CBF Annual Finances

by   T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                                   Vol. XVII, No. 1, January 2004

The December 2003 issue of fellowship!, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s newsjournal, reports CBF’s 2002-3 fiscal year results. From their perspective several numbers are quite good news. The number of contributing churches increased from 1,715 to 1,819, reversing two years of declines. Individuals making gifts rose from 3,128 to 3,773, and individual dollar donations also increased 18% from $6,104,366 to $7,205,837. The star performer, however, was designated giving which grew 27.9% from $11,358,291 to $14,522,428. Total revenues increased from $21,304,674 to $24,515,784 or 15.1%

There were, however, some disappointments. Undesignated contributions were flat at just about $9 million. Further, the Global Missions offering netted $5.32 million, short of the $6.1 million goal and about on a par with last year. These two items caused CBF to dip into its reserves by $513,000.

Two large one-time gifts were undoubtedly very welcome but may serve to obscure the on-going state of CBF financing. The Lilly Foundation gave a $2 million designated gift, and an anonymous donor gave $5 million. Subtracting that $7 million from designated giving shows a 34% decline. Deducting the $7 million from total revenue leaves $17,515,784 compared to last year’s $21,304,674 ... a 17.8% decline.

Another item of interest: The same issue of fellowship! contained the following, “... Vestal [CBF’s national Coordinator] reported meaningful collaboration with the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, American Baptist Churches in the USA, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, the Washington D.C. Baptist Convention, and Canadian Baptist groups, among others.”

[Comment: Read the North Carolina section of the State Wrap article in this Banner, and you will see why the CBF may not be able to claim “meaningful collaboration” with the North Carolina state Baptist convention much longer. TCP]