The American Heritage Dictionary defines a steward as, “A person who manages another’s property, finances, or other affairs.” As Christians, the humbling responsibilities of financial faithfulness are often brought to our attention by the church staff or volunteer members who monitor these campaigns. A difficult task at best, overseeing a campaign of this nature requires organization, efficiency and perseverance.

Overseeing Stewardship Activities. At St. David’s Episcopal Church of Austin, Texas, ACS Technologies functions as the premiere church management software solution designed specifically to address the issues characteristic of the stewardship process. Catherine Roberts is the stewardship director at the church and uses ACS to accurately track pledges, update information and record member giving status.

When asked if using ACS has saved her time while on the job Roberts remarked, “Oh, it has been so helpful to be able to have information right at my desktop. In December and January I had so many people inquire about their giving status. Even now as we are further along in the year, at least a couple of times a week, someone will call to find out their status and I am able to give them full recall of their account in no time.”

Roberts comes to St. David’s with a strong background and history of producing statistical information. She was the former Director of Support at a systems management company and very familiar with data bases and running queries. Roberts notes, “I find that the product is very usable and easy to navigate.”

Seeing the Bigger Picture. Having recently transitioned from a weekly program to a monthly program designed to monitor the overall campaign, Roberts presents this vital information in report form to the church’s vestry. She is able to report to them where they stand with respect to their goals. This data includes the number of households that have pledged and is able to give comparisons to where they were last year at this point in the campaign. She also determines how the payments came in over the course of the year and breaks that information down into percentages to determine what last years percentage of giving was per month. She is also compiling a gift comparison report designed to reflect giving patterns from 2004 to 2005.

Proactive Approach. In the event that the numbers are not where the church would like them to be, the church is able to react based upon this information. Roberts is currently working on a quarterly pledge campaign to target those members who have not made a pledge commitment. Starting in the month of March, 2005, Roberts provided members with the option of pledging in the second, third or fourth quarter of the year. She also has included an option to change their member status to inactive. Then she is able to group members according to who has given, who is still planning to give but has not, what members are inactive and so on. Organizing the giving schedule this way also helps Roberts to avoid duplicate letters and helps her to target specific members at particular times and eliminates the possibility of offending parishioners because they are receiving so many letters.

Overall, this process has saved time and money by avoiding multiple mailings and will also help to streamline the list of members who receive the upcoming Time, Talent and Energy survey that will follow. Roberts commented, “ACS provides us with a plethora of information. It is very nice as a staff person to feel confident that I can go in and find someone in the parish, even if it is something that is not necessarily in my realm, I can get the information to them.”

Myriad of Uses. Traci Whitney is the Parish Administrator and has been using ACS since March of 2003. She uses ACS to process payroll and notes that ACS serves as their accounting software from which the church processes all of their accounts receivable and accounts payable data. Whitney enjoys the fact that ACS can provide its users with information right from their fingertips. “It takes far less time to access a vendor’s account history by pressing a few buttons versus finding a physical file and thumbing through a stack of papers to answer a query.”

St. David’s has over 100 ministries that run out of their parish, including groups that support worship, fulfill a fellowship role, promote outreach programs and evangelism programs and support the rest of the general ministries at the church. Whitney consistently uses the ACS People Suite to access, update and monitor their member database as well as to schedule and arrange meetings with ACS Ministry Scheduler to help keep processes running smoothly within her church.

About St. David’s Episcopal Church
St. David's is a diverse worshipping community of believers unified in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to receive and share God's love, hope, joy, vitality, and vision as they serve others.

ACS Products and Services Used
People Suite: People, Contributions, Attendance, Connections, Special Mailings, Reservations
Financial Suite: General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Purchase Orders
Growth Products: Ministry Scheduler, Report Designer, Faith Outreach Card
Services: Network/Multiuser

Web site
www.stdave.org