About a decade ago, Elmer Brinkman basically donated his 1998 Toyota Corolla to the Conference. That was our first fleet vehicle. I knew it would save us a ton of money. Before this, we reimbursed mileage at the IRS rate whenever someone had to travel for work. I was so proud of it, I actually…
Category: 10-Minute Treasurer
The Why’s and How’s of Electronic Giving
Electronic giving isn’t going away yet some churches are still resistant to allowing people to give electronically. I wonder if there was a time when checks were knew and churches only accepted cash, livestock or grain. In this webinar, I try to make the case for why churches should make the switch. Long story short,…
Donating Farmland to the Church
In the Dakotas, many of our churches are connected to agriculture. We have members that our farmers, retired farmers, and/or children who inherited farmland from their folks. The scary thing about farmland transactions is the tax basis. Most farmland has been held for decades so the tax basis could easily be $100/acre or less. If…
What is an Endowment, and How does it work?
Endowments can be a huge blessing to the church or ministry that you love, but few people understand how it works. I’m not sure I do the best in explaining it in this video, but imagine if one of the biggest annual givers to your church is a dead person. That’s what an endowment can…
The Win-Win of the Charitable Remainder Trust
I don’t want this to sound like a gimmick or some slick way to raise money from gullible elderly church members. That is not what a Charitable Remainder Trust is. The Charitable Remainder Trust can be an wonderful part of a person’s retirement/estate plan. What makes it so wonderful? Here’s a list: Guaranteed Income for…
Is it Commuting or Business Miles?
A lot of churches reimburse mileage for their pastor. Pastors can put on quite a few miles…especially if they serve multiple churches. Mileage can actually be a major part of the budget. One of the issues is knowing the difference between commuting miles and business miles because commuting is not reimbursable. I took my info…
Riches: The Great Killer of Churches
A church that has enough money to do everything it wants is in serious danger. How can having enough money be dangerous? John Wesley was very strong about warning people about riches and increasing riches. This applies to churches as well. Just as people need to guard their hearts against trusting in money instead of…