Faith groups weather donation-draining COVID-19 storm

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This article was published 19/03/2021 (1722 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Giving to churches and Christian ministries in Canada dropped by $1.5 billion last year, according to a new survey.

Around 3,500 ministry leaders from evangelical, mainline, Catholic and Orthodox churches, denominations and organizations provided responses about how the COVID-19 pandemic affected donations in 2020 to Waybase, an organization in Burlington, Ont., that aims to help Christian ministries work together more effectively.

According to Waybase national engagement director Tim Day, there was “a pretty substantial impact.”

“Some churches and ministries are doing OK, some are treading water, some are below water,” he said, adding, “Some were hit cataclysmically hard.”

Organizations that tended to do better were involved in social service ministries such as homelessness, poverty and hunger. Groups that did the worst were camps, which were closed by the pandemic and lost registration revenue.

Although evangelical congregations seemed to do better than others, “At the end of the day, really nobody escaped untouched,” Day said. “Every group was affected. It was a shared experience.”

About half of the churches and ministries that responded to the survey applied for and received government support during the pandemic. “The question is: what will happen when that government support ends?” he said.

Prior to the pandemic, it is estimated Canadians donated about $14 billion to churches and church-related ministries.

As for the future, “We need to wait and see what happens in 2021 to see if giving bounces back, or if the decline will stick around,” Day said.

The full results of the survey, including breakdowns by provinces, will be released in April. In Winnipeg, faith groups made due with a mix of generous giving, cutting back expenses, and government support.

At River East Church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation, giving was down a bit from 2019. But it wasn’t too big problem, said treasurer Wesley Toews, since the church had reduced its budget by about $20,000.

“We encouraged people to reach for that reduced target, and we exceeded it by a couple thousand,” he said.

At Charleswood United Church, “Our congregation responded wonderfully,” said minister Michael Wilson. “We ended the year with a surplus in operations and an increase in outreach.”

Islamic Social Services Association coped with a shortfall in giving by cutting hours for its social workers to make the money go further, said executive director Shahina Siddiqui.

“What helped is the support we received from both the federal and provincial governments to tide us over,” she said, adding a three-month discount on rent from the landlord for office space also helped.

Mark Hughes, pastor of Church of the Rock, a non-denominational congregation, said things looked “sketchy” at the start of the pandemic, but the church finished the year well due to some substantial year-end gifts.

“Normally, we would see about 10 per cent growth, year-over-year,” he said. “(In 2020) we were happy to finish even.”

The experience was similar at Calvary Temple, which is part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. “We had above-normal giving in December,” said pastor Bruce Martin. “Overall, we are encouraged by God’s faithfulness as seen in our congregation’s giving.”

Idris Elbakri of the Manitoba Islamic Association said the group “managed to make it through” with a combination of community generosity and government support — although he worries about the long-term impact of the pandemic for giving in 2021.

At the Archdiocese of St. Boniface, weekly donations were down about 23 per cent last year for all parishes combined, said financial administrator Richard Fréchette.

Parishes that “worked tirelessly to transform their giving to electronic giving rather than cash donations in an envelope have seen the least decrease in their revenues,” he said.

For the Archdiocese of Winnipeg, collections decreased by 18 per cent in 2020 over the previous year.

“We are grateful for the generous support of our parishioners, allowing us to meet our financial obligations with no personnel layoffs,” said financial officer Hipolito Alibin Jr.

At Congregation Etz Chayim, members pay an annual fee and the synagogue does some “light” fundraising each year, Rabbi Kliel Rose said.

“Thank God, considering what we have all experienced in the last year, we have done exceptionally well in the way of donor support.”

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