Measuring ministry by measuring relationships

Kevin McCord, a ChMS consultant and founder of a new ChMS called ThinkMinistry, recently observed that churches treach contributions of money different than time,

Interesting to compare how we treat a $50 contribution to our church as compared to a 2/hour/week ministry role.

In the example of the $50 contribution we know that we are going to be accountable to the individual to ensure they get a receipt in the form of a contribution statement. They need this because the IRS now requires such to substantiate donations for a tax deduction.

We are going to credit the donor’s database record with the amount, the date, the purpose (missions or building or tithe). In my church we can tell you what worship service it was received at. We can also tell you what deposit it became a part of when sent to the bank. Finally, we can show you a picture of that donation 5 years later if you care to see it.

This is all going to be done within 2 or 3 days of receiving the gift. In rare cases, 5 days may elapse.

On the other hand, there are lots of volunteer opportunities that go unrecorded for months and sometimes never! Different ministry teams keep track in different ways. There is often no indication of when they started serving. After their done, there may be no historical evidence that they served!

Plaid

One of the major aspirations of Plaid is to rectify this problem by providing ministries with different stuff to measure. The main report presented by Plaid will be a “productivity” measure: basically showing graphically the interaction of the ministry with its constituents. We track stuff like communication and conversations; rather than tracking attendance or giving.

We will not roll this out in the first interaction of the product, but we will start exploring the use of leader boards which will display Plaid activity in real time. You will be able to see that people are actively doing ministry using Plaid; just like leader boards in World of Warcraft, we hope this type of feedback will help users understand how they are participation in something larger.

The mantra of Plaid is “making people feel good about their ministry”.

0 comments | May 21, 17:16 | by Tim Bednar plaid user-experience

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