Faith in Numbers 

At Wegner CPAs, we understand that financial accountability is important to all places of worship and other religious organizations. We want to ensure that you stay informed of how accounting and other financial related issues affect your church or religious organization. Join us for a day of education with a keynote address and 12 breakout sessions guiding churches and religious organizations on a path to financial accountability. The event fee is $50.

Faith in Numbers is sponsored by: 

                       

        

Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability, Wisconsin Council of Churches, African American Council of Churches, Church Unemployment Pay Program, Inc.

Keynote

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

Recent Developments Impacting Churches   

Dan Busby, President of Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability

What recent issues have the potential to significantly impact churches—issues emanating from Capitol Hill, the courts, and beyond?  This session will cover a wide range of issues that are challenging church administrators in 2016, including governance, financial management, and gift administration. 

 

Breakout Session

10:45 AM - 12:00 PM

Seven Key Charitable Giving Issues for Churches

Dan Busby, President of Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability

This session is based on the new book:  The Charitable Giving Guide for Churches and Ministries written by Dan Busby and his colleagues Michael Martin and John Van Drunen.  The seven key issues relate to unrestricted gifts, restricted gifts, short-term mission trips, missionary funding, crowdfunding and more.

 

Faith-Based Organizations and Investments: Best Practices

Brent Lindell, Wisconsin Market Manager at Savant Capital Management

When it comes to investing, faith-based organizations are faced with unique challenges. In this session, we will look into investment policies and strategies that help you navigate the markets.  We will explore Evidence Based Investing (EBI) as an approach to investment management. You will leave with recommendations for investing your organization's money that adhere to socially responsible investing parameters.

 

Engaged and Effective Governance for Faith-Based Organizations

Melodi Bunting, CPA, CMA, CGMA, Training & Career Development Manager at Wegner CPAs

Healthy, high functioning governance is a crucial ingredient in nurturing the spiritual life and advancing the mission of your organization.  Is your governing body actively engaged and effective?  Has governance moved beyond fiduciary and reactionary reporting to spending more time on creative proactive thinking?  In this session we will explore practical applications to optimize governance and move toward suggested best practices. 

 

Internal Controls: Protecting the Position and the Person

Hannah Lanser, CPA, Supervisor at Wegner CPAs

The primary objective of any sound internal control system is to prevent and detect loss in an organization. In this session we will discuss preventative and detective controls, the purpose and method for implementing controls, and best practices in faith-based organizations. 

Networking Lunch

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Lunch will be provided and you will have an opportunity to talk with other attendees!

Breakout Session

1:00 PM - 2:15 PM

Sure Fire Ways to Spread the Faith on Social Media

 Laura Gallagher, President of the Creative Company

Does digital media fit in with evangelism and outreach? If so, how do you do it effectively? In this session we'll look at some great examples of churches and ministry organizations who are leading the way. From Pope Francis to Willow Creek Association and Craig Groeschel and Life TV as well as some terrific pastoral examples, she'll show you the best of the best and give you some practical ways to build your online community, engage that community and put social media to work for you.

 

Preparing & Understanding Your Religious Organization’s Financial Statements

Scott Haumersen, CPA, CGMA, Partner at Wegner CPAs

Your financial statements are critical in guiding your organization’s success.  This session will help you gain a better understanding of what should be presented so that you can assess your organization’s financial health and demonstrate good stewardship.  We will discuss what information should be presented and how to evaluate it compared to your peers, identifying key trends, best practices or causes for concern. 

 

Big Picture Legal Considerations for Any Mission-Based Enterprise: An Overview

Attorney Mary Beth Collins, Owner of MBC Legal and Consulting Services, LLC, Director at Centers for Research and Public Affairs at University of Wisconsin School of Human Ecology

Churches are mission-based, tax-exempt organizations and have many of the same legal considerations as other non-profit organizations.  Attorney Collins will provide an overview of the key categories of structuring and operations that require an awareness of basic legal issues.  This presentation is structured to allow church leaders who are often deeply involved in the day-to-day details of their enterprise to step back and consider bigger-picture aspects of their church's legal landscape.  Topics include legal entity and structure, governance, tax-exempt status and related principles and compliance, employment law considerations, and general liability and best practices and legal considerations for community programming. 

 

Unrelated Business Income Tax for Churches and Religious Organizations

David Odahl, CPA, Senior Manager at Wegner CPAs

This session will provide an overview of the tax implications of income-producing activities that churches and religious organizations are engaged in that are unrelated to their tax-exempt purposes. Churches and religious organizations may be subject to tax on the income from these activities. Additionally, if these activities are substantial, a church or religious organization may lose its tax-exempt status. 

Breakout Session

2:30 PM - 3:45 PM

Independent Contractors versus Employees in Faith-Based Organizations: 

 Understanding the Difference

Dale Kunin, CPA.CITP, Partner at Wegner CPAs

Misclassification of an employee as an independent contractor can be costly, subjecting your organization to penalties, back taxes and disgruntled workers.  There is no special category for religious organizations that allows exemption from these confusing rules. This session will discuss the different definitions of an “independent contractor” to assist you in classifying workers correctly before you are subject to an audit or to an employee complaint. 

 

Is Your Data Safe?

Kevin Peterson, Owner of Peterson Technology Group

Faith-based organizations need to rely on their IT systems to provide secure access to their data.  Industry research shows that more than 75% of organizations have suffered at least one data breach in the last two years.  Join us for this management and technical session on data security.  Items to be discussed include:

• Top internal and external security threats
• Policies & Procedures to help protect your organization
• Passwords and other security measures
• Mobility (BYOD) benefits and concerns
• Why multiple layers of security is important and how to achieve it
• Practical steps and technical options to secure your data and respond to breaches

 

 

Accounting for Restricted and Designated Gifts in Religious Organizations

Mike Hablewitz, CPA, Senior Manager at Wegner CPAs

It is common for religious organizations to receive gifts earmarked for many different purposes.  In addition, these organizations often choose to set aside money from gifts that weren’t restricted by the donor.  In this session, we will discuss the important differences between restricted funds and designated funds, and provide examples to help you know how to properly account for both.  We will also discuss other related topics such as: accounting for pledges, including multi-year pledges; endowment funds; in-kind gifts; and ways for your organization to reduce the accounting burden that comes with all these gifts. 

 

What's Different About Being a Religious Organization? 

Key Legal Considerations Specific to Churches

Krystal Williams-Oby, Principal Attorney and Owner of KWO Law Firm, Founder and General Counsel for Kingdom Legal Services, Inc. and Associate Pastor for Northside Christian Assembly

Churches enjoy special legal treatment as compared to other organizations in a variety of ways, and often have different legal considerations or priorities as compared to other non-profits due to the special nature of their work.  Attorney Williams-Oby will invoke her extensive experience specifically working with churches to present on key legal topics that specifically affect them.  Topics include statements of faith, church governance and structuring; limits on political speech; First Amendment rights of churches; church assets including real property. 

Register Now!