NASHVILLE—Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are 4.9 percent above the year-to-date SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget projection, and 2.4 percent above contributions received during the same time frame last year, according to a news release from August Boto, executive vice president of the SBC Executive Committee.
The year-to-date total represents money received by the Executive Committee by the close of the last business day of March and includes receipts from state conventions, churches and individuals for distribution according to the 2017-18 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
The $100,706,826 received by the Executive Committee for the first six months of the fiscal year, Oct. 1 through March 31, for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget represents 104.9 percent of the $96,000,000 year-to-date budgeted projection to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The total is $2,358,588 or 2.4 percent more than the $98,348,238 received through the end of March 2017.
The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ channel of giving through which a local church can contribute to the ministries of its state convention and to the missions and ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention with a single contribution to its state convention.
Designated giving of $117,855,951 for the same year-to-date period is 2.41 percent or $2,774,159 above the $115,081,792 received at this point last year. This total includes only those gifts received and distributed by the Executive Committee and does not reflect designated gifts contributed directly to SBC entities. Designated contributions include the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, Southern Baptist Global Hunger Relief and other special gifts.
March’s CP allocation receipts for SBC work totaled $15,434,514. Designated gifts received last month amounted to $28,893,566. (BP)