Simon Cox Blog: Here’s Where Evangelicals Are Giving the Most and Least

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Here’s Where Evangelicals Are Giving the Most and Least

For Giving Tuesday, ECFA analyzes the finances of 1,800 ministries.

While the multi-million dollar tally of Giving Tuesday donations will take time to compile, we already know which kinds of charities are most favored by American evangelicals.

Giving continues to rise for many categories of ministry, according to new research released today by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

An analysis of the finances of more than 1,800 of its accredited members found a 2.2 percent rise in cash contributions from 2015 to 2016 (the latest year available). This group also saw a 3.6 percent rise in non-cash giving, which includes income such as government grants or real estate.

That adds up to $16.2 billion of giving—$12.6 billion in cash and $3.6 billion in non-cash—to evangelical ministries in 2016.

“We are encouraged to see donations to our member organizations continuing to increase each year,” stated Dan Busby, ECFA president and CEO. “Members of ECFA are doing wonderful work to serve people in need in myriad ways, and donations made to these ministries are being used to make the world a better place.”

ECFA itself has also been growing, from 1,600 members in 2011 to almost 2,200 today. (Recently accredited ministries were left out of the year-to-year analysis, which relies on mostly audited financial statements.)

The biggest area of growth was in literature publishing and distribution, a category which has been hit hard in recent years. In 2016, Send the Light Distribution shut down after 40 years in business. In early 2017, Family Christian Stores followed, shutting down 240 stores and laying off more than 3,000 employees.

Perhaps in response to the high-profile plight of Family Christian, giving to literature publishing ratcheted up 13.2 percent ...