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Changes in Money and Missionaries

Some mission agencies are doing very well, others rather badly.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve given myself the task of looking at seven mission agencies in-depth and trying to discern any changes in their income and recruitment. At some time in the next few weeks, I’ll publish this as a report, but for the moment, I just want to share this little table with you. It tracks changes in income and missionary numbers over the last five years.

Agency% Change in Missionary
Numbers
% Change in Income
1-24.6%-11%
2-3.1%-4%
3+27.5%-30%
4-21%-5%
5+35.2%+9%
6+37.8%+23%
7-7.6%+2%

The seven agencies have similar profiles and have as their primary task sending out missionaries to be involved in a variety of ministries. The figures are taken from the agencies’ own reports to the Charity Commission. I’ve tried to make adjustments for agencies reporting missionary numbers in different ways.

The first thing to note is that three of the seven agencies have seen a decrease in both finance and missionary numbers over the five year period. At the same time, two agencies have seen an increase in both finance and missionary numbers. There is a clear anomaly with agency #3 who appear to have recruited a significant number of missionaries, while losing a third of their income. I need to check these figures (it’s one reason why I’ve not named the agencies).

The second thing to note is that across the sample of seven agencies, total income and missionary numbers hardly changed in the five year time period.

I don’t have enough information to identify with any confidence why some agencies appear to be doing well at the expense of others. Currently, I have more questions than answers, but I’ll continue working on it.

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