Financial Reports on Website

[Websquad]

I'd like to get some discussion going regarding attitudes on publishing financial reports on a church's website.

I confess that our website is intentionally geared toward servicing the needs of the church family, not the seeker. The staff has requested (and I complied) that I publish budget information and financial reports on the site. I'd like to know how others feel about that in a church-family oriented web site.

[Faithhb_lutheran]

Bob,

At least your staff is thinking of ways to use the web. Do you have a church community section, if so that is where I would put it, I wouldn't post a link to it on the homepage, that may turn off some visitors.

[flutem3]

I'd like to get some discussion going regarding attitudes on publishing financial reports on a church's website.

I confess that our website is intentionally geared toward servicing the needs of the church family, not the seeker. The staff has requested (and I complied) that I publish budget information and financial reports on the site. I'd like to know how others feel about that in a church-family oriented web site.

Hi,

My first reaction is that I wouldn't put the financial reports on a website period. No way! I understand that financial reports are public information, but I would rather have people get a paper report sent to them. Either that or password protect the report. It is wonderful that we can put so much information on a website. But the question of should we is another one.

We do not do that in our church, and nobody would want to. However, we are not a cutting edge church. I don't have any idea what a person could do if he/she knew your church's financial position. But I have no doubt that somebody, somewhere could figure out something which could harm the church. Sometimes it is best to broadcast locally instead of world-wide.

Maybe I am not up-to-date on something like this, but I would not like to see our church place our financial statement on the website.

Carol

[Faithhb_lutheran]

I don't think that the financial data in and of itself is problematic, but the way in which we publish it is. most church financial reports have real account numbers on them. Take a look at the quarterly reports and annual stockholder reports that any fortune 500 company puts out. using that type of style should protect you from those that would seek to harm you well enough. Talking about money is always hard in churches, maybe letting people see reports and ask questions electronically would cut down on voters meetings and parking lot chats.