NASHVILLE (BP) – While National Cooperative Program giving in March was slightly below the monthly budget goal, year-to-date giving through the first half of the fiscal year is still slightly ahead of last year’s mid-point total.
By this point in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, Southern Baptists had given $97,839,277.52 through the Cooperative Program. This year’s total so far is $98,120,891.12, a .29 percent increase.
“I’m encouraged about where we stand in national Cooperative Program giving through six months of the budget year,” said Jonathan Howe, SBC Executive Committee interim president/CEO. “The year-over-year increase, while small, represents Southern Baptists’ commitment to funding our cooperative mission and is to be applauded.”
March National Cooperative Program giving:
- Monthly budgeted amount: $15,621,000.00
- March 2024 giving: $15,271,005.70
- Above/below budget: $349,994.30 (2.24 percent) below budget
Total National Cooperative Program giving:
- Year to date budgeted amount: $99,888,000.00
- Year to date giving: $98,120,891.12
- Above/under budget: $1,767,108.88 (1.77 percent) below budget
Designated giving:
[1]- March giving: $30,045,324.62
- Year to date giving: $120,393,177.58
- Previous year to date total: $119,149,438.46
- Above/below previous year: $1,243,739.12 (.04 percent) above the previous year
The convention-adopted budget for 2023-2024 is $195,250,000 and includes a $250,000 special priority allocation for the SBC Vision 2025 initiative.
Cooperative Program funds are then disbursed as follows:
- 50.41 percent to international missions through the International Mission Board
- 22.79 percent to North American missions through the North American Mission Board
- 22.16 percent to theological education through the six SBC seminaries and the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives
- 2.99 percent to the SBC operating budget
- 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
If national CP gifts exceed the budget projection at the end of the fiscal year, the balance of the overage is distributed according to the percentages approved for budgetary distribution. The SBC Executive Committee distributes all CP and designated gifts it receives on a weekly basis to the SBC ministry entities.
CP allocation budget gifts received by the Executive Committee are reported monthly to the executives of the entities of the convention, to the state convention offices, to the state Baptist papers and are posted online at sbc.net/cp.