chosen to budget for your ministry? Tell us about it!

We live in an acronym-loving world. Nobody ever just laughs anymore, we LOL. And if you need something in a hurry, it’s ASAP. We bankers are no exception; we love a good acronym as much as the next person. 

So, what I have to say is important, but it requires a bit of an acronym-tutorial for you to follow. Consider this your official cheat sheet:

ACH: Automated Clearing House

RDC: Remote Deposit Capture

AAP: Accredited ACH Professional (Sure enough, we even have an acronym in an acronym!) 

NACHA: National ACH Association

Ready now? Here we go:

If you are currently an ACH originator or you are thinking of becoming one, finding a financial institution with an AAP on staff should be a priority. The AAP certification establishes professional standards based on best practices in the industry as defined by NACHA. The certification requires intensive study and processing experience, passing a grueling exam, and ongoing education requirements. A banker with an AAP accreditation is highly skilled and can help you understand ACH required rules, risk mitigation, and industry best practices.

ECCU (c’mon, you know this one) is committed to a strong and secure ACH program, and we currently have six AAPs on staff. How does this help our members?  One ministry member was having difficulty importing her ACH file into our online banking module. Her donor file had more than 8,000 entries, and she did not know where the error occurred. She called our support team, and one of our on-staff AAPs securely reviewed her file and found a missing account number. The staff member then walked her through correction, the file was uploaded, and those 8,000 donor transactions were completed!

An AAP can also help when a ministry is looking to start a new type of ACH processing.  For example, we had a ministry request to start TEL transactions. (Oops, another acronym. TEL transactions are made when an oral authorization is received via the telephone.)  One of our AAPs contacted the ministry to discuss the transactions, and through that dialogue realized TEL transactions were not a good fit for the ministry. Our AAP helped them understand how to improve their agreement with their clients to obtain authorization up front, eliminating the need for the phone call and streamlining their payments activity.

Do you have a success story from working with an AAP? Post a comment to share with our readers.

Outreach magazine’s recent “100 Largest and Fastest-Growing Churches” special issue is loaded with statistics, facts, and figures. One article, titled “Learning from the Great Recession,” offers Leadership Network survey results that reveal “how churches have fared and responded in the economic crisis.”

One question asked: What shifts have churches made in their operations/budgeting/stewardship during the current “Great Recession” that they will likely continue even if the economy recovers? From a list of 10 options, here are the top four answers:

• Greater use of volunteers instead of additional paid staff (65 percent)
• Increased emphasis on financial training classes (45 percent)
• More electronic/online giving options (41 percent)
• More financial cushion in church bank account (39 percent)

As for changes to their 2011 budgeting, 58 percent of churches plan to increase their giving to missions.

How about your church? What shifts have you made over the past two years that are likely to continue into the future?