Giving to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program unified budget has declined in seven of the past 10 years, with receipts for the year just ended being 4.4% less than a decade ago.
The SBC Executive Committee released final fiscal year numbers Oct. 7, showing a third consecutive year of decreases in giving. The denomination’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
Total Cooperative Program giving last year was $186,091,048, a 0.074% decrease from the prior year. The annual total fell $4.16 million short of the budget goal of $190,250,000.
The last decade has brought more decreases than increases. The high point of the last decade was $195,900,993 given in 2021-22. The total given in the year just ended is nearly $10 million less than that high point, a 5% drop in three years.
The total given in the year just ended is nearly $10 million less than that high point, a 5% drop in three years.
Meanwhile, inflation in the United States over the past decade has increased prices by about 36.7%, meaning SBC entities have 40% less buying power than they did a decade ago.
This summer, SBC officials celebrated the centennial anniversary of the Cooperative Program, birthed in 1925 as a means of ending the so-called “society method” of giving where every mission board and ministry made individual appeals to churches. Cooperative Program giving originates in church offering plates, with SBC churches sending a portion of undesignated receipts to their state Baptist conventions, which in turn send a portion to the SBC for its national and international ministries.
The beginning point of that charitable chain has declined from $11.46 billion in 2015 to $9.56 billion in 2023-24. Also over that decade, churches have retained more of their offerings for local ministries and sent smaller percentages to the Cooperative Program.
The SBC’s decline in giving mirrors trends in almost every other Protestant denomination in America. And the decline in giving follows even steeper declines in membership and attendance.
In some recent years, declines in undesignated giving have been offset by increases in designated giving to SBC causes, but that was not the case last year. Designated giving to mission offerings and other specific causes was $200.4 million, compared to $200.8 million the prior year. The bulk of those designated gifts are earmarked for the SBC’s two mission boards.
Last year’s numbers do not bode well for the fiscal year just started, which has an undesignated budget goal of $190 million — $4 million more than actual receipts for the year just ended. The new fiscal year’s goal includes a controversial $3 million special allocation off the top to fund sexual abuse response needs.
Here is a list of total undesignated Cooperative Program giving over the past decade, with the annual percentage increase or decrease noted.
- 2015-16 — $190,468,781 — 3.64%
- 2016-17 — $191,948,826 — 0.78%
- 2017-18 — $191,257,988 — (0.36%)
- 2018-19 — $190,967,403 — (0.15%)
- 2019-20 — $187,806,636 — (1.66%)
- 2020-21 — $187,775,922 — (0.02%)
- 2021-22 — $195,900,993 — 4.33%
- 2022-23 — $188,505,808 — (3.77%)
- 2023-24 — $187,471,630 — (0.055%)
- 2024-25 — $186,091,048 — (0.074%)