4 Questions to Ask Before Giving to a Church or Ministry
Christians are called to give generously and with wisdom. Before you support a ministry financially, here are four questions that will help you give with both open hands and clear eyes.
Every ministry operates on the generous donations of its supporters. Whether it's a church funded by the tithes and gifts of the congregation, or a nonprofit supported by charitable giving, ministry runs on generosity. Scripture speaks at length about generosity as part of good stewardship.
Christians are called to give generously, but also to give with wisdom and discernment. I wouldn't recommend supporting a televangelist promising healing in exchange for a financial gift to their "ministry." Giving kingdom resources to a fraudulent ministry isn't generosity — it's poor stewardship. We need to give generously, with wisdom and discernment.
That example is hopefully obvious. But what are the important questions we should ask before supporting a ministry or local church? Here are four questions I would ask any church or ministry before giving financially.
Can I see your budget, or at least an overview of it?
There are two reasons to ask this question.
First, you want to make sure the ministry has taken the time to prayerfully plan and prepare a budget. If they haven't spent the time to work through the budget process, that's not a good sign of healthy financial stewardship. A ministry that operates on a whim, without preparing or tracking expenses, has no real way of knowing whether it's being faithful with its finances.
Second, you want to see at least a high-level view of how the church is investing its money. This isn't a chance to nitpick their spending, but to see whether it lines up with their vision and mission. If you're supporting an organization that raises funds for church planting, you want to see that a significant portion of your donation is actually going toward church planting. The budget shows how closely a ministry's spending aligns with its mission.
If a church or ministry refuses to share even a high-level view of its budget, proceed with caution.
Do you have a team of people regularly reviewing the church's financials?
Every ministry needs at least three unrelated people regularly reviewing its financials. Typically this is a board or finance team of trusted people who provide financial oversight, ideally reviewing financials monthly.
If only one person or family is reviewing the financials, that is a major red flag. If you encounter a church where one person handles bookkeeping, reporting, reconciling, and financial review, that should concern you.
This also assumes the church is keeping accurate books: regularly reconciling accounts and producing financial reports (P&L, balance sheet, budget vs. actuals, transaction detail, and so on). We recommend that ministries have bookkeeping done by a third party, which adds a layer of accountability and frees the internal finance team to focus on internal controls and review. Even church planters can ask an outside board member or sending church to provide two or three unrelated people to review their financials.
What are your internal controls for those spending the ministry's money?
Beyond financial review, ministries need internal controls on spending. Think of spending as the money that leaves the church to pay staff and cover ministry expenses.
Payroll needs to run through a payroll system that properly withholds and pays taxes on behalf of employees. For other ministry expenses, there needs to be a clear process for credit card or check issuance. Who has the ability to write checks or is authorized to use the ministry's credit card? No one in the ministry should be able to spend by check or credit card without oversight and approval.
A pastor or staff member with unreviewed credit card or check-writing access is a major red flag. If the lead pastor needs a reimbursement check, he shouldn't be the one writing and approving it himself.
There are tools available now that make internal controls simple to implement for any ministry. We typically recommend Ramp or Bill.com for credit card and check payments, as both offer robust expense tracking and approval workflows. Once these controls are in place, it's important that everyone on staff follows the same policies and procedures.
What is the ministry's approach to staff compensation?
To be clear, a ministry should not have to disclose everyone's individual salary. Each ministry can decide what level of detail it shares about specific compensation and budget details. What I'd want to know is whether the ministry has thought through why salaries are set the way they are. This is both a philosophy-of-ministry question and a practical one.
It's good to hear that a ministry has prayerfully considered its compensation approach. For example, a ministry might decide to cover 100 percent of each staff member's family's health insurance to care for the whole family. Or they might include a sabbatical policy because they value the renewal of a leader's soul and the importance of rest.
We recommend that a ministry conduct a compensation study every three to five years, in which a third party evaluates a variety of measures to provide an objective basis for compensation in your area. With that data, a ministry can build a compensation grid that reflects the various employee tiers and assigns pay increases based on years of experience.
If a ministry is simply paying without any philosophy or objective measures, that's not automatically a red flag, but it can become a source of organizational conflict and chaos if left unaddressed.
Action Steps
If you're a donor and you come across any of these potential red flags, that doesn't automatically mean you should give elsewhere. It could be an opportunity to help a ministry grow into God-honoring stewardship. Part of our mission at ChurchBiz is to help equip churches and ministries in these areas. Ultimately, we want to help ministries grow financially so that, as a donor, you can trust your generosity is being stewarded well.
If we can be of help, reach out to our team.
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