How to Delegate Your Church Budget

Reflection of Your Mission

Like most things in regards to church it is going to depend on your individual mission. How you allocate your financial resources should directly reflect the mission you are trying to accomplish as a church. Most of the time I can get a pretty good feel of what the church values, and doesn’t value, by just looking at their financials.

The Breakdown

Even though the exact percentages differ from church the below ranges are what we most commonly see.

• Personnel – 40-50% – This is the biggest piece of the pie. These costs include all salaries and benefits of the staff.
• Property/Facility – 10-25% – This can differ greatly depending on the size of your building. Should include mortgage payments, utilities, repairs & maintenance, etc. If renting this makes more sense to be included as part of Administrative/Operations.
• Ministry – 10-20% – Spending for services and internal church ministries.
• Giving – 5 – 15% – This can be lumped in with Ministry depending on the church’s vision. This includes giving toward missions, outreach and benevolence.
• Administration/Operations – 5-10% – This should be the lowest as it includes dues/subscription, IT, office supplies and software, professional fees, etc.
• Savings – 5-10% – It is common for a church to make $0 dollar budgets. The only time we would recommend not factoring in some sort of savings is when you have sufficient Operating and Capital Savings, more on that here.