February 24, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Despite the bite of the recession, most evangelical churches and other religious organizations came close to meeting or exceeding their fund-raising goals in the final quarter of 2008, according to newly released survey of more than 300 such organizations.
The survey found that 72 percent of the evangelical groups met, surpassed, or came within 10 percent of meeting their fund-raising goals in the critical year-end period. The remaining 28 percent fell short of their final-quarter goals by more than 10 percent.
The survey was conducted last month with members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which seeks to improve the financial reporting and other practices of Christian organizations. The council represents 1,360 churches and other Christian groups, such as Jews for Jesus and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; their combined annual revenues total $18.6-billion.
Because of their close relations with congregants, most churches fared a little better than other types of organizations surveyed, said Dan Busby, the council’s acting president.
While most of the organizations reported healthy contributions in last year’s final quarter, half of the groups said that their invested assets lost anywhere from 15 to 30 percent of their value last year.
To cope with the economic downturn, Christian organizations resorted to varying ways of cutting costs and spending: 41 percent froze or delayed pay increases, 38 percent cut back on travel and conference costs, 30 percent held off on capital projects, and 22 percent said they had formed partnerships with other oganizations to share resources. Other less common measures were renegotiating leases on office space and asking staff members to raise money for specific projects.
