A strong budget
begins with Mission
—not last year’s numbers.
A practical, one-hour live webinar helping church and nonprofit leaders connect mission to the numbers—and develop realistic budgets for contributions, other revenue, personnel, programs, and operating expenses.
Live online | $50 per participant | Limited to 10 participants
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
7:00 PM Eastern
Thursday, September 24, 2026
3:00 PM Eastern
Mission-Based Budget Planning Guide and presentation slides included.
Your Budget Can Balance and Still Miss the Mission
A balanced spreadsheet is only part of a strong budget.
Many budgets begin by adjusting last year’s numbers until the spreadsheet balances. That approach can preserve programs, staffing, and spending without asking whether they still reflect the organization’s mission, priorities, or current reality.
Mission-based budgeting begins with what the organization is called to accomplish. It then uses reasonable contribution and revenue assumptions to determine what the organization can responsibly fund.
Prior-year results still matter—but they become useful information rather than the default plan.
What You’ll Learn
By the end of this webinar, you should:
Connect mission and organizational priorities to financial decisions.
Develop reasonable contribution assumptions using giving history, current trends, and fundraising plans.
Budget grants, program-service income, and other revenue without treating uncertain income as guaranteed.
Plan personnel, program, facility, administrative, and other operating expenditures.
Recognize when proposed spending exceeds realistic resources—and decide what to build, modify, defer, or release.
This is not an accounting lecture. It is a practical financial leadership conversation designed for church and nonprofit leaders.
A Practical Example
Throughout the workshop, we will follow a fictional faith-based nonprofit with an annual budget of approximately $500,000.
The organization is primarily supported by contributions and also receives modest program-service and other income. Its leaders have meaningful ministry priorities—but not enough projected revenue to fund everything they would like to do.
The example will show how mission, assumptions, and financial constraints come together in an actual budget process. Church leaders will recognize similar decisions in areas such as retreats, camps, conferences, facility use, staffing, and ministry programs.
What You’ll Receive
After attending the webinar, you’ll receive:
Mission-Based Budget Planning Guide — An approximately 20-page guide with practical instruction, leadership questions, and a worked example based on the fictional $500,000 organization.
Presentation Slides — A copy of the workshop slides for future reference and discussion with your leadership team.
Your registration confirmation will also include links to:
Strong Budgets Start with Mission — A brief article introducing the central principles behind mission-based budgeting.
Purpose-Driven Budget Rubric — A concise tool for evaluating whether your budgeting process is clear, aligned, measurable, realistic, and willing to release what no longer supports the mission.
Reading the article and reviewing the rubric before the workshop are encouraged but not required.
The webinar provides practical guidance and a framework you can apply. It does not promise to produce a completed organizational budget or resolve every financial decision in one hour.
You will leave better prepared to develop a budget that connects mission, realistic financial assumptions, and responsible resource decisions.
Designed for Church and Nonprofit Leaders
This webinar is appropriate for: Lead Pastors; Executive Pastors; Executive Directors; CEOs; Church and Nonprofit Administrators; Finance and Operations Leaders; Treasurers; Board Members; Finance Committee Members; Accountants and Bookkeepers.
You do not need to be an accountant or have advanced Excel experience.
Register
Choose a date and time.
HEALTHY FINANCES
SUPPORT HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONS
Why Participation is Limited
Each webinar is limited to 10 participants.
The smaller format creates room for interaction, live polling, discussion, and participant questions. This is intended to be a working conversation—not a prerecorded presentation delivered to a large audience.
A recording will not be provided.
Cancellation and Refund Policy
A full refund is available when registration is canceled at least 24 hours before the webinar.
Because each session is limited to 10 participants and canceled seats may be offered to people on the waitlist, cancellations made within 24 hours of the webinar and participant no-shows are non-refundable.
Your Facilitator
G. Scott Mitchell, CPA, MBA
Scott has four decades of nonprofit financial and executive leadership experience. Through Breakthrough Coaching, he helps leaders of small and midsized faith-based nonprofits think clearly through complex financial, organizational, and leadership decisions.
He believes healthy finances support healthy organizations—and that church and nonprofit leaders should not have to navigate the complexity alone.
A strong budget does more than make the numbers balance. It helps leaders state their priorities, confront assumptions, and direct limited resources toward the work that matters most.