NASHVILLE (BP) – The 2023 fiscal year for national Cooperative Program is off to a slow start due mainly to negative economic forces affecting churches and individuals across the country.

Inflation worries and rising interest rates in recent months are beginning to impact church and personal giving as shown in a below-budget start for the 2023 SBC fiscal year. Nevertheless, churches gave nearly $15 million through the national Cooperative Program Allocation Budget in November.

“I am incredibly thankful for the unified efforts of churches giving through the Cooperative Program,” SBC Executive Committee interim president Willie McLaurin said in a statement. “These gifts enable Southern Baptist to mobilize and maintain a mission force locally and globally because the Cooperative Program gifts received are used to spread the Gospel across the street, across the state and across the seas.”

November National Cooperative Program giving:

• Monthly budgeted amount: $16,022,500.00
• November 2022 giving: $14,697,627.87
• Above/under budget: $1,324,872.13 (8.27 percent) under budget

Total National Cooperative Program giving:

• Year to date budgeted amount: $32,045,000.00
• Year to date giving: $29,859,218.79
• Above/under budget: $2,185,781.21 (6.82 percent) under budget

Designated giving:

• November giving: $4,201,682.51
• Year to date giving: $ 8,018,090.19
• Previous year total: $7,700,049.80
• Above/under previous year: $318,040.39 (4.13 percent) above previous year

The convention-adopted budget for 2022-2023 is $192,270,000 and includes an initial $200,000 special priority allocation for the SBC Vision 2025 initiative. Cooperative Program funds are then disbursed as follows: 50.41 percent to international missions through the International Mission Board, 22.79 percent to North American missions through the North American Mission Board, 22.16 percent to theological education through the six SBC seminaries and the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, 2.99 percent to the SBC operating budget and 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

If national CP gifts exceed the budget projection at the end of the fiscal year, the balance of the overage is distributed according to the percentages approved for budgetary distribution. The SBC Executive Committee distributes all CP and designated gifts it receives on a weekly basis to the SBC ministry entities.

CP allocation budget gifts received by the Executive Committee are reported monthly to the executives of the entities of the convention, to the state convention offices, to the state Baptist papers and are posted online at sbc.net/cp.