Foundation Series: Reporting and Use of Assets

As I’ve been going through this series on setting up and fine tuning a church foundation, over and over these two key principles keep surfacing:

The church owns the church Foundation? Again, I would contend that the church foundation is ultimately accountable to the church. They should be transparent and forthright with church leadership. If leaders of the church foundation won’t share details about how much money is invested, what the returns are, what are the donor restriction, and how much is available to be spent, the church should find some new leaders for the foundation. Transparent reporting is a must.
Make decisions now before a “crisis” comes. Life is full of problems, and easy money almost always seems like a pretty good solution. Most church foundations care for long-term funds. Most of us don’t have the discipline to resist wanting to be the savior and bail out the church…even if it means putting the long-term health of the foundation at risk. If you make policy decisions on how and when funds will be used ahead of time, it gives you a little extra fortitude and wisdom during those times.

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