The Staff & Giving Analyzer helps church leaders understand how financial and staffing decisions work together. It provides meaningful insights into your church’s resources, structure, and compensation patterns—all powered by ChurchSalary’s proprietary Cornerstone Model, a unique framework that shows how key financial and staffing metrics interact.
Note: The Staff & Giving Analyzer is available for Expanded, Pro, and Pro+ members. Click here to learn more about these plans.
What is the Cornerstone Model?
At the heart of the Analyzer are four cornerstone metrics that define the size and structure of your church:
Total Operating Budget
Attendance
Payroll Budget
Staff Size (FTE – full-time equivalent)
The relationships between these four metrics are represented in a few ratios that highlight key ministry decisions and financial priorities:
Per Person Budget – how much your church spends every year per attendee
Payroll Percentage – the portion of your total budget dedicated to pay for staff salaries and benefits
Average Employment Cost – the average cost of salary + benefits per full-time equivalent staff member
Staffing Ratio – the number of attendees cared for by each full-time staff member
Per Person Payroll Budget – the amount spent per attendee on staffing
How to use the Analyzer
To launch the Analyzer, just go to your Dashboard and click the Analyze Now button right in the center of the page.
Learn & Explore (Tutorial Mode)
The first time you open the Analyzer app, you will be guided through a tutorial designed to help you better understand the Cornerstone Model.
Explore one section or side of the model at a time—moving the slider on the left-hand side—to see how adjustments to one cornerstone metric (like Payroll Budget) impact the adjacent metric and the ratio in between them. It is a hands-on, visual way to understand complex financial relationships.
To use Tutorial Mode, select the church you want to analyze and click Learn & Explore.
Then click Start Tutorial to begin.
Drag & drop the selected metric (the boxes on either side) to see how it affects the center metric. Across the whole Analyzer, adjustable metrics are represented as boxes, while fixed ratios are represented as circles.
Descriptions are given at the bottom of the different metrics. For example, in the screenshot below you can drag to adjust the Total Operating Budget (on the left) or the Attendance (on the right) to see how those changes affect the Per Person Budget (in the center).
You can look at different combinations of metrics by clicking the boxes in the bottom corners to adjust to new views.
Evaluate & Analyze (Analyzer Mode)
Once you’re familiar with the basics, the main Analyzer mode lets you compare your church’s numbers to national trends and explore “what-if” scenarios for strategic planning.
To use Analyzer Mode, select the church you want to analyze and click Evaluate & Analyze.
Interactive Graph and Control Panel
The graph and control panel perform essentially the same functions as the Learn & Explore mode, but all in one place. The graph visualizes the structure of your church. Some churches have large budgets and large staffs. Others have small budgets and small staffs.
“Average” is represented by a perpendicular or straight line relative to the square with dashed lines, which represents the perfectly “average” similar church (similar is based on your attendance).
Above average metrics are graphed outside of the “average” square and below average metrics are graphed inside of the square.
For example, a church with a staffing ratio of 70 to 1 will see a line that angles “inward” because the current national average is 54.92 attendees for every 1 FTE staff member. Because a 70 to 1 church has more people relative to every FTE staff member than the national average, the line from attendance down to FTE staff size will angle inward—or inside of the dashed square.
Because all four cornerstone metrics are related, common shapes or patterns will emerge as you use the graph.
Drag the graph’s data points (represented as boxes) or enter exact values in the Control Panel to instantly see the ripple effects across all ratios (represented as circles). If entering manually, make sure to click Analyze to recalculate.
You can “lock” any ratio (like Payroll Percentage) by clicking the lock button to maintain that ratio while adjusting the adjacent cornerstone metrics. Note that this lock option only appears for the ratios (circles), not for the metrics (boxes).
If you're unhappy with your changes and want to start over, just click Reset to restore to the Church Profile defaults. Remember that changes you make here are purely for analysis though, and will not affect your overall Church Profile.
Step-by-Step Calculator
The Step-by-Step Calculator is located beneath the graph and breaks down how each financial decision influences your staffing structure as a series of decisions. Make precise changes to each of these decisions in a step-by-step fashion to game out changes to the size and structure of your organization and see the precise impact.
This calculator will not dynamically update if you are making changes above in the Control Panel. If you are making adjustments, make sure to enter them directly into the Metrics fields by highlighting the existing number and typing in your new number. Remember that, as always, metrics can be manually changed, but ratios, which are calculated from the metrics, cannot be manually entered.
Once you've entered the metrics you like, click Analyze. If you are unhappy with the results and want to start over, just click Reset to restore your Church Profile defaults.
ChurchSalary’s model uses your 4 cornerstone metrics to predict the FTE staff size (and staffing ratio) of your church. Based on these predictions, you are presented with a series of decisions that leaders and the congregation get to make. Each decision influences and constrains the size of your staff relative to your church's size (attendance).
Decisions 1 & 2 = Per Person Budget & Giving
Leaders decide how much to spend based income sources such as tithes and offerings. Congregants give based on spiritual maturity as well as local demographics such as family size and household income levels.
Decision 3 = Payroll Percentage
Leaders decide how much they want to set aside for staff expenses
Decision 4 = Average Employment Cost
Compensation philosophy of church leadership + local cost of living + salary structure + ratio of PT/FT staff
So, let's run through an example. In the screenshot below, ChurchSalary predicts an FTE staff size of 7.293 purely based on the church attendance of 400. However, as different factors are considered like the Payroll Percentage, Per Person Payroll Budget, and Average Employment cost, those numbers change until a final calculation of 12 FTE staff.
