Presenters
Dr. Jessica Anschutz, Associate Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, and Rev. Thomas G. James, Owner and Founder of Ekklesia Financial Services
About the Congregational Giving Profile
This resources helps you monitor your congregation’s giving and expenses throughout the year based on the way people actually give in your church and the way your spend in your church — your own unique financial patterns, or Congregational Giving Profile. From month to month, CGP shows you precisely where your finances stand in relation to where you need to be to meet your budget. When you use CGP, you’ll know in June, or even sooner, whether you’re on track to meet the budget by December.
How does the Congregational Giving Profile work?
There are three easy steps to getting started with CGP:
Step 1. View the video instruction session. Dr. Jessica Anschutz from the Lewis Center and Rev. Thomas G. James from Ekklesia Financial Services explain what a Congregational Giving Profile is and offer a step-by-step guide to using the CGP template to determine your church’s CGP.
Step 2. Enter your past three year’s giving and expense information and input your current year budget into the CGP template. The template automatically makes all the necessary calculations to show how much money you should anticipate each month of the year.
Step 3. Enter your giving and expenses each month. As the current year progresses, the template calculates whether you’re ahead or behind for the year based on your own Congregational Giving Profile.
If you ever have questions while using CGP, the Lewis Center is here to help. The resource includes a video instruction session, samples of Congregational Giving Profiles, CGP Excel templates, Frequently Asked Questions Questions, and a dedicated email helpline.
Knowledge is power, and CGP keeps you in the know.
With the GCP you’ll know if you are likely to end the year with a budget shortfall so you can adjust your spending appropriately. And, if you find your church is running ahead of expectations based on CGP calculations, chances are very good the year-end financial picture will be positive!
The resource includes:
- Easy-to-use templates that calculate your congregation’s unique Congregational Giving Profile, track giving and expenses throughout the year, and monitor progress in relation to budget goals
- Introduction video featuring Dr. Jessica L. Anschutz, associate director of the Lewis Center
- Using the Congregational Giving Profile video featuring Rev. Thomas G. James from Ekklesia Financial Services
- Samples of monthly Congregational Giving Profiles
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Instructional Segments
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1. Introduction
This presentation covers the importance of using the Congregational Giving Profile in your ministry.
- Video Presentation (5:05) by Dr. Jessica L. Anschutz, associate director of the Lewis Center
- Video Transcript
2. Using the Congregational Giving Profile
This video guides the user through the included Excel templates and explains how to use the files to monitor and report your church budget according to your church’s Congregational Giving Profile.
- Video Presentation (10:37) featuring Rev. Thomas G. James, Ekklesia Financial Services
- Video Transcript
3. Monitoring Your Budget
Includes an Excel template for use by churches that monitor and report their church budget monthly plus an example of a completed Monthly Template
- Monitoring Your Budget Monthly Template (Excel) — January Fiscal Year
- Monitoring Your Budget Monthly Template (Excel) — July Fiscal Year
- Example Monthly Template
4. Frequently Asked Questions
Provides succinct answers to questions that commonly arise among CGP users.
About the download files
This video tool kit is 495.9 MB in total. Upon purchase you will receive links to download each video (MP4), template (XLSX), and document (PDF) file separately. The largest video file is 265.9 MB. The largest template file is 56 KB. The largest document file is 3.1 MB.
