ECCU Blog

Tuesday I blogged Vonna Laue’s responses to three budget-related questions to give you a preview of the expertise that resides on the panel for the upcoming budgeting workshop ECCU is presenting at the Christian Leadership Alliance (CLA) National Conference. (How to Build a Better Budget).

Next up is Hugh Burns, vice president of operations for the Denver Rescue Mission.

MBG:     What top three priorities should guide the budgeting process?

Hugh:      First, make sure your budget is relevant to your organization. For the Denver Rescue Mission, this involves having a process that holds department heads accountable to their budgets month-by-month throughout the year. We require department heads to provide commentary on budget-to-actual variances over 10 percent every month. We have found that this makes the budget process truly a part of our organizational culture.

Second, make sure the budget has been filtered through a process of review and discussion. Each of our department heads goes through a process whereby they propose a budget and then attend a meeting with the controller and the vice president in charge of their area. The department heads’ budgets are projected on a screen. We go through them line by line and challenge them to justify the dollars they propose to raise and/or spend during the coming fiscal year. Adjustments and revisions are made on the spot.

Finally, make sure the budget balances on a consolidated level after all department budgets are rolled up. We make sure we our budget balances, including planned capital expenditures and with a 3 percent contingency fund. We believe that this is fundamental for us to have a sustainable business model.

MBG:     What are two or three major changes you’ve made to your budgeting process and what was the result?

Hugh:      We have utilized some helpful technology in our budget process. The most significant of these is SharePoint, which allows us to create an Intranet where budget templates can be saved and accessed. This assures that there is only one version of the truth at any point in time. We can also link all the spreadsheets together and consolidate them into a top-level budget with very little effort. As we make changes to department budgets, the consolidated budget is automatically adjusted.

MBG:     How can an attendee prepare to gain the most value from this workshop?

Hugh:      Come prepared to throw out the challenges and problem areas in your budget process during the Q&A time. Someone in the room is likely to have dealt with those issues before and will be able to offer a useful solution.                                                                                

Again, this budgeting workshop will be on Thursday, April 11, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.

To register for the CLA conference, visit www.claconference.org.

Last week I blogged Billy Burnett’s responses to three budget-related questions to give you a preview of the expertise that resides on the panel for the upcoming budgeting workshop ECCU is presenting at the Christian Leadership Alliance (CLA) National Conference. (How to Build a Better Budget).

Next up is Vonna Laue, audit partner with CapinCrouse LLP.

MBG:     What top three priorities should guide the budgeting process?

Vonna:    First, be realistic, if you budgeted a 6 percent increase in 2011 and contributions were down 5 percent, don’t expect that without significant changes you will have 6 percent growth in 2012. Second, be missional. Your budget should reflect the direction of the ministry by funding strategic initiatives. This requires that you honestly evaluate programs to identify those that may be good but not part of the mission. Finally, be vigilant. Monitor, monitor, monitor and be ready to respond.

MBG:     What are two or three major changes you’ve seen ministries make to their budgeting process and what was the result?

Vonna:    One is budgeting year round instead of it just being a one-time annual event. This results in a deeper analysis and more proactive response than getting to the end of the year and being disappointed. Another change that some ministries are considering is building three budgets. Start with your basic budget, then build two more. One reflects what you will cut if the projected revenue doesn’t come in. The other accounts for how you will expand if excess funds are received. Doing this removes some of the emotion from those decisions when you actually have to make them.

MBG:     How can an attendee prepare to gain the most value from this workshop?

Vonna:    Consider in advance the struggles that you face in your ministry’s budget process and come ready to participate, looking for suggestions to help.

Again, this budgeting workshop will be on Thursday, April 11, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.

To register for the CLA conference, visit www.claconference.org.

Have you ever attended a Christian Management Association (CMA) brown bag luncheon? If not, April is a good time to get in on one of these monthly events if you’re in the San Jose or Sacramento area. They provide an informal roundtable atmosphere to network with your ministry peers and engage in a guided discussion led by an industry expert.

Two luncheons are scheduled for April:

April 12 (Thursday) from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Crossroads Bible Church
1670 Moorpark Avenue
San Jose, CA 95128

April 13 (Friday) from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Epic Bible College
4330 Auburn Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95841

These luncheons are open to all ministry executives. The San Jose luncheon is geared specifically for business administrators, chief financial officers, and IT/technology staff, while the Sacramento luncheon will be of special interest to business administrators. CMA members attend free; cost for non-members is $10 (pay at the door). Everyone brings their own lunch and no RSVP is required.

To learn more about these luncheons, email Pam Boersma at pam.boersma@cmanational.org or visit www.eccu.org/resources/events.

Despite the economic challenges of the past few years, some ministries were actually able to boost giving during the recession. Three of them, all ECCU member ministries, were recently featured in a webinar titled Proven Ways to Increase Giving to Your Ministry. A recording of this webinar is now available online.

Watch this free recording and you will hear what these ministries did to generate more revenue. You’ll also discover how to manage finances in ways that free up more for ministry.

By listening to this webinar, you can expect to learn:

• Specific things ministries have done that actually increased giving
• How to communicate your ministry’s story so people clearly see how it aligns with their passion for ministry
• How to better manage financial resources and free up more to invest in ministry

You’ll also have access to additional giving and stewardship resources, including: Attendee questions with answers from the webinar presenters, online tools, videos, articles, book recommendations, and much more.

To watch this webinar recording and access the additional resources, visit www.eccu.org/giving-webinar.

There are three ways to communicate. You can tell people something. You can show them. Or you can do both. A couple days ago I told you that ECCU is presenting a panel discussion workshop at the upcoming Christian Leadership Alliance (CLA) National Conference. It’s called How to Build a Better Budget. I also told you that the panelists know whereof they speak when it comes to ministry budgeting.

Starting with today’s post, I’d like to show you that these people know their numbers. How? I emailed three questions to each one of them and asked them to respond from their ministry and financial perspective. Consider this a preview of the richness of the discussion you’ll get to experience by attending this workshop.

First up is Billy Burnett, executive vice president and CFO with Joni and Friends.

MBG:  What top three priorities should guide the budgeting process?

Billy:     First, make sure it aligns strategically and tactically with your ministry’s mission. Second, be sure it’s based in biblical and financial reality. And third, be sure to tap into the collective wisdom and experience of your entire organization.

MBG:  What are two or three major changes you’ve made to your budgeting process and what was the result?

Billy:     One is that we switched to a live budget preparation, collaboration, and approval process. The benefits were that we got instant approvals and people walked away from the process with their budgets in hand. Second is to shorten the budget preparation time, which resulted in sharper focus and better planning.

MBG:  How can an attendee prepare to gain the most value from this workshop?

Billy:     I’d say come with a list of objectives. Include problems you’re facing that need solutions. And come prepared to contribute to the group by describing things you’ve done that have proved to be fruitful.

Like I said, these panelists know how to budget. Their workshop will be on Thursday, April 11, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.

To register for the CLA conference, visit www.claconference.org.