Explaining what the NC Council of Churches does is both exceedingly simple and exceptionally complex. I should know – it’s a big part of what I do for a living. In simple terms, we are a faith-based organization working on issues of social justice, peace and Christian unity. How we do that is where things start to get complicated, but in a deep, rich, Beatitudes kind of way.
The Council’s work ranges from advocating for immigrants to caring for creation to helping people in the pews and pulpit live healthier lives. We work for better understanding among Christians and people of other faiths and toward a world where diversity of skin color, gender, and sexual orientation is respected and valued. Our paid and volunteer program staff, bolstered by interns and grassroots activists, advocate for fair budgets and policies that protect the needy and underrepresented, regulations to insure farmworkers are not exploited or endangered, and a system of economic justice where everyone has enough.
We keep you updated on the work of the Council in a variety of ways, but to give you a comprehensive look at what is being done, we are posting our most recent report of activities. It is a lot of information that still does not list everything the Council staff has in the works. From speaking on panels to serving on committees to offering a faith voice for progressive social justice in the news media, Council staff fulfills a unique role in the state of North Carolina.
This report of activities is just one way to begin answering the complex part of what we do.
–Aleta Payne, Development and Communications
It would be interesting to see how the contributions break down between those that are church organizations versus those from other sources.
Mr. Burns,
We don’t track our income in exactly those two categories, but let me tell you what I can from the categories we use.
For 2011, a little more than 25% of our total income came as support from our member bodies to our core budget. Our member bodies are 27 judicatories of Christian denominations plus eight congregations. Obviously those would all qualify as “church organizations,” to use your term. Nearly 3% more came from other congregations and organizations. This included congregations which are members of our member judicatories and choose to give to the Council over and above what their judicatory gives, from congregations not part of one of our members, and from other organizations, such as Church Women United. Just about all of this money is also from church organizations. Another almost 25% of our income was from individuals, mostly in contributions of $200 or less. We don’t ask contributors about their church affiliation, or even if they have one. But we know almost all of our contributors, and the vast majority are affiliated with the denominations which make up the Council.
Of the remaining income (a little less than half of the 2011 total), a small amount is from special funds within our member bodies, but most of it is from foundations. Support in recent years has come from the Rural Church Division of The Duke Endowment, the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, and the Regeneration Project. While none of those may fit your definition of “church organization,” the first is closely aligned with the United Methodist Church in NC and the last is related to the national Interfaith Power & Light program, which grew out of the Episcopal Church.
These percentages will be different for 2012 because of very generous support we’ve gotten this year from BCBSNCF for our Partners in Health and Wholeness program and from Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC (the corporation) to give defibrillators and CPR training to congregations in NC. These two generous funders are clearly not “church organizations,” but we are grateful for their support of work we are doing in churches, as we are grateful for the support of all who make our ministries possible.
Where does the funding for the NC Council of Churches come from? Is it from church donations only? The reason I ask it helps to understand the basis of your positions. If a billionaire like George Soros contributes through one of his organizations then we know his viewpoints will intrude on the issues.
Hi Mr. Burns. Thanks for your question. The Council is funded by our North Carolina member judicatories representing 18 Christian denominations as well as by our eight member congregations. The Council also receives support from individual donors, from non-member organizations/congregations and from foundations. Our prior year donors are listed each winter (usually later January or early February) in our annual report.
Aleta