Contributions designated for missionary support are used entirely for the support of missionaries: this has always been and always will be our policy. These contributions support a monthly living allowance, as well as benefits such as health insurance, housing, and retirement.
In recent years it has been our custom to distribute these contributions to meet benefit expenses first. Once a missionary’s benefits are covered, support contributions are applied to living allowances. This means that some designated support gifts may go entirely to a missionary’s benefits, in fact – without affecting their “take home” living allowance at all. The arrangement honors designations, yet has sometimes seemed confusing to missionaries and donors. Our Finance Committee has been concerned about this and recently proposed an alternative.
If all of our missionaries were fully supported last year, 52% of their support expenditures would have gone to living allowances and 48% would have been applied to benefit expenses. The Finance Committee has proposed dividing each designated support gift by these percentages at the time that it is received. A little more than half of each support donation would go toward a missionary’s living allowance while the remainder would be put into a pooled benefits fund and used to pay for the benefits of all missionaries. In this way, every gift would affect a missionary’s “take home” living allowance directly. Every gift would contribute to their benefits, as well, by a percentage that reflects their actual benefits cost.
If all of our missionaries were fully supported, this arrangement would completely cover their allowance and benefits needs. Some may remain under-supported, however. Donors may want to designate gifts to our General Missionary Support Fund or to our Benefits Fund itself, as a way of meeting these important needs and supporting all of our missionaries. In addition the Home Council will transfer an amount from our Estate Fund each year to the Benefits Fund to make up what is lacking. We will continue to use General Funds and General Missionary Support Funds, when available, to supplement allowance payments when designated support funds are not sufficient, just as we do now.
Whether a missionary is fully supported or under-supported, you can be sure that 52 percent of your donation will go toward missionary allowance and 48 percent will go toward benefits. We will no longer assign any support gift entirely to a missionary’s benefits, as we had before. The Home Council approved this arrangement in principle in February; it is scheduled to take effect on July 1, pending the Council’s final ratification. You may direct comments or questions to our Business Office.
In April we were able to pay 100 percent of our target allowance to all of our missionary units. After allowances were paid, we had $4,253 remaining in the General Fund.
Thank you for your ongoing support!