FAQs

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Upon receipt of an inquiry, a potential church/ministry partner is asked to provide a job description/task list for their virtual assistant.  The clearer a church/ministry can describe their expectations and desired results, the better.  Once a job description is received, depending on its thoroughness and clarity, a 10–20-minute conversation may be needed to address any questions and/or discuss some details.  After we have a good job description/task list in hand (and it is not uncommon for us to help churches/ministries prepare those), a virtual assistant is selected and a custom proposal is sent to the potential church/ministry partner.  Every proposal we write is custom. We can provide both an hourly and a value-based proposal.

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None of the above.  Our contracts are month-to-month.  Our partners can cancel anytime during the month with a 30-day notice.

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There are no upfront costs.  Churches/ministries pay VMA a flat monthly value-based rate or an hourly rate (billed monthly for a set amount of hours). Our flat hourly administrative services rate is $30 an hour. Our bookkeeping rate is monthly and starts at $250 a month. We also offer special rates to church plants (under 3 years old), small churches (under 100), mission organizations, organizational partners, veteran leaders, and bulk clients (over 50 hours a month).  Bills are sent via email in the middle of the month and are due at the middle of the month.  For example, if a contract starts in March,  the first payment is due March 15.  VMA does have a startup fee. The startup fee is due with the first month’s payment, not in advance.

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The startup fee covers the time it takes to write proposals, draft contracts, get our church/ministry partners set up in our systems, and the typical initial time needed by the virtual assistant to get acclimated to the church/ministry.  Usually, there are more/longer conversations between the virtual assistant and our partners during the initial weeks of the contract.  The startup fee is a one-time fee.  If a church/ministry adds services, they do not pay an additional startup fee.

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Our goal is to give our ministry partners the very best support they can afford.

Value-based billing allows a church/ministry to have predictable costs and eliminates the need for them to manage hours.  Churches/ministries love the fact that they can lock down a number in their budget, not worry about it fluctuating month to month, and have guaranteed results.  Value-based contracts typically have a lower effective hourly rate.

Other partners prefer a flat hourly rate.

We accommodate both.

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VMA is a company you can trust.  We are not simply a group of solo virtual assistants working independently under a single name for marketing purposes. We started to serve pro bono in 2013, privately serving paid clients in 2014, and publicaly launching in December of 2014, we were the first christian virtual assistant company to exclusively serve churches and christian leaders.  We love the church. Our virtual assistants serve in the local church and have the administrative and technical skillsets necessary not only to accomplish tasks, but also to add value. With years of experience and familiarity with proven best practices, our virtual assistants are much more than task completers. They are a seasoned team of people who bring with them years of experience in diverse ministry contexts.  We can be trusted to care for your ministry and your call, like it's our own.

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The church/ministry creates a folder in a cloud storage service such as Google Drive or Dropbox, and gives access permission for that folder to the virtual assistant. Windows Remote Desktop and similar programs are also utilized when needed.  Our team is also familiar with Asana, Monday, Trello, Teams, and other collaboration programs.  The church/ministry retains ownership and control of their information.

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All of our virtual assistants are located in the continental United States.

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Every virtual assistant signs non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements. Every virtual assistant is vetted and undergoes a background check. You can be assured your information will be handled with the utmost integrity and care.

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Virtual assistants are matched based on the primary needs of the ministry and the skillsets needed to accomplish the church's/ministry's tasks. Each church/ministry has a primary virtual assistant. Each virtual assistant has a team that can be resourced when needed to ensure the needs of the church/ministry are met.