What's a Safe, Confidential Way to Monitor Congregational Giving?
January 15, 2024
2 comments
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Our church would like to develop guidelines for monitoring giving patterns from to our church ministries. The purpose is to promote stewardship, give feedback, and maybe receive early warnings of those who have spiritual or financial needs. We are concerned about issues regarding confidentiality. Does any church have guidelines/protocol that they would be willing to share?
Comments
I'm assuming your church is not using an envelope system. But if you're using a church management system that includes a contributions module, the system reporting tools should be able to provide the needed visibility. Except for those who may be giving cash. If you're not using such a system, but are interested in some advice, feel free to reach out to me.
The 'Give' function of The Bridge App records giving by household, and within that household by date and cause. This information is confidential, and only accessible to the individual who has been authorized as the 'treasurer'. I suspect that most if not all church management systems (as per Bob's comment above) would offer similar information, but only accessible to those in a treasurer role. A treasurer could report to Council regarding any trends, while keeping specific information confidential.
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