It happens more often than you think it should. The congregation seems to be vital, even growing, but the money in the collection plate doesn’t keep up with the growth, or there seems to be a shortfall every month. There might be grumbling about how the new folks aren’t pulling their weight financially. Then someone notices some irregularities, even though a trusted, long-time volunteer or staff member has been responsible for the money. And then it comes to light that hundreds, even thousands of dollars are unaccounted for.

Increasing at an annual rate of nearly six percent, researchers expect church financial fraud to reach the $70 billion mark by 2025. That’s still not the whole picture. About 80 percent of all cases of church fraud go unreported and, therefore, are not included in statistics (Source: Church Law and Tax.) Church Law and Tax reports from the 2021 survey that 4% of churches reported financial fraud within the past year, 9% had fraud 1-5 years ago, 4% had fraud 6-10 years ago, and 14% had fraud over 10 years ago.

Related Resource

Money Matters: Financial Management for Congregations
Congregations will want to establish healthy financial systems, policies and procedures to reinforce financial health and vitality.