Contributions to Per Member Asking (PMA) and Percentage of Income (POI) received by the Office of the General Assembly in October were $251,636. The amount surpassed the October budget of $216,833 and raised the 12-month rolling average for monthly contributions to $193,154—2.1 percent less than the rolling average as of October 31, 2021.
PMA/POI contributions in fiscal year 2023 (FY23) through October 31 total $772,118. The amount is $7,397 (0.9 percent) less than the $779,515 FY23 PMA/POI support projection to fund the EPC’s overall mission, vision, and strategic priorities. The year-to-date total is $26,846 (3.6 percent) more than the amount received in the same period in FY22.
“As we celebrate Thanksgiving this month, I am especially grateful that financial support of the EPC rebounded so strongly last month,” said Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk. “With all the challenges our churches are facing this fall, I do not take that for granted.”
Of the $772,118 received, $154,424 (20 percent) was contributed to EPC World Outreach.
In addition to PMA/POI contributions, $1,941,797 in designated gifts were received through October 31. This total was $138,056 (6.6 percent) lower than the $2,079,853 in designated gifts received in the same period in FY22. Most of the difference is attributed to more than $83,000 donated in October 2021 to the Emergency Relief Fund in response to Hurricane Ida.
Designated gifts include support for World Outreach global workers and projects, and contributions to EPC Special Projects such as Emergency Relief, church planting and revitalization initiatives, and the EPC’s Thanksgiving and Christmas offerings.
Of the total, $1,873,023 was designated for World Outreach workers and projects, and $88,774 was designated for EPC projects. These amounts only reflect gifts received and distributed by the Office of the General Assembly, and do not reflect donations given directly to WO global workers or other projects.
Commissioners to the denomination’s 42nd General Assembly in June 2022 approved a transition from the Per Member Asking (PMA) funding formula to a Percentage of Income (POI) model. Under PMA, churches were asked to contribute $23 per member to the Office of the General Assembly. The POI model is a request for churches to support the national level of the EPC with 1 percent of income to the church’s general operating fund. The shift will phase in over the next three years, with full POI implementation expected at the start of FY26 in July 2025.