ECFA Giving Report: Ministry Cash Donations Didn’t Keep Up With Inflation
During the first three quarters of 2023, giving to churches is up.
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) released its 2023 State of Giving report today. It summarized the findings as “giving stays steady—with ministry expansion anticipated.”
According to the report, for the first time in 10 years, giving did not keep up with inflation. While the typical ECFA member saw a 5.7% increase in actual dollars given in 2022, when adjusted for inflation, they experienced a 0.7% decrease.
Despite the impact of inflation, most churches and nonprofit ministries plan to maintain or increase programming in 2024.
Although the average ECFA member saw a decrease in giving based on inflation, some sectors saw increases in giving. Three of the top spots went to ministries in the education sector. K-12 education groups saw a 28.6% increase in giving. College and universities saw an increase of 17.1%, and graduate schools and seminaries experienced increased giving of 16.9%.
The largest ministries, those with annual revenue of over $100 million, saw a decrease of 0.7% in cash giving. So did some of the smaller ECFA member ministries. Those with less than $250,000 in annual revenue experienced a decrease of 13.1%.
The news for giving to churches wasn’t particularly good either. Only large churches, those with $20 million or more in annual revenue, saw increased giving of 2.3% in 2022. Every other size of church budget saw a decrease, 3.8% on average.
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While giving to ECFA ministry members didn’t keep up with inflation last year, they fared better than the overall nonprofit sector as reported in the Giving USA report. According to it, giving to all U.S. charities was down by over 10% last year.
In the first three quarters of 2023, ECFA members say giving is up, especially among churches. Sixty percent of churches reported higher giving compared to 43% of ministries more generally.
The ECFA State of Giving report differs slightly from the results of MinistryWatch’s quarterly survey of the Christian ministry executives for the largest 1,000 ministries in the country.
In October’s survey, the majority of respondents say their ministry’s revenue has increased over the last 12 months. Within that group, 21% say their ministry revenue has increased by more than 10% in the last year. About 18% said ministry revenue remained flat.
About the next 12 months, ministry leaders are optimistic. Over 62% of respondents believe ministry revenue will increase. Of those, 44% believe it will go up somewhere between 1 and 10%, while 18% of leaders are expecting revenue increases of over 10%. Notably, however, are almost 27% of respondents who believe the ministry they lead will see no significant change in revenue.
Fundraising came in as the biggest challenge with nearly 41% of respondents choosing that answer. Staffing challenges came in second at nearly 28%.
In the January survey, staffing challenges took the top spot with about 37% of respondents versus 33% choosing fundraising.
According to the report released by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (Give.org), religious organizations are no longer the most trusted charities. They topped the list from its inception in 2017 until 2022, but they fell to third this year. Veterans organizations and not-for-profit hospitals now rank more highly as the most trusted charities for American donors.
While givers may not highly trust charities, they trust them more than they trust other societal institutions like government and media. And the divide is wide: 85% of respondents trust charities more than they trust the media, and 83% trust charities more than government.
Main photo: Photo by Fabian Blank / Unsplash
