Planning a Church Budget for 2024: A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating a church budget can seem daunting, but with a clear process and attention to detail, it can be a manageable and even rewarding task. 

Breeze Church Management

Digital giving apps and tools

As we look ahead to 2024, it's crucial for churches to develop a budget that reflects their mission, addresses their needs, and anticipates future trends. Creating a church budget can seem daunting, but with a clear process and attention to detail, it can be a manageable and even rewarding task. 

Here's a guide to help you plan a realistic and effective church budget for the upcoming year.

Step 1: Review Last Year's Budget and Giving Trends

Before diving into the new budget, take a comprehensive look at last year's budget and giving trends. This involves:

  • Analyzing Income: How much did the church receive in tithes, offerings, and other donations? Were there any significant changes in giving patterns?
  • Evaluating Expenditures: What were the major expenses? Did the church stay within budget for each category?
  • Assessing Surpluses or Shortfalls: If there was a surplus, how can it be reinvested? If there was a shortfall, what areas need adjustment?

Understanding last year's financial landscape provides valuable insights into the congregation's giving behavior and helps identify potential areas for growth or reduction.

Step 2: Conduct Financial Forecasting

Financial forecasting involves predicting future income and expenses based on past and current trends. This step is crucial for making informed budgeting decisions. Consider:

  • Projected Giving: Based on past trends, estimate the expected tithes and offerings for 2024.
  • Anticipated Expenses: Factor in regular expenses like staff salaries, utilities, and maintenance, as well as any planned projects or initiatives.
  • Economic Factors: Take into account broader economic conditions that might affect giving and expenses, such as inflation rates or economic downturns.

This forecasting helps in creating a budget that is both aspirational and grounded in reality.

Step 3: Set Realistic Goals

Goals should align with the church's vision and mission while being achievable. When setting goals:

  • Be Specific: Clearly define what the church aims to achieve, whether it's expanding outreach programs, renovating the church building, or increasing missionary support.
  • Consider Resources: Ensure goals are realistic in terms of available resources, including finances, volunteers, and staff.
  • Engage Leadership and Congregation: Goals should have the buy-in from church leadership and, ideally, the congregation. This ensures broader support and understanding.

Step 4: Create the Budget

Now, it's time to draft the budget. This involves:

  • Allocating Funds: Assign funds to different areas such as worship, outreach, operations, and savings. Prioritize essential expenses and align funding with the church’s goals.
  • Flexibility: Leave room for unexpected expenses or opportunities. A flexible budget can adapt to changes throughout the year.
  • Transparency: Ensure that the budgeting process is transparent and accountable. This builds trust within the congregation.

Step 5: Implement and Monitor the Budget

Once the budget is set, it needs to be implemented and monitored throughout the year. This includes:

  • Regular Reviews: Schedule periodic reviews to track income and expenses against the budget.
  • Adjustments: Be prepared to make adjustments if financial realities differ from projections.
  • Communication: Keep the congregation informed about the church's financial status and how their contributions are being utilized.

Over to You

Planning a church budget for 2024 is a significant task that requires careful consideration of past trends, realistic forecasting, clear goal-setting, and ongoing monitoring. By approaching this process methodically and transparently, your church can create a budget that not only supports its current needs but also paves the way for future growth and impact. Remember, a well-planned budget is a roadmap to achieving the church’s mission and vision in the coming year.

Breeze Church Management software can make the task of budget planning easier in several ways:

  • Donation tracking: Breeze gives you the tools to look at your donation history and track ups and downs in generosity throughout the year. 
  • Email communication tools: Breeze makes it simple to send emails to your church congregation, updating them on budgetary needs and opportunities to give. 
  • Mobile management: Sticking to the budget is even easier when you have mobile access to church management. The Breeze Church Management app makes it simple for your staff to stay organized on the go. 

To learn more about how Breeze can help your staff stay organized and efficient through the end of the year, click here.

Discover how our Groups tool can help you organize and manage one-on-one meetings effectively.

Explore Groups Tool

Looking for an easy-to-use software to help manage your church?

We'd love to show you what we built!

Join 10,000+ happy churches using Breeze ChMS™.

Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
David P.
loves Breeze
St. Pauls United Methodist Church

Breeze has been incredible. Their customer service, commitment to innovation, and their product are top-notch. I love the features, the ease of use and the mobile applications.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Karen M.
loves Breeze
Hillcrest Church

All of our database needs have been more than met, it's easier to use than the last database we had, and the price is amazing - what a value this has been to our church! All of our staff can use this software and they do regularly. We use it to track…literally anything a church could possibly need to track regarding it's attenders.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Chris K.
loves Breeze
Crossroads United Methodist Church

Breeze has been a great asset to our church and congregation. Especially from an administrative standpoint, it has been the most adaptable and easiest church database I have ever used. The features from blast emails to giving on-line, and texting have been one of our greatest assets. Thank you!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ed R.
loves Breeze
Church Admin

We switched from a major, web-based ChMS to Breeze and our decision is confirmed every day. We are a medium size church and we use Breeze for contributions, member management, event checkin and a few other applications custom to our church. I had trouble getting any staff to use our previous ChMS but almost all staff are using Breeze. The product is very well designed, extremely easy to learn and use and customer service is incredible.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ellen G.
loves Breeze
Grace Church

Breeze has opened the communication highway for our congregation and staff, with very little training. Because members can update their own records and search easily for other members - and map their locations, send emails and text right from Breeze, they love it and our data is more real-time accurate. Our ministries are stronger, because they can trust the data in Breeze, which is easily accessed anywhere, anytime.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Steve H.
loves Breeze
First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey

Breeze is the first ChMS my volunteers have actually embraced. That's because it's so easy to use. The software is very flexible and gives us the opportunity to make decisions based on actual data we've collected and not just hunches or stories we believe to be true.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Allicia B.
loves Breeze
Ellel Ministries Canada

I cannot say enough about Breeze. Their customer service is so friendly, you feel like you have friends and family helping you get started, they're prompt to reply and will do whatever they can to help you get things sorted out. It's been so easy to learn, our staff is loving it and best of all even our staff who are not computer savvy find it a breeze (pun intended). We are just thrilled by our choice.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Kevin D.
loves Breeze
Central Baptist Church

From the start of our process looking for an online solution, Breeze has exceeded all our expectations. Fast data import, fast and friendly customer support, and we can’t say enough about how much we like the program itself. Very well designed and user friendly. On a scale of 1-10, Breeze gets a 15 from us!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!

Rated 4.9 stars – 700+ reviews