How many times have we seen skirmishes between church goers and church administrators over the finances of the church? Sure it’s a common area of conflict across churches and charitable organizations just as it happens in enterprise organizations where stakeholders demand to see how their funds are being utilized and get insights into the working of the organization. Similarly the parishioners and church goers who make up the stakeholders in their churches often demand transparency into finances, donations and allocation of donations to the various funds which can be an additional hassle for the administration or parish councils who find themselves having to take on a defensive stance.
‘Transparency in working’ is a cornerstone of social web and whether it’s companies using social networks, collaboration tools, online communities and more, all these technologies are a step forward in creating an open work environment where customers and others can freely engage with the business and everyone can observe interactions, communications and processes. Businesses have taken a more social, more accessible, more human persona and as a result , created accountability and trust among those who seek it. Luckily, with the right technologies the same can be applied to Church administration when it comes to extending it’s financials to those who insist on accountability.
Here is an extract of an article by the Crown Financial Ministries that highlights financial accountability in church administration:
The American public generally has high expectations of religious organizations and churches. For the most part, donors and attendees recognize that enormous needs exist that the church is called upon to meet, and they usually want to respond adequately to help the church meet those needs.
However, they also want to be assured that the funds they give, many times sacrificially, are being used effectively and that the church is actively involved in ministering in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. So, there can be no acceptable alternative to financial accountability.
The donor management process is precisely one of the areas into which the public seeks some level of transparency and with a web based donor management software like DonorTools restoring faith in those who doubt (pun intended) can be done with a few clicks of the mouse. Our “Audit History” creates a feed of every action within the account. When someone signs in, when changes are made to the data, when donations are made, towards what funds donations are made, when account changes are made and more. This helps develop a constant trail of all the activity of every user and admin within the donor management system which builds transparency and accountability with no extra effort.
The “Funds And Sources” feature is a great way to link donations received to the funds to which they have been allocated to making it simpler to track down a donation or display the progress on certain funds when people need to know what’s happening with them. The next time someone in the Church asks “what’s going on with the building renovation work we donated towards which was supposed to start last week???” With a few clicks on DonorTools one can share how they’ve only reached 50% of the “building renovation fund” goal that was set and clarify why the work has been delayed.
In the era of the social web where lack of accountability and transparency is a thing of the past, Churches and charitable organizations can leverage great web applications where it matters the most and (for lack of a better way to say this) renew people’s faith in more ways than one.
