Frequently Asked Questions

All documents sent to us from pledged churches will be sent through encrypted file requests and stored in encrypted cloud storage.

If a church cannot commit to a single practice for any reason, please contact us via the contact page. Our goal is always to help as many churches as possible to sign the pledge and commit to safety. If there is a unique circumstance or denominational rule that keeps you from committing to a practice, we want to hear it and will amend your commitment (with disclosure of why) if at all possible to help you overcome the issue and stay in keeping with the spirit of the safe church practice in question. We cannot guarantee an amendment for your church, and we will always disclose any change made and the reason for it, but we want to work with your church in any way possible. Such cases will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis upon church request.

Non-profits in the United States are legally required to complete 990 forms that disclose their top earners and employees making more than $100,000. This is for donor transparency and trust. The only non-profits that are exempt from this are those considered churches. However, the question should always be asked: should the church be more or less transparent than secular organizations?

We believe that part of being above reproach is being more transparent than the world. By disclosing this information, churches inform donors about where their money goes and foster trust among donors, potential donors, and the public. And because many non-profit CEOs and top staff make over this threshhold, donors often will not have an issue with it as along as the list isn't long and the salaries are not lavish.

At the end of the day, this public disclosure allows accountability and promotes transparency. For the majority of churches and pastors, this will not be an issue because so few ministers and church staff earn beyond this threshold. It will, however, dispel the false and often believed notions that pastors make lavish money or are just in it for the money.

By publicly disclosing financial information equal to or beyond a 990 form, churches remove a common club from the hands of concerned individuals. This practice also helps to keep salaries and housing allowances from becoming too lavish in rare cases and shows your public commitment to handling donor finances well.

Your disclosure would simply read that no board members or employees meet that criteria. Very similar to how a 990 form would be completed. Only employees making above that amount would need to be listed.

Familial relationships on staff could be a conflict of interest, but that is just one of many potential conflicts. The nepotism protection policy outlines how the church will handle familial relationships and what steps they will take proactively to keep them from becoming a conflict of interest. The conflict of interest policy doesn't keep conflicts from arising as much as it defines how to disclose them and how to respond when they inevitably arise. So they overlap a little but are overall two very different policies that accomplish different goals.

A conflict of interest exists when a member of the nonprofit board or key staff member has a personal interest that may influence them when making decisions. We refer to it in regard to non-profit laws. So essentially, any relationship, business interest, etc, that could cause a board member or staff member to act in a way that is not in the best interest of the organization and its members would qualify as a conflict of interest.  The policy would define that in the specific scope of the church and identify how conflicts of interest would be disclosed. 

Yes, there are certain valid use cases for non-disclosure agreements in ministries, but they are very limited and should be handled with great care. The best use for NDAs within a ministry environment is a specific agreement to keep the private information of parishioners confidential (i.e. addresses, contact information, giving information, counseling conversations, etc.) Other use cases, such as protecting proprietary information, could also be valid, although churches rarely have information that should be proprietary.

With any NDA, here are things to keep in mind when considering if they could or should be used. Good NDAs are always specific, limited, and time-bound.

Any NDA used by a ministry should be as specific as possible about what information is protected and why. Broad non-disclosures and non-disparagement clauses are unhelpful, often hurtful, and often unenforceable. For instance, a good NDA might specifically protect parishioners from the disclosure of contact information from users of the church database. A bad and unspecific NDA might prohibit sharing "any information not generally known to the public" or "any information that could embarrass the church."

Good NDAs should also be time bound and as short as possible for the situation. No NDA should be lifelong or beyond a person's life.

And finally, good NDAs are limited. If your ministry needs to use an NDA, limit them. Don't throw a bunch of things into one agreement. What is the minimum confidentiality and scope a person needs to agree to. Limit the agreement to that.

Also, we recommend that NDAs only be used to protect parishioners and never to protect the organization or its repuation. Perhaps the biggest question to ask even with valid NDAs si this: Is this NDA worth the damage it could cause when people find out about it. Often, the answer is no.

So, while SAI and the Safe Church Pledge does allow for some specific, limited, and time bound NDAs in certain situations, we recommend only using them when absolutely necessary and publicly disclosing the type of NDA used and why the church has decided to use it.

95% of the time, an NDA is not worth the potential damage it could cause.

No. Churches can take the pledge at no cost. The only thing SAI charges churches for is on site assessments and training fees for the courses and modules to help churches implement the pledge practices. These training resources are completely optional.