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Nearly 10% of Christian ministry leaders told MinistryWatch their ministry’s revenue has declined more than 10% over the last 12 months.
That represents the highest response we have received showing a decrease in revenue since beginning the survey in October 2022.In July’s survey, about 8% of ministry executives told MinistryWatch their revenue had fallen by greater than 10%.
While over 60% of Christian ministries saw an increase in their revenue over the last 12 months, nearly 36% said their revenue remained flat or decreased in that same period. That is similar to survey results from July.
MinistryWatch also asked a related question about whether ministry leaders believe a recession is on the horizon for the U.S. economy. Many leaders are optimistic about the state of the nation’s economy, with 41% responding that they do not think the U.S. will enter a recession in the next year.
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However, the majority believe the economy is not doing well. A robust 25% think the economy is already in a recession, 14% believe the economy will enter a recession in the next six months, and 20% think the economy will enter a recession sometime in the next year.
MinistryWatch has been conducting its quarterly survey of leaders of the nation’s 1,000 largest Christian ministries since October 2022. We have consistently reported about the insights gathered.
In October, we received responses from 73 ministry executives, 86% of whom are in the top role at their organization—CEO, president, or executive director. We remain grateful to all of the leaders who have participated.
While we recognize the response size is somewhat limiting, we believe the trends we have seen are still noteworthy and have included graphics showing the trends over time.
Fundraising remains the largest challenge cited by 36% of ministry executives, not a surprising result given the reports of declining revenue. Although, as the graph demonstrates, that number is down by 7% compared with July’s survey.
Another persistently challenging situation faced by ministries is finding and keeping qualified staff. It was cited by nearly 31% of respondents as their most significant challenge, down from 36% in July.
The challenge of succession planning continues to grow.
Nearly 13% of respondents said management succession or succession planning is their biggest challenge. In January 2024, succession planning also showed as one of the top three challenges faced by Christian ministry executives.
Other stressors include operational and logistical challenges, human resource policies, religious liberty challenges, personal challenges like burnout, and succession planning. One respondent said he or she faces four persistent challenges: human resource policies, fundraising, finding and keeping qualified staff, and succession planning.
Another respondent said that social unrest, the threat of war, and domestic instability has made it challenging to “confidently chart a course for our ministry.”
Given their predictions of a recession and the fact that fundraising and revenue remain top concerns for ministry leaders, one might surmise they are not optimistic about the coming year’s revenue and fundraising numbers, but that is not how they responded.
Nearly 74% of leaders who responded expect to see revenue grow over the next 12 months. Fifty-three percent expect growth to be between 1 and 10%, and 21% said they’ll expect to see revenue growth of over 10%. Both of those categories represent increases from our July survey results.
As the graph demonstrates with the dark red bar, most ministries over the two-year course of the surveys have expected to see growth.
The percentage of respondents who say their ministry revenue remained flat — represented by the gray bar — saw a significant drop from the July survey, from 25% to 11%.
The percentage of leaders who think the ministry’s revenue will drop over the next 12 months is nearly 11%, up just slightly from 9% in July, but up significantly from just 3% in April.
According to a new study done by the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy, giving by Americans declined from 50.9% in 2018 to 46.9% in 2020. While overall giving is down, those who are giving are donating more. The study results showed a significant increase in the average amount given by donor households, which increased from $2,792 in pre-pandemic years to $3,116 in 2020, an increase of 11.6%
The largest portion of the survey respondents—43%—have been in their ministry leadership position for 10 years or more. As the graph indicates, over the course of the survey, the highest percentage of respondents have indicated their long-term service.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, 8% of survey respondents said they’d been in their ministry leadership position for less than one year. That is up significantly from other survey results, and time will tell if it will demonstrate a trend in new leadership.
A related category is the aging of ministry leaders, which is a likely explanation for why succession planning is on their minds. Once again, the largest percentage of respondents—46%—said they are between ages 60 and 70.
As we reported from the January survey, a trend appears to be emerging demonstrating some turnover and younger leadership. Again this quarter, over 51% of the respondents are under age 60.
Nondisclosure Agreements (NDAs)
MinistryWatch once again asked ministry leaders about their use of the nondisclosure agreements as part of their operations. A debate has arisen in recent years over how and why Christian ministries use NDAs as part of their operations. While NDAs may be used to protect confidential information about how a ministry operates, at other times they may be used to prevent persons from discussing the terms of a settlement agreement. NDAs are binding, and violations can result in a lawsuit.
We began asking about the use of NDAs in April 2023. In that survey, 47% of ministries answered that they use NDAs, 49% said they didn’t use them, and 4% said they didn’t know.
In the October survey, 42% of respondents said they use NDAs, 57% said they don’t use them, and only 1% said they didn’t know.
When asked to elaborate about the purposes for using NDAs, 68% of leaders said they are used for protection of proprietary information, and 39% said they were required by third party vendors (up from 27% in April 2023), and 23% use them as part of severance or settlement agreements (down from 27% when we first asked the question).
Some respondents chose to elaborate on their answers telling us they will use an NDA upon legal advice if an “employee acts contrary to biblical ethics.” One leader also said they use NDAs for “information about missionaries working in sensitive locations.”
The vast majority of the leaders who respond to our survey—82%—are male. Just about 18% of the respondents are women.
As we’ve reported in the past, more women are at the helm of Christian ministries than those leading secular businesses. According to Investopedia, in 2023 there were 52 women leading Fortune 500 companies, just breaking the 10% mark.
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