One of the tougher aspects of running tech in a startup (and/or) portable church is the cost of equipment. You’re stuck between cheap, home-quality equipment, that breaks easily and has low-grade parts, or expensive, professional grade equipment, that can take months to save up for. Finding that balance is always tough, because you need to be the best steward of the resources you have available, but also produce a high quality service that people can feel comfortable in.

There are a couple of things that you can do to raise spending money, without taxing the church’s budget, or needing a fundraiser.

#1) Sell off your old equipment. Stick it on craigslist, rather than let it sit, and take up storage space, in the hopes that one day you’ll use it again (I’m talking to myself here!). If you do end up needing it in the future, you can always buy it used on craigslist for about what you sold it for.

#2) Have someone donate new equipment for a tax write-off. Or better yet, have someone purchase it, and “rent” it to the church on a weekly basis. They can let the church have it for free, and write-off the fair value of rent on a weekly basis.

#3) Make money through referral programs. We get 90% of all our printing through nextdayflyers.com, and they are instituting a referral plan, where we get up to 10% back of whatever anyone orders using our link. So if we have someone in the church that needs to order business cards, or flyers, or postcards, etc., they can do so with our referral information, and we make money quarterly. Plus, we order our own materials using our own referral link, and it’s equivalent to a 7.5% – 10% discount right away.
Amazon also offer a great referral program at associates.amazon.com that can earn you up to 6% back on all purchases. Anything you purchase as a church (not just limited to books, but equipment also) will give you money back. But if you’re doing a series, or small group, that promotes a book or DVD, you can link to it on your website, or pastor’s blog, and the church gets a percentage for everyone that buys it through the link, plus the congregation gets the convenience of not having to go looking for the product on their own. Here’s an example:

Anything you search for, and purchase, through that link will give Shoreline Church a small kickback, which is free money for the church. So, if you feel the need to purchase a Mac Pro for your video department, or a Hillsong album as an MP3 download for your congregation, please feel free to use these links, and startupchurch.com benefits! =)