The General Board Invests in Communities at Home and Abroad

The United Methodist Church (UMC) strives to support individuals in communities around the world. For the last 20 years, the General Board’s Positive Social Purpose (PSP) Lending program has promoted affordable housing, community development and expanded loan opportunities in underserved communities in the United States. As we look to expand the PSP Lending program’s reach, the Central Conference Pension Initiative (CCPI) and investing through Shared Interest have enabled the Church to support individuals and communities outside of the United States.

CCPI Offers Pension Support

Pension benefits for UMC clergy were non-existent in many parts of Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe until General Conference 2000 focused the denomination’s attention on the issue of clergy pensions. The legislative body created a task force and charged it with “launching a pension support plan for the central conferences.” The 2004 General Conference reaffirmed the original mandate of the task force for CCPI and amended The Book of Discipline to authorize raising the funds necessary to fulfill this original charge.

The initial fundraising goal for CCPI was $20 million. At year-end 2009, CCPI announced an additional $5 million challenge goal—for a total of at least $25 million—primarily to accommodate growth in the central conferences in the 10 years since the initiative began. More than $21.9 million has been raised to date in support of CCPI, which has enabled CCPI staff to launch six of the 13 planned self-sustaining pilot projects for the central conferences (in Liberia, Mozambique, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone).

All pledges and gifts to CCPI are held in an endowment and invested by the General Board. Only earnings are distributed to pensioners who use pensions for subsistence needs—such as food, housing and clothing—as well as to pay for major expenditures and to begin small businesses. When all pension programs are in place, CCPI will support pensions for approximately 1,200 retired clergy and 1,300 surviving spouses in 62 central conferences.

Shared Interest Doubles CCPI’s Impact

The General Board’s partnership with Shared Interest multiplies the social impact of funds held for CCPI in communities served by United Methodist clergy. In 2007, through the PSP lending program, the General Board invested a small portion of the CCPI endowment with the U.S.-based investment fund Shared Interest, which supports microlending, agricultural cooperatives and low-income housing throughout South Africa.

The CCPI investment capital, provided to Shared Interest, is used to secure guarantees on behalf of South African banks who lend to individuals and businesses. Shared Interest’s $12.6 million guarantee fund has been instrumental in providing loans of more than $100 million for struggling South African communities since 1994. To date, 1.8 million South Africans have benefitted from loans funded by the work of Shared Interest and would have otherwise been considered “unbankable.”

Donna Katzin, executive director of Shared Interest says, “Shared Interest has been privileged to partner with the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits, whose investment has helped bring access to capital and technical support to South Africa's emerging entrepreneurs and their economically marginalized communities. We greatly appreciate the General Board's continuing commitment to reversing apartheid's legacy and to enabling communities like those served by its African clergy to sustain themselves."

“Many of the retirees we serve are part of the Church in sub-Sahara Africa,” says Dan O’Neil, managing director of Central Conference Pensions for the General Board. “We invested with Shared Interest because, as we received donations for this effort, we wanted to invest some of those funds in that part of the world. We believe that it is important to the development of Africa for us to invest in both the economy and the church. Combining the efforts of CCPI with Shared Interest allows us to provide support and benefits to both.”

Shared Interest is another example of the General Board’s Positive Social Purpose Lending program at work—achieving market rates of return while supporting communities in need here and across the globe.