A third way to look at annual receipts is comparing them with total household income. A little sleuthing at the local planning agency will probably produce a figure for average household income. Then, divide the church's total giving by its total earnings. More likely it's under 5 percent or perhaps around 3 percent. If we can find the figures, we can compare the percentage of income given in previous years to establish a trend.
Ratios provide another benchmark.
A 1989 study, mainly of larger churches, by Christopher Robinson, chief financial officer of Partners International, established a series of benchmark ratios. One way to look at it is old money versus new money . Old money is what was given last year. If the new pledges and increased amount of old pledges are greater than the lost pledges and the amount of decrease of other old pledges, we are ahead. Net new money tells us what additional funding we can expect in a given year.