wfn.org | National Council of Churches revives financial health

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 25, 2002       News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71B{326}

NOTE:  A head-and-shoulders photo of the Rev. Robert Edgar is available at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The National Council of Churches is in its healthiest
financial state in the past 12 years, according to the ecumenical agency's
chief executive.

The Rev. Robert Edgar, also a United Methodist pastor, pointed to a balanced
budget in 2002, a three-year, $500,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment and
the addition of $625,000 to long-term reserves as proof of the agency's
emergence from the financial cloud of the last few years.

When Edgar started the job in January 2000, member churches were helping
bail the council out of a deficit situation caused by unbudgeted but
approved expenses in 1999. In addition, he said, long-term investments had
dropped to $3 million from $24 million in 1994.

"Any institution that's fiscally challenged needs to take a look at its
revenues, both short-term and long-term," he told United Methodist News
Service during a July 23 interview.

In the NCC's annual budget of about $5 million, the ecumenical commitment
funds amount to about $1.2 million, he said, and "cognate" funds, given for
specific purposes, account for another $1 million, leaving a financial gap
to be filled.

One solution is to increase the number of individual and foundation
donations, as well as planned giving, in the budget. "No ecumenical
organization in the future is going to live solely off of its member
denominations," Edgar explained, noting that the council's eventual goal is
to derive 20 percent of its annual revenue from a donor base.

Through John Briscoe's work as director of development, the council already
has had some success in that area, with individual donations increasing from
1.2 percent of the fiscal year 2001 budget to 10 percent of the 2002 budget,
with a projected income of 15 percent of the 2003 budget. Re-connecting with
ecumenical supporters has been crucial. "Your best sources of funds are
constituents who like the work and what you do," Edgar added.

The Lilly grant will allow the National Council of Churches to continue to
build its development arm. Edgar noted that when he went to Lilly officials
for help two years ago, "they were pretty cynical about the future of the
council," but have since come to appreciate the council's "Mobilization
Against Poverty" campaign and its attempts to build a larger ecumenical
base.

In fact, Edgar attributes the council's successful reversal of fortune to
its simple but clearer mission -- to create a "broader ecumenical table"
focused on addressing the needs of the poor. The ecumenical vision --
encompassing mainline Protestant, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and
Evangelical church leaders -- has provisionally been named "Christian
Churches Together in the U.S.A." A third meeting of church leaders is
planned for January.

But the NCC still looks to its 36 member denominations for financial support
and Edgar pointed to a recent increase in contributions from members who had
not given for awhile, such as the National Baptists and some Orthodox
groups. Compared to 62 percent in 2000, 83 percent of the member
denominations make financial contributions today.

Edgar credited the two largest member communions - United Methodists and
Presbyterians - "for their intense work in keeping our eyes on the prize of
fiscal integrity" during the effort to rebound from a deficit situation.
Part of the negotiations for the financial recovery included the fiscal
separation of NCC and its relief agency, Church World Service.

He also praised the work of Spencer Bates, a United Methodist hired as the
NCC's chief financial officer, in improving the productivity and accuracy of
the agency's finance and administration office. "He's overturned the rocks
that other people don't want to look at," he said.

Another important factor for programming and financial health is linking to
the multiple resources of the council's partners. That has been especially
important, according to Edgar, as the number of NCC employees dropped from
102 in December 1999 to 41 in June of this year. 

Member communions, for example, offer denominational staff assistance,
specific funding and information sharing for programs addressing religious
research, scholarship, faith formation, faith and order issues, poverty and
a variety of justice and advocacy topics. Ties with state and local councils
of churches and interfaith organizations help extend advocacy work,
especially for the poor.

Other current partners include the National Religious Partnership for the
Environment, Habitat for Humanity, the Children's Defense Fund, Families
USA, National Coalition on Health Care, Good Schools Pennsylvania, Bread for
the World, Call to Renewal, Agricultural Missions, The Fund for Theological
Education and Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education. 

The NCC also has worked with Independent Sector, which connects it with
corporations and foundations interested in anti-poverty work; with Hartford
Theological Seminary and its MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and
Christian-Muslim Relations; and with Religious Leaders for Sensible
Priorities, which advocates the shifting of federal budget dollars away from
wasteful military spending to domestic priorities for children and the poor.

# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org