The Negro's church,.

Financing Negro Churches

171

TABLE VII-DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENDITURES OF 609 CHURCHES,
1930
Amount Per Cent.
Salaries.................................... $1,289,818 43.2
Interest and Reduction of Church Debt........... 683,856 22.9
Benevolences and miscellaneous items such as Insurance, Light, Heat, Rent, Publicity, Balance, etc. 627,395 21.0
Church Overhead, including Education and Missions 196,478 6.6
Repairs and Upkeep........................... 187,418 6.3
$2,984,965 100.0
LITTLE MONEY FOR EXPANSION
Salaries, interest and reduction of church debts, repairs and
upkeep, items such as insurance, light, heat, church rent, and
much of the money included in church overhead, are bare necessities. This leaves an exceedingly small amount of expenditures
for the expansion of the church program. Furthermore, the
money spent in bare necessities is necessarily spread thinly
over a wide area, in spite of the fact that there are very few
paid church workers. Salaries are small, as will be shown
later. The amount spent in reducing church debt is meager
in the light of the total indebtedness. The amount spent for
repairs and upkeep is more meager still, when one considers
property evaluation of over nineteen million dollars. Thus,
the barriers set up against the development of a more effective
church program are formidable in view of the actual financial
situation.
AVERAGE EXPENDITURE PER CHURCH
On the basis of the $2,984,965, an approximate average of
$4,901.42 was raised by each of the 609 churches. Grouping
the churches according to the amount of money raised, 115
raised less than $1,000 each, or a total of $61,403; 297 raised
amounts ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, or a total of $767,456; 120 raised amounts ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, or
a total of $817,690; 46 raised from $10,000 to $15,000, or