Apportionments: The portion meant for others
This presentation seeks to answer four common questions about apportionments:
Why do we have them?
Who decides?
How much do we pay?
Does it work?
9. Which is Part of the General Church …a global church, with conferences and members all over the world.
10. Our Work Together Has Biblical Foundations… JERUSALEM MACEDONIA “At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem in ministry to the saints; for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do this, for if [they] have come to share the spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material things.” Romans 15:25-27 (NRSV)
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13. Apportionments are supported by prayer filled offerings Faithful people seek to use them to fulfill the prayers of United Methodists
14. Why? Because it’s the way that United Methodists work Global Mission for a Globally Connected People Biblically Grounded Based in our Tradition of Giving Built on Prayer and Trust in Each Other
17. Where are apportionments born? General Church Apportionments 1. Every four years, lay and clergy delegates to the General Conference envision what the UMC will do in mission and ministry during the next four years, and approve a budget to support that vision. 2. This budget is divided into “fair share portions” for each annual conference. 3. The Northern Illinois Conference receives its “fair share portion and includes it in the annual conference budget proposal.
18. There Are Seven General Church Apportioned Funds General Administration Fund
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20. Where are apportionments born? Northern Illinois Conference Apportionments 1. Every year, Northern Illinois Conference committees envision what the conference will do in mission and ministry, and submit budget requests to the Conference Finance and Administration Committee (CCFA). 2. These requests are reviewed and, as appropriate, are included in the annual conference budget which is reviewed and approved by lay and clergy members of the Annual Conference.
21. 2009 Conference Budget Cabinet and Clergy Expenses (2.26 M) Conference Programming (1.5 M) Conference Administration (1.28 M) Other ( 0.25 M) Total = 5.29 M
22. Where are apportionments born? General Church Apportioned Funds Conference Apportionments General Church and Northern Illinois Conference apportionments are combined in the budget, and then divided into “fair share portions” for each local church/charge, based on elements of the local church budget. GRAND TOTAL 2009 = $7.2 M
23. We Have Been Controlling Our Spending Between 2001 and 2009 –Apportionments requested increased $262,000 (~3%) And the % of the local church budget represented by Apportionments has gone down about 3% (16.5% in 2001)
24. We Commit to these Numbers Together In order to fulfill our mission.
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26. Advance giving is completely voluntary and is in addition to apportioned funds support.
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28. How is our Fair Share Apportionment calculated?
29. First, Let’s Review… In the Northern Illinois Conference there are Three Apportioned Funds. Every church is asked to contribute to each fund and the amount each church is asked to contribute is based on a formula.
30. The Calculation: A five step process Step One: Annual Statistical Report Step Two: Five year look Step Three: Apportioned Fund Calculation Three A: Support for Ordained Leadership Three B: Mission & Evangelism Three C: Reconnecting the Connection Step Four: “According to Means” Functions Step Five: Additional Factors & Calculations
31. Step One: The Annual Statistical Report Every year, each local church compiles their annual statistical report by answering questions about their local church expenditures.
32. Step Two: the five year look The calculation looks at more than one year’s worth of data to provide some stability and predictability to the Apportionment amount. The current year and four previous years’ worth of statistical report data are used. The high and low numbers are discarded, and the three remaining years’ numbers are averaged.
33. Step Three A:Support for Ordained Leadership Statistical Report Questions: Clergy Related Expenses The Calculation Rate 51-52. Pension for clergy programs 53 a. Pastor's base Compensation 54. Associates Base Compensation 55 a-e. Housing allowances and utilities 56. Reimbursements 57. Other Cash allowances For parsonage appointments, add 25% x 16%
34. Step Three B:Mission & Evangelism 58-9. Diaconal/Deacon Ministry 60. Other Staff Compensation & Benefits 61. Program Expenses 62 a-f. Other Current Operating The Calculation Rate Statistical Report Questions: Program & Operational Expenses x 14%
35. Step Three C:Strengthening the Connection Statistical Report Questions: Total Expenditures 65. Grand Total Paid (minus) Apportionments paid (minus) 63. Principal & Interest Expenses (minus) 64. Capital expenditures The Calculation Rate x 1 %
36. Step Four: “According to Means” Functions Pastoral Residual Calculated by finding the difference between the church’s clergy-related expenditures and the average expenditures for like-sized churches. Affects Support for Ordained Leadership Apportionment The Calculation Residual cubed, x .0000000001
37. Step Four: “According to Means” Functions Pastoral Residual Churches that have higher clergy-related expenses than the average spent at churches of the same size are asked to give more for this apportioned fund. Likewise, churches that have lower clergy-related expenses than average are given a credit for part of this apportioned fund.
38. Step Four: “According to Means” Functions The Calculation Budget Size An additional calculation based on the overall budget size Total church expenditures minus benevolent giving Total squared, times .00000005
39. Additional Factors & Calculations The Apportionment may not increase or decrease by more than 9% from one year to the next. The Apportionment must be divisible by 12, so that monthly payments are a round number.
57. …students at Africa University, finding the answers that might save lives, and becoming the global leaders who will bring hope for the future.
58. Our Apportionments are at work every day …in places where we go to reach out to people who are hungry, sick or in need, regardless of their religion or the politics of their government.
59. Our Apportionments are at work every day …beyond simply helping the poor, but working side by side with people in many different lands to help them raise themselves from poverty.
60. Our Apportionments are at work every day facilitating our ability to be present with people in their time of crises
61. Our Apportionments are at work every day …right here in our own back yard building and revitalizing congregations. We are able to be in all of these places because of the commitment of United Methodists to live and give connectionally.
62. Apportionments are mission critical.And we need to live it more fully.In 2008 and 2009 our conference did not pay it’s full share to the General Church
63. We requested churches in the conference to pay $8.2Mto cover a need of $7.2 MLocal churches contributed $6.1 M
64. We under spent the conference budget by $0.5 Mand found other sources to cover $0.36 Mour Global Mission, our portion meant for others was underfunded by ~$0.27M
65. THANK YOU! For all you’ve done, For all you are doing, For all you will do in the days and years to come, To make the love of Christ real to a hurting world. Through United Methodist Connectional Giving. You do make a difference!
Notas del editor
In the Northern Illinois Conference there are Three Apportioned Funds. The amount each church is asked to contribute to the three funds is called their Apportionment, and its based on a formula.The formula matches expenses on the local church level to expenditures on the District, Conference, Jurisdiction, and Global Church levels.
Apportioned giving is calculated using the local church’s expenditures as a baseline. A principle of matching like expenses is used so that giving to the local church is extended into similar ministries at a conference and global level. As people give to the local church, so they give to the global church.
Each local church provides information about their budget line items in their annual statistical reports.
In order to provide some stability and predictability in the apportioned giving amount, the calculation uses more than one year’s worth of data. The most recent five years of budget numbers are considered, with highest and lowest years’ numbers discarded and the remaining three years’ numbers averaged. ***The implication of this approach is that changes in expenses, such as adding or reducing clergy, or taking on new programs, will not result in immediate increases or decreases to the amount a local church is asked to contribute to apportioned giving.
The 2009 Local Church Statistical Report Forms are in the mail. They are slightly different from previous years. The line numbers shown here reflect the new Statistical Report Forms.
There are two further calculations that look specifically at the means of a congregation’s ability to meet their apportioned amount.The Pastoral residual calculation clergy related expenses at similar-sized churches.Salaries above or below the conference average for like-sized churches indicates a greater means in the community. Again, this calculation provides fine tuning to the Apportionment amount. On average, it results in a $52 increase to the apportionment.
Churches that have higher clergy-related expenses than the average spent at churches of the same size are asked to give more for this apportioned fund.Likewise, churches that have lower clergy-related expenses than average are given a credit for part of this apportioned fund.
The Budget size calculation looks at the overall expenditures of a church.The reasoning behind this function is that larger budget churches generally have a higher proportion of administrative expenses compared to smaller budget churches. In turn, they are asked to support the connectional ministries of the NIC at a higher level. For example: Churches with a $100,000 budget, we ask for an additional $500. If you’re following along on your calculator, that’s 100,000 ^2, times .00000005The cap to this function is an increase of $32,000 to churches with $800,000 budgets or more.
Finally, after the apportionment is calculated for a local church, if the calculation results in more than a 9% increase from the previous year, the apportionment is adjusted.
=(10,000)^3 * .0000000001
=(100,000)^2 * .00000005
To put the total apportionment into perspective, given this example, the apportionment comes out to 11% of the total church budget.That’s better than the average of 12-14% for most churches.