Parishioners Contributed $25-Billion to Churches in 1997, Report Says

American church members contributed $25-billion to 58 Protestant denominations in 1997,

ALSO SEE:

Contributions to U.S. Protestant Churches, 1997

Contributions to Canadian Protestant Churches, 1997

according to a new report by the National Council of Churches.

The report estimated that giving had increased by $750-million over the previous year.

Parishioners gave $3.8-billion to church programs designed to serve the needy, an increase of about $800-million over what they had given the year before, the report said. That jump came one year after those donations had fallen $750-million in 1996.

Giving for the needy amounted to 15 per cent of all contributions, up from 12 per cent the year before. The $3.8-billion total for the needy is the highest since the council began reporting these figures.

The 1999 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches also reported that church membership grew about 3 per cent over all. The yearbook analyzes membership and financial data from numerous Christian denominations in the United States and Canada. Most of the churches provided 1997 fiscal year data, although a handful provided data from 1996 or 1998.

Year-to-year comparisons of the data should be viewed with caution. Denominations that report one year don’t always respond to the survey the next. Forty-eight churches participated in both years’ surveys — and of those, 11 provided data for the same fiscal year this time as they had in the prior yearbook. Seven denominations that took part last year did not participate in the new survey, while 10 denominations in the new yearbook are not in the prior one.

Total church contributions were up 3 per cent, equal to the growth in church membership. That means that per-capita contributions remained virtually flat compared to the year before, with church members giving an average of $557 each.

Eileen W. Lindner, associate general secretary of the council and editor of the yearbook, attributed the lack of growth to other demands on donors.

“In the midst of the most expansive economic recovery Americans have seen, this warrants us to question what we see,” Ms. Lindner said. “I would speculate that there’s more competition for benevolent dollars than at any previous time. Forty years ago, a Methodist family would receive requests from the local church and maybe one or two other local groups. Today they’re getting phone calls and mail from Save the Children, Habitat for Humanity, UNICEF, and any number of other charities.”

Ms. Lindner was encouraged by the jump in giving for the needy. On a per-capita basis, it rose from $68 in 1996 to nearly $85 in 1997.

The 28 Canadian denominations that provided financial data to the council reported total contributions of more than $700-million in Canadian dollars ($450-million in U.S. dollars). Nearly $150-million in Canadian dollars, or about $100-million American dollars, went to programs for the poor.

Copies of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches are available for $35 each from the council’s Friendship Press, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 860, New York 10155; (212) 870-2496. For more information about the yearbook, see the National Council of Churches Web site at http://www.ncccusa.org.