First of all, your safety and public health! As our usual ways of gathering and working have drastically changed in this pandemic, we have had to adapt quickly. Although our churches are considererd “essential businesses,” it’s essential that we eliminate or limit shared workspaces and add cleaning protocols.
Second, I’ve heard from many of you about the things you are doing to keep yourselves and the community as safe as possible from the transmission of this novel virus.
- Working remotely: let us know if you’d like assistance with Splashtop remote access, or DropBox, or Google Drive
- On-line donations: let us know if you’d like to add methods of giving to your Vanco account
- Web contributions from bank accounts
- Pledging online
- Give-by-Text via credit/debit cards
- Online Bill Pay through local banks for paying bills
Third, there are a number of Government Assistance programs that churches may be eligible for.
- Families First Coronavirus Response Act: mandatory paid sick leave
- Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act
- Paycheck Protection Program for those with 500 or fewer employees/contractors
- Charitable Deduction: up to $300 per taxpayer, up to 100% of income for 2020
- Required Minimum Distribution from IRAs for those 72 and older: suspended for 2020
- Employee Retention Credit
- Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
There’s a lot … and I’ll post each of these separately in the days to come.