Alabama Baptists set record CP, disaster relief giving in 2005

Alabama Baptists exceeded the 2005 top giving goal for Cooperative Program (CP) giving by more than $300,000 and set a record for disaster relief donations following Hurricane Katrina in August. 
   
The monetary donations in 2005 were an all-time high for CP giving and disaster relief giving by Alabama Baptists.
   
Receipts for the 2005 CP State Causes Budget, however, fell $80,000 below the $500,000 budget. Money given through the state causes budget is for instate use only.
   
While the numbers are still preliminary and the books are not closed for 2005, Bobby DuBois, associate executive director for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), anticipates the current direction to stay the same.
   
“Because of the faithful support of Alabama Baptists, we exceeded the 2005 CP Challenge Budget ($42,500,000) by approximately $340,000,” DuBois reported. Giving exceeded the 2005 CP Base Budget of $41,500,000 by $921,631, he added. “Base budget receipts were $42,421,631.”
   
Total receipts for 2005 are hovering around $42,840,000, DuBois noted. And more than $2.65 million was given for disaster relief efforts following Katrina.
   
Rick Lance, executive director of the SBOM, said, “I want to thank Alabama Baptists for their faithful giving through the Cooperative Program.  I am honored to be an Alabama Baptist and thankful for the commitment we have in addressing the Acts 1:8 Challenge through Great Commission Ministries.”
   
“2005 proved to be one of the most challenging years we have faced as Alabama Baptists,” Lance said. “The large number of natural disasters and the phenomenal devastation caused to the coastal states by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma strained our resources in unparalleled fashion.”
   
But Alabama Baptists responded to the challenge, he said. “The $2.65 million of disaster relief support more than tripled any single year of disaster support in the history of our convention. The previous record of just over $800,000 was set in 2004 in response to Hurricane Ivan.”
   
The $2.65 million is on top of other disaster receipts given prior to Katrina, including money given to help with tsunami relief efforts at the first of the year. Those amounts were not available at press time.
   
DuBois said that despite the three recent major disaster relief needs — 9/11 in 2001, Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — CP giving has held up. 
   
“It seems that regardless of the needs with disaster relief, CP giving remains strong,” he noted.
   
While numbers for special offering giving, such as the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, were not available at press time, DuBois did not anticipate any dip in giving to those offerings.
   
“I don’t see the increased giving to disaster relief and the Cooperative Program having an impact on the Annie Armstrong or Lottie Moon offerings,” he said, noting month-to-month giving trends to these offerings seem to indicate the normal flow of donations for the offerings. 
   
DuBois did not have information on the other special offerings at press time to indicate how they were doing. “We continue to hold on to the fact that if you show people a need, they will respond,” he said. “People are not giving to help us meet a budget. They give because they sense a need.”
   
DuBois said giving to the state causes budget has fallen short of the goal for the past two years. Both years, the goal was $500,000. 
   
“This is only the second time we’ve missed it since we started it (the state causes budget is only about 10 years old), and the budget goal has gradually increased over the years.
   
“This is a hard number to gauge because we don’t have a long track record with it,” DuBois said. “But because CP giving is increasing, the missed state causes goal may be an indication that some giving that was given as state causes is being channeled back through CP,” he added.
   
He said giving during 2005 reflected the normal ebb and flow of monetary donations throughout any given year — the majority of money coming in the first half of the year. December is typically a strong month for giving as well, and it was again in 2005, DuBois said. 
   
“Preliminary numbers reflect that Alabama Baptists gave $3,994,000 through the Cooperative Program in December 2005,” he said. “That is $535,667 over the base budget for the month ($452,333 over the challenge budget). Each entity will receive a larger January distribution than was expected.
   
“In keeping with the budget approved by convention messengers, all undesignated dollars are distributed based on the percentages established in the budget,” DuBois explained. 
   
“Alabama and Southern Baptist Convention entities will receive their percentage share of these gifts beyond the base and state causes budgets.”