Donations to Religious Groups Were Virtually Flat Last Year, Report Finds

Giving to churches and other religious organizations declined by 0.3 percent last year, according to Giving USA. Over the past two years, it said, giving has dropped a total of 3.3 percent. Religious groups raised more than $100-billion last year, one-third of all donations.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which tracks donations among 1,247 religious groups, said giving to those organizations fell by 3.7 percent last year, after increasing by 9.7 percent in 2008.

“The impact of the recession has been spotty,” says Dan Busby, president of the council, which promotes ethical financial standards among Christian organizations. “Rescue missions and child-sponsor groups in many cases have done well, while others are impacted more significantly. Many are still 5 to 10 percent below where they were a year or two ago.”

Historically, donations to churches have not corresponded to ups and downs in the economy, according to Empty Tomb, a Champaign, Ill., organization that has studied contributions reported by 11 Christian denominations from 1921 through 2007. “If you look at past recessions, there was no pattern,” says Sylvia Ronsvalle, Empty Tomb’s executive vice president. “Half the time it was up, and half the time it went down. Church giving defies trends in the economy.”

That seemed to be the case last year, too. At United Methodist Church headquarters in Nashville, local and regional church collections declined to $126.3-million last year, down from $130.6-million.

St. Mark Baptist Church, in Little Rock, Ark., raised $5.7-million last year, a 4-percent increase. Donations to the Christian Embassy, in Washington, a ministry that serves members of Congress and other government officials, rose by 6 percent.

But another Washington-area group, Christian Stewardship Ministries, which offers group bible-study sessions, in Fairfax, Va., saw contributions drop by 8 percent last year, to $174,000, following a 23.7-percent decline in 2008. Before the recession started, the charity had raised as much as $248,000 per year, according to Ken Smith, its executive director.

At the American Bible Society, in New York, donations grew to $42-million, a 9-percent increase. The group says giving did not decline during the recession and it expects donations to rise again this year. “We have been really fortunate, donors have remained faithful,” says Joey Pierce, the organization’s director of development.

American Bible Society is trying to find more new donors using techniques other than direct mail, which has been a fund-raising mainstay in the past. So far this year, it has completed two on-air pledge drives on Christian radio stations that “did quite well,” according to Mr. Pierce, and it is planning a concert series that will be offered to church congregations, accompanied by a pitch to each church’s members.