NASHVILLE (BP) — The Southern Baptist Foundation has given a gift of $44,126.10 to support missions and ministry through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.
Warren Peek, president of the foundation, said the SBF’s board of trustees made the decision in their November board meeting to give a portion of the foundation’s net profit to Southern Baptist causes.
The foundation, established in 1947, is an independent financial services group that provides a range of Southern Baptist investment and estate planning opportunities.
“Southern Baptist Foundation is very supportive of the Cooperative Program and we strongly believe in it,” said Peek, who noted the foundation formerly was a recipient of Cooperative Program dollars. “By us giving back to the Cooperative Program, it’s just one way that we can show our support for it.”
The foundation already has been giving a portion of their net profit to show support for the work of the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board. In 2010, SBF directors approved a plan to give a portion of their assets to pay for the cost of helping missionaries with their estate plans. The SBF has now set aside a total of $226,525 to both the Cooperative Program and missionary estate planning. The SBF worked with 231 missionary units (families or individuals) in 2013.
“The way we look at it, missionaries are our heroes,” Peek said. “They sacrifice and give so much and are out there winning people for Christ and so this is one way we can help them.”
Peek noted SBF also partners with other Baptist state foundations and conventions.
“Whether that’s doing their investing, their marketing, their presentations, their accounting services,” he said. “Some of the state foundations are large enough that they don’t need us at all and that’s great. Others really don’t have anybody [to perform these functions] … so it varies. But we’re a resource available for any Southern Baptist entity or individual that wants to use us.”
Frank S. Page, president of the Executive Committee and chairman of the SBF’s trustees, said he is “more than delighted” with the gift and the work of the foundation.
“When I came here four and a half years ago we were subsidizing the foundation $300,000 a year,” Page said. “So now … for them to receive zero subsidy and now to be giving back to the convention allocation budget speaks to the health of the Southern Baptist Foundation. It speaks to the leadership of Warren Peek. It speaks to the faithfulness of God’s people to be faithful in supporting this ministry.”
