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We are excited to share our first best practice submission from Mari Anna Wahr, from St. Mary Cathedral Church in Gaylord, Michigan!
Mari’s best practice highlights the importance of good cash handling within a church. The motivation for this church to establish a controlled practice was to ensure good stewardship of church resources.
I love Mari’s diligence in pushing past “this is the way we’ve always done it here” with the goal of improving the way things are done and safeguarding church funds.
Best Practice – Offertory Collection and Cash Handling
What is the name of your best practice?
Offertory Collection and Cash Handling
What area of the church does it impact?
Finance
What was the turning point for your church to make a change or focus time and energy in this particular area?
We adapted former practices to increase security and limit opportunities for fraud as a best practice.
What data supported the need for this change or focus?
Awareness of other churches that had theft because of antiquated processes or overconfidence in staff cash handling procedures that were less defined.
Our pastor has a finance background and asked for a review of our process and recommended a number of improvements.
Describe exactly what you do and how you do it.
Click here to access the Standard Operating Procedure.
What has the result been in terms of response, money saved, or improved process of this practice?
The procedure was implemented and put into practice with minimum disruption, and we are confident that it limits opportunities for fraud or malpractice in offertory collection management.
Why are you proud of this best practice?
We believe this procedure represents a best practice for parish offertory collections.
What were the lessons learned along the way that you would like to share with others?
Don’t wait until something tragic happens before identifying areas for improvement.
Even if the parish has been operating in a certain way for years, no area should be immune to review because “this is the way we’ve always done it here.”
Evaluate church procedures for opportunities, and research best practices and diocesan protocols to achieve or exceed compliance standards.
This best practice was submitted by Mari Anna Wahr, Business Manager at St. Mary Cathedral, Our Lady of Mount Carmel – www.stmarycathedral.org
You can contact Mary at mwahr@stmarycathedral.org if you have questions about this best practice.
If your church does a good job of something that you would like to share, check out our best practices page to learn how you can help other churches learn from what you do well!
