United Methodist News Service
When you put a dollar in the regular offering at your church, that dollar is distributed to the local church, regional and global United Methodist ministries according to a "fair share" system known as "apportionments." The approximate current distribution:
About 90 cents will remain at your local church for your church to decide how to spend that money.
About 8 cents will go to support programs in the district, annual (regional) conferences and jurisdictions.*
2 cents will go to support the denomination’s seven funds that support ministries across the denomination: Episcopal Fund, World Service Fund, General Administration Fund, Black College Fund, Interdenominational Cooperation Fund, Africa University and the Ministerial Education Fund. These are proposed to have the following budgets for 2013-2016:
$311.6 million for World Service, which supports the program boards and agencies of the church.
$105.7 million for the Ministerial Education Fund, which provides financial support for the education of United Methodist clergy
$90.3 million for the Episcopal Fund, which supports active bishops, their support staff, retired bishops, surviving spouses and minor children of deceased bishops .
$42.15 million for the Black College Fund that supports 11 United Methodist-related historically black colleges and universities.
$35.6 million for the General Administration Fund, which supports General Conference, Judicial Council, the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History and the General Council on Finance and Administration.
$9.4 million for Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
Nearly $8.3 million for the Interdenominational Cooperation Fund, which supports the church’s ecumenical work.
*The actual amount of funding for districts, annual conferences and jurisdictions varies because of differences in the way apportionments are calculated by different units of the denomination.