Understanding Contribution Funds

Contribution funds are the categories that organize how donations are designated and tracked. When a member gives $100 to "Missions" or $50 to "Building Fund," they are directing their gift to a specific fund. Wired Church uses funds to ensure every dollar is allocated correctly, reported accurately, and flows into the right accounts in your financial system.

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What Are Funds?

A fund represents a designated giving category — a bucket that donors can direct their gifts into. Most churches have a handful of core funds that cover the majority of giving, plus special-purpose funds that come and go with campaigns, projects, or seasonal needs.

Funds serve three key purposes:

1. Donor intent — They honor the donor's designation. When someone writes "Missions" on their envelope, the gift goes to the Missions fund.
2. Financial tracking — Each fund maps to a revenue account in your chart of accounts, so fund-level giving flows directly into your financial reports.
3. Tax reporting — Giving statements itemize donations by fund, showing donors exactly where their money went.

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Default Funds

Wired Church comes with a set of commonly used funds that most churches need out of the box. You can rename, reorder, or deactivate any of these, and add your own.

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Creating a New Fund

When your church starts a new campaign, ministry initiative, or designated giving category, you will need to create a new fund.

1. Navigate to Contributions > Fund Settings in the admin sidebar.
2. Click New Fund in the top-right corner.
3. Fill in the fund details:

Fund Properties

4. Click Save Fund to create it.

The new fund immediately appears in all contribution entry forms, online giving options (if enabled for the portal), and reporting filters.

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How Funds Map to the Chart of Accounts

Each contribution fund can be linked to a specific revenue account in Wired Church's fund accounting system. This mapping is what allows finalized contribution batches to automatically generate journal entries with the correct account allocations.

Setting Up Fund-to-Account Mapping

1. Navigate to Contributions > Fund Settings.
2. Click the Edit icon on the fund you want to map.
3. In the Accounting section of the fund form, find the Revenue Account dropdown.
4. Select the chart of accounts entry this fund should credit when contributions are recorded.
   • Example: The "General / Tithes" fund might map to account 4000 — Tithes & Offerings Revenue.
   • Example: The "Missions" fund might map to account 4100 — Missions Designated Revenue.
5. Save the fund.

How the Flow Works

Donor gives $100 to Missions fund
    -> Contribution recorded in batch
        -> Batch finalized
            -> Journal entry auto-created:
                Debit: Undeposited Funds (asset)    $100
                Credit: Missions Revenue (revenue)   $100

This automation replaces the manual process of re-entering contribution totals into a separate accounting system. Every dollar flows from the offering plate to the general ledger with no manual double-entry.

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Fund-Level Reporting

Funds are a primary dimension in contribution reporting. You can filter and group reports by fund to answer questions like:

• How much has been given to Missions this year? — Filter the contributions report by the Missions fund and set the date range to the current year.
• Which fund received the most giving this quarter? — Run the Fund Summary report to see a ranked breakdown.
• How is our Building Campaign tracking against the goal? — View the fund detail report for the Building fund with a comparison to the pledge goal.

Available Fund Reports

1. Fund Summary — Total giving per fund for a selected date range, with percentage breakdowns and trend charts.
2. Fund Detail — A line-by-line list of every contribution to a specific fund, including donor name, date, amount, and payment method.
3. Fund Comparison — Side-by-side comparison of fund totals across multiple time periods (e.g., this year vs. last year).
4. Fund Trend — A chart showing giving to a specific fund over time (weekly, monthly, or quarterly).

Reports can be exported to PDF or Excel for board meetings, financial reviews, or denominational reporting requirements.

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Deactivating vs. Deleting a Fund

When a fund is no longer needed — a campaign has ended, a ministry initiative has concluded, or you are simplifying your fund structure — you should deactivate the fund rather than delete it.

Why Deactivate Instead of Delete

• Historical integrity — Past contributions reference this fund. Deleting it would break those references, corrupt giving statements, and create orphaned records.
• Tax compliance — Donor statements for previous years must accurately reflect the fund each gift was designated to. If the fund is deleted, those statements cannot be regenerated accurately.
• Audit trail — Financial audits require a complete history. Deactivated funds preserve the full record.

How to Deactivate a Fund

1. Navigate to Contributions > Fund Settings.
2. Click the Edit icon on the fund you want to deactivate.
3. Toggle the Active switch to off.
4. Save the fund.

A deactivated fund:

• No longer appears in contribution entry dropdowns or online giving options.
• Still appears in historical reports when the date range includes contributions to that fund.
• Can be reactivated at any time by toggling Active back on.

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Tax-Deductible vs. Non-Tax-Deductible Funds

Not all giving qualifies as a tax-deductible charitable contribution under IRS rules. Wired Church lets you flag each fund as tax-deductible or not, which affects how giving statements are generated.

Tax-Deductible Funds

Most church giving funds are tax-deductible: tithes, missions, building, benevolence, and other charitable designations. When a donor gives to a tax-deductible fund with no goods or services received in return, the full amount is deductible.

Non-Tax-Deductible Funds

Some funds cover transactions where the donor receives something of value in return. Common examples:

• Event Registration Fees — A $50 gift to the "Women's Conference" fund that covers the registration fee and meals is not tax-deductible because the donor received goods/services.
• Merchandise — Funds for purchasing church T-shirts, books, or other items.
• Tuition or Childcare — Payments for church school or daycare programs.

Configuring Tax Deductibility

1. When creating or editing a fund, check or uncheck the Tax-Deductible checkbox.
2. Contributions to non-tax-deductible funds are tracked and reported separately on giving statements.
3. The giving statement will include a section noting which gifts are tax-deductible and which are not, along with the appropriate IRS disclaimer language.

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Best Practices for Fund Management

1. Keep it simple — Most churches need 5-10 active funds at most. Too many funds confuse donors and complicate reporting.
2. Use consistent naming — "Missions" is better than "Miss." or "MISSIONS" or "missions fund." Consistent casing and spelling prevent duplicate funds.
3. Set sort order intentionally — Put your most-used funds (General, Missions) at the top of every dropdown. Contribution entry goes faster when the right fund is already highlighted.
4. Review annually — At year-end, review your fund list. Deactivate any campaign or initiative funds that have concluded. Activate new funds for the coming year's plans.
5. Map accounts early — Set up fund-to-account mappings in fund accounting before you start entering contributions. Retroactive mapping fixes are tedious.
6. Color-code for clarity — Assign distinct colors to each fund. This makes charts and batch breakdowns scannable at a glance.

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Related Articles

• Recording Donations Manually
• Donor Management
• Generating Giving Statements and Tax Receipts
• Annual Giving Statements