Why a Financial Consultant for Union Church?

Budgeted Income and Expense through June 30, 2019

Some may say why do we need a consultant? Kent and/or Kent and Rachel have led our annual fund raising with support from myself and many of you for a number of years. We have been successful, but it has been a struggle the last four years or more. Rachel and I were sent for training – that was helpful. But in the end, annual fundraising is only one of the many things we do. Keeping up with new ideas, giving trends and all the rest it takes to be in ministry together just does not leave enough hours at the end of a week. I feel to be most effective at annually raising awareness of our ministry hopes and needs we need professional assistance.
Therefore, staff and the Finance Board have been seeking advice from six consultants over nearly three years. In the spring of this year, we narrowed our discussions to two companies and Church Council approved spending of $10,000 in May.
Kent and I continued our conversations with the Finance Board, which has been helpful in asking good questions and giving direction. We also worked this spring with the Skills Task Force that looked at the skills we need to work on, i.e. spiritual formation, volunteer coordination, communication, stewardship and fundraising. The task force agreed to recommend to the congregation we start work on the stewardship/fund raising skill first, realizing it will support the other skills. Lastly we wrote the following to recommend to Church Council that we hire Generis (formerly RSI – consultants that guided us in the 2010 Capital Campaign).
“The two companies were Church Campaign Services (CSC) and Generis/Church Analytics. CSC costs would have been $7-8000. Generis costs are $25,600.
Kent and I think we would receive the most from a relationship with Generis and Church Analytics. We realize it is a substantial investment, but we feel it will have a deeper impact in several respects:

1. The analytic tools are placed in our hands and we are trained to use them for our ongoing benefit and analysis. (It is not simply a snapshot analyzed once by a consultant and reported back to us).
2. The Generis proposal includes our long-sought hope of moving to a multi-year budgeting process. The coaching through this and the subsequent energy freed for other kinds of ministry by only doing a budget and inspirational funding initiative every other year is attractive.
3. We particularly like Generis’ focus on connecting our aspirations as a church to the aspirations of good ministry from individuals. The focus on generosity as a means of personal and collective faith, though not unique, is powerfully woven into their approach.
4. While we believe both proposals would yield positive results, the Generis plan is new thinking—out of the box thinking– for us. The Church Campaign Services recommendation would be what we currently do on steroids: more, faster, and perhaps much better organized, yes, but not a different way of looking at the issues. Kent feels we need that different angle and that new thinking.
5. When both of us studied the proposals and prayed about which direction, the Generis plan made us nervous and excited. The CSC plan made us feel resigned and exhausted. We think nervous excitement is a sign of the Spirit and represents critical inspiration for supporting the ministries, the people, and the community that we love.

The risk for us is a financial one, but the reward with a successful Generis “One Fund” initiative could go far beyond our income stream. What we learn about how to better communicate to our friends and families, connect to community needs, and affirm the ministry of each person who supports loving ministry in any way, will strengthen us in both personal faith and in the ability to serve as a church.”
After much discussion at the June Church Council meeting the “consensus is that we move ahead with spending up to $10,000 to launch our relationship with Generis. We shall, at the earliest appropriate opportunity, hold a congregational meeting for input and information” about how or if to fund the remainder of the Generis contract.
The council recognized that to continue funding the consulting the congregation would need to have a voice in the process. If we decide to end the relationship in December with Generis, we will have 6 months to work with and benefit from the Church Analytics platform. We will also have been coached and begun the transition to adopting a 2 year budget process. The contract with Generis can be ended by the 15^th of any month.
Dave Kobersmith