As of January 31, gifts received by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget totaled $63,359,413.41, or 101.11 percent of the $62,666,666.68 year-to-date budgeted amount, said Frank Page, SBC Executive Committee president. The total is $1,753,874.22 less than the $65,113,287.64, received through the end of January 2012, and will support Southern Baptist ministries in the U.S. and internationally.
"We are grateful for each gift contributed to the missions and ministries of the convention," Page said. "We see encouraging signs that the worst of the sluggish economy may be behind us and continue to pray for the financial well-being of the members of our cooperating churches and their members."
The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists' method of supporting missions and ministry efforts of state and regional conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention. The total includes contributions from state conventions and fellowships, churches and individuals.
For the month, a total of $18,339,654.49 was received for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
The CP Allocation Budget is distributed 50.2 percent to missions through the International Mission Board; 22.79 percent to missions through North American Mission Board; 22.16 percent to theological education; 3.2 percent to the SBC operating budget and 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
If the SBC exceeds its annual budget goal of $188 million, IMB's share will increase to 51 percent of any overage in CP receipts. Other SBC ministry entities will receive their adopted percentage amounts and the SBC operating budget's portion will be reduced to 2.4 percent of any overage, the budget stipulates.
Designated giving of $39,711,275.49 for the same year-to-date period is 2.50 percent, or $1,018,079.09, below gifts of $40,729,354.58 received at this point last year. This total includes only those gifts received and distributed by the EC and does not reflect designated gifts contributed directly to SBC entities.
The CP and designated giving totals represent money received by the Executive Committee by the close of the last business day of each month. Month-to-month swings reflect a number of factors, including the number of Sundays in a given month, the day of the month churches forward their CP contributions to their state conventions and the timing of when state conventions forward the national portion of their CP contributions to the Executive Committee.
Designated contributions include the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund and other special gifts.
State and regional conventions retain a portion of church contributions to the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program to support work in their respective areas and forward a percentage to Southern Baptist national and international causes. The percentage of distribution is at the discretion of each state or regional convention.
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