Article

Mission Society for United Methodists Increases Missionary Spending for 1998

(The MSUM is an independent organization and is not a part the United Methodist Church official structure - see website)

Go to Layman's Version if you are not a CPA.

(Layman's Version Provided by John Warrener, MDiv, MBA)

Income and Expense Statement 1998 of the Mission Society for United Methodists

(Provided by MSUM)

Revenue, gains, and other support	Total
Contributions	$4,982,734
Donated securities and other assets	$832,402
Gifts-in-kind	$1,208,820
Investment income	$0

Total revenue, gains, and other support	$7,023,956

Expenses
Program services [missionary support]	$5,253,283
Supporting activities
General and administrative	$910,567
Fund raising	$604,521

Total expenses	$6,768,371

Change in net assets [excess income]	$255,585

Layman's Version

The MSUM received $7,023,956 in income in 1998 (the latest complete report at this time) and after expenses of $6,768,371 ended up with $255,585 in excess income (profit)*.
$5,253,283 (75%) of that was spent on Support to Missionaries. That is 75 cents of every dollar received was spent in the missionary field.
$604,521 (9%) was spent on other fundraising. That is for every one dollar spent on fund raising 9 dollars was spent in the missionary field.
$910,567 (13%) was spent on administration which means for every one dollar spent for administration six dollars was spent in the missionary field.

Missionary Support	Fund Raising	Admin	Excess Income
$5,253,283	$604,521	$910,567	$255,585

As you can see from the Table above and the Charts below that Missionary Support dominates the financial picture of the MSUM. Administration is far distant second. Excess Income (profit*) is the smallest proportion of income.

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1997-1998 Comparison
By Dollars

	Missionary	Fund Raising	Admin	Excess Income
1997	$3,951,815	$404,213	$843,258	$391,185
1998	$5,253,283	$604,521	$910,567	$255,585
Change	$1,301,468	$200,308	$67,309	($135,600)

From the Table above and the Chart Below you can see that Missionary Support increased $1.3 Million while Excess Income decreased $135,600. More gifts have made it to the mission field with less excess.

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1997-1998 Comparison
By Percent of Income

	Missionary	Fund Raising	Admin	Excess Income
1997	70.7%	7.2%	15.1%	7.0%
1998	74.8%	8.6%	13.0%	3.6%

As you can see from the Table above and the Chart Below the percent of income used to support Missionaries in the field increase by four percentage points from 71% to 75% of income received. Even Administration which includes the training of missionaries to enter the field has decreased by two percentage points from 15% to 13%. Excess Income (money not spent) decreased by 3 percentage points from 7% to 4%. That means that less money went unspent. The only increase was in the area of Fund Raising which increased 1.5 percentage points.

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Compare to General Board of Global Missions

* the word profit is used to help the layman who does not normally understand the various descriptions of income in excess of expenses in the ways non-profit organizations are accounted.