Where does a church get the money to operate?

Question

Does it come from the money put into the offering plate that gets passed around?

How do they know who gave the most and who didn't give any money?

Answer 1

tithes and offering, normally they have an envelope that you fill out with your name and how much you're giving

Answer 2

A church gets money from donations, most obviously from the collection plate/bag that gets passed around during services. Some people send in their monthly tithes, offerings and gifts. And even now in modern days, there are some high-tech churches that use donation ATMs!

They know who gave money through the use of marked donation envelopes. This helps them keep track of who gave and how much so that it can be properly reported to the IRS.

Without its members, a church could not have sufficient funds to operate. Unless, of course, Jesus decides to do some fancy multiplication as he did in the Gospels.

Answer 3

Generally most of the money comes from the congregation which is attending that particular church, either by donating through the "plate" (or by bank direct credit), by a bequest when someone dies, or through services such as weddings, funerals, etc. It often happens within the bigger church systems, such as the Anglican Church, where a particular church will run at a loss. This isn't desirable because a church, ironically, has to run at a profit. To keep that church running money is provided by other churches within the area.
About actual giving. I believe it should be on a sort of 'need to know' basis because in theory (note theory) it is between you and God. Basically the church should be running at a profit, and if it isn't then questions should be asked either in regard to unreasonable spending and expenses or in regard to giving.
The Anglican Church I went to had an "Envelop" system where each giver had a particular number. After each service the cash was seperated from the sealed envelops, the latter was given to someone to count and record against the givers name so they could claim a tax rebate at the end of the financial year. I don't like the idea of one person handling unknown amounts of money because of the possiblity of fraud.

Answer 4

In Switzerland tax payers have to pay most of the tax to the state and a small amount to the church of which they are members.
Each year when the tax bills are sent to the households, some people (especially rich ones) come to the conclusion that they don't want to be a member of any church anymore in order to save the tax for the church in the following years...
The money from the offering plate goes here usually not to the church, but to charities, which are named and described before the plate passes.

Answer 5

It comes from money put into the offering plate. Also, members sometimes contribute separately from that. Churches often hold fundraising events and sales. They don't necessarily know who doesn't give any. But large donations are usually made in a way that the church knows who gave.

Answer 6

I'm on the board of trustees at our church. We review the finances every quarter.

There are two types of churches - congregational, where the congregation is responsible for itself, like an independent book store, and non-congregational, where they are more like a branch of a big chain, like Barnes & Noble.

Ours is a congragational one. ("Congregational" with a capital "C" is a specific denomination. "congregational" with a lower-case "c" is a type of church governance.)

We get a mere 2% of our budget from the collection plate. The bulk of our income comes from pledges. Each year, before we set the budget, our members tell us how much they can afford to contribute. Most of them give us a check every month. We also make money by fund-raising raffles, charity events and renting out our building.

As someone else said, some churches donate the collection plate to local charities. Ours does that on Christmas Eve, and we have a second collection four times a year. Some have a second collection every week. Some have just one collection but, on the first Sunday of the month, give it to a local charity. There are a lot of churches in the world. They don't all operate the same way.

In the USA, donations to church come off your income tax, so most people donate with a check. Our church administrator sends out a letter once a quarter telling us how much we gave. We save this in case the IRS asks. People who donate cash use an envelope and write their name on it. The administrator tracks these, too.

Non-congregational churches in poor areas sometimes get subsidies from the bishop in their area; rich churches give a little more to help their poor brethern. Some churches - c and non-c alike - have endowment funds. Congregational churches like ours are stuck if we run short; we either cut back on expenses or fold up. Once, in 1973, we ran so short we had to have our (then) minister resign.

Some liberal churches in conservative areas make significant money renting out their social hall for weddings, since many conservative churches ban alcohol on their premises.

In Europe, some nations subsidize the state religion out of their taxes. For a decade or so in Germany, right after WWII, you had to declare yourself an atheist or they would deduct 10% of your pay and send it to the Lutherans or the Catholics. (Who, in turn, ran schools, hospitals and orphanages, so it was a win-win situation.) That is one reason we have no state religion here.

Your minister or someone on the board of trustees will probably be happy to show you the annual budget for your church. Ours gets posted on the bulletin board every month.

There are other ways to contribute to a church; you can sing in the choir, volunteer to teach Sunday School, organize fund raisers, edit the newsletter, maintain the web site . . .

Answer 7

Tithing members. No rates and no taxes. More members more money. Usually they get you to fill out an envelope and tithe 10% of your income for records. So if you earn $2000 a week then $200 of that goes to your church every week. They even set up automatic payments or direct debits so you don't miss one. The more you tithe, the higher your calling will be, and anyone who says otherwise is in denial.

Answer 8

They get it from the tithes and offerings of the members and attenders at the church.

Some churches do keep track of who has given money by using marked envelopes that members put their offerings in or by looking at the information on checks, but most Churches don't (and shouldn't) keep track.

Answer 9

Of course they don't know how much you gave them on the offering plate, or at least they don't care, it is your choice how much you will give them... In most cases governments support them financially, so don't worry, they have enough money to take care about themselves :)

Answer 10

The money comes from the people who go to the Church. They don't care who gave how much as long as they get the money.

Answer 11

Well where do you THINK the money from the offering plate goes?

And if you are the Catholic Church, you get scads of money from all the property you, er, "acquired" over the last 2000 years.