Apportionment Method

V. Special Offerings

A. We recommend that every church, after having made arrangements to meet apportionments in full, support Conference Advance Special or General Advance Special Projects. At the mandate of the 2004 General Conference, we urge every pastor and church to celebrate the following Special Days with offerings to be sent to the Executive Director of Finance and Administrative Services: Human Relations Day, UMCOR Sunday, United Methodist Student Day, World Communion Sunday, Native American Ministries Sunday, Volunteers in Mission Awareness Sunday, Peace with Justice Sunday, Golden Cross Sunday, Christian Education Sunday, Rural Life Sunday and Disability Awareness Sunday. B. Special Fund Drive Appeals: No annual conference agency or interest shall make a special conference-wide appeal to the local churches for funds without approval of the Annual Conference upon recommendation of CCFA, except in case of an extreme emergency, when such approval may be given by a two-thirds vote of the district superintendents and of the Common Table, acting jointly. (See Para 614.5 of the The Book of Discipline). C. Offerings received at the Annual Conference Session will be used at the discretion of the Annual Conference Sessions Committee and the Bishop. D. Golden Cross Sunday: The Conference is granted permission to have a Golden Cross Sunday. Receipts from the offering shall be used to support parish nurse programs. E. Christian Education Sunday Offering: This special offering will support ministries for children and the poor and is recommended to be taken on the second Sunday of September. F. Thanksgiving Offering: The appeal for this offering shall be designated by the Bishop. G. CCFA gives the right of permission for the Dakotas United Methodist Foundation to call on local churches for both current gifts and deferred gifts for the Foundation on behalf of the ministries of the Dakotas Annual Conference. H. Global Aids Awareness Sunday: The Global Aids Task Force is granted permission to have a Global Aids Sunday. Receipts from this offering shall be used at the discretion of the Global Aids Task Force.

VI. Miscellaneous

A. Any board or committee considering an honorarium for a special task demanding time and services of one of its officers or members can only do so upon submitting a proposal for an honorarium to the CCFA for its approval.

Apportionment Method

Part of how a United Methodist Church fulfills its mission is through full and faithful participation in apportionments. In the Dakotas Conference, the method of apportionment shall be that each church gives its percentage of their income to the Annual Conference. For Federated and United churches, this percentage applies only to the income attributed to the United Methodist denomination. The percentage will be of the income received for the support of the operating budget. This is income as defined in Table 3 Line 67 of the annual statistical reports as follows: Donations from identified and unidentified givers to support the operating budget Interest and dividends allocated toward the operating budget Net proceeds from the sale of church assets where the proceeds are used to support the operating budget Building use fees and rental income Net income from fundraisers and other programs used to support the operating budget CCFA will annually determine a percentage for churches to give of their income that is adequate to fund the apportioned budget. The percentage will be approved annually (A 15% apportionment percentage has been approved for 2022.) In addition, each charge will be direct billed for the cost of pension, health insurance, and death/disability insurance. The amount of the direct billing will be calculated as follows:

Health Insurance: The total annual premiums for all pastors appointed full-time to a charge and participating in the Conference health plan will be reduced by the participant’s share. The result will be divided by the number of pastors and billed to each charge based on their number of full-time pastors on the Conference health plan.

Pension: The pension is made up of two parts: a defined benefit amount and a defined contribution amount. The defined benefit amount is provided to the Conference from Wespath Benefits & Investments. This amount will be divided by the Full-Time Equivalents (FTE) of pastors appointed to local churches and enrolled in the defined benefit pension plan and pastors appointed to extension ministry where the Conference is responsible for their pension contributions. The resulting amount will be billed out according to each charge’s FTE of pastors enrolled in the defined benefit pension plan. The defined contribution is billed to the Conference monthly by GBOP. The billing is a specific amount for each pastor and is based on the pastor’s compensation. This amount will be billed by the Conference to each charge according to the pastor(s) appointed.