Tag: budget

Six thoughts on organizational budgeting

budgeting
Part of my responsibility is helping team members navigate the challenging process of budgeting for their ministry activities. Whether it’s one activity, or a season, or a calendar year, there are a number of things that I’ve found that help lead to successful budgeting.

  1. Start with a vision. This is as simple as drawing a picture in your mind of what the world would be like if your activity, season, or year went the way that you wish that it would.
  2. Write a plan to achieve that vision. Every culinary masterpiece requires a recipe, even if it was never written down. But if it was never written down, it will be hard to repeat. So write the plan down. (This will also be helpful as you bring other people in to work with you).
  3. Research. Possibly not in your organization, but somewhere, the activity or season you’re trying to carry out has likely been done before. Find out where and consider how they did it. Are there any lessons you can use to shape your plan to increase your odds for success? Is there any thing financially specific that they did or didn’t do that you can learn from?
  4. Attach dollar signs to your plan. If you’re serving 100 families, how many supplies will it take? How much will it cost to buy that many? Is requesting donations a possibility? Identify opportunities to save money. Consider these factors and turn your plan into a financial plan that evidences your thought and research.
  5. Think through contingencies. How will you modify your plan if resources are limited? if participation is low? if other challenges come up?
  6. Next, present your financial plan, including the components outlined above, to those to whom it’s appropriate. (Supervisor, finance committee, congregation, etc.) Modify based on their requests and then prepare to execute and evaluate* your plan.
*Evaluation while executing AND after executing your plan will contribute to your research phase when preparing for future activities and seasons.

Spend Second

I’ve been on a “blogs about decision making” roll lately, so I thought it might be good to offer a word of balance. Depending on your circumstances, spending money can be the right way to go as I mentioned in my last post, but I had a valuable revelation recently. 

I was walking into the office one morning and thinking about a situation I was navigating with one of our team members. It was a fairly simple thing but was potentially going to cost about $500 depending on how we went forward. $500 may or may not be a lot of money depending on your total budget, but it was a “Spend or Don’t Spend” decision that I thought merited consideration.

As I weighed the questions, I determined that the spend option would be investing in a tangible asset that would have long-term value for the team, and it would help multiple team members be more efficient. And then I had an idea; there was a chance, albeit remote, that we might have an alternate solution in storage that didn’t cost money. I asked my team member to check it out before we made the final decision. Turns out there were no alternatives so we will be investing, but I still contend there was value in taking a few minutes to consider and check things out. 

Just so you know, I’m not talking about a long deliberation (google the words “analysis paralysis” to keep you on track here); I’m talking about an intentional few minutes to consider alternatives. When I’m rushing along in the flow of business, I don’t always take time to explore options, and some decisions don’t require it. When needed though, it can be a valuable thing to do. In any situation, we may need to spend money but there is often something we can or should do first. Check with someone, pray over the situation, think about it differently, ask for a volunteer or a donor to help with the need, etc. 

I am committed to making the spend decision when it’s needed but I’m convinced it shouldn’t be my first go-to.

Fixed Pie vs. Abundance

I work with a great team in an awesome organization. And one of the things you learn leading a team is that people are different. Okay, duh, you knew that already. But trying to lead a team forward on an initiative, especially a new or challenging one, will reveal lots of “differences” in people.  Here’s one example:

Don’t read any judgment into these writings ESPECIALLY if you work with me!

Fixed Pie Thinkers

You know the people I’m talking about. They are always thinking about how allocating resources to this new thing will affect their piece of the pie. Because the pie only has eight slices, so if her slice gets bigger, or if someone new comes in, I’m going to lose some. In ministry, we refer to these people as good “stewards”, because they are really good at managing on a budget and saying no to new things that come along because they don’t fit. When it comes to volunteers’ schedules or a leader’s attention span, there is a limit to how much you can navigate in a church. I contend this is also something you should consider when planning announcements. The more you talk about in a service or meeting, the less people will hear or remember.

Abundance

On the other side, we have people who see “no limits”. There’s always more room at the table, money in the budget, and hours in the day. After all, who needs sleep? In ministry, we sometimes say these people walk in a greater measure of “faith” than the rest of us. While one area that is often considered a fixed pie is the resource pool of your church, I contend that God really does have more than enough finances and volunteers to do everything He is calling you to do. It may require greater vision and prayer or asking in ways that you aren’t used to asking, but there is more out there.

The truth?

They’re both right. The glass is both half full AND half empty.  So sit down right in the middle of that paradox and figure out how to navigate forward. You have to esteem both perspectives or you will only bring part of your team along. Both sides of the team will need to be on board to get the victory God has for you. Congratulations, leader; hard as it is, that’s why you are in your role.

Have you ever encountered this?