United Methodist DNA Clearly Evident in 2024 AUF Investment

United Methodists are faithful, generous and deeply committed to global missional engagement. Across the denomination, local congregations made this clear in 2024 through their unwavering support for the Africa University Fund (AUF) apportionment.

The Africa University Fund ended the year with overall giving at 78.95 percent. Seventeen annual conferences gave 100 percent of their asking to the AUF, up from 15 in 2023. Indiana and North Alabama topped the list, investing 125.36 percent and 113.29 percent to the AUF respectively. Other annual conferences going over 100 percent for the AUF were New York and Western North Carolina.  

Not only did churches and conferences respond with gifts beyond their budget commitments, but giving increased in 11 annual conferences and helped to balance shortfalls in those conferences where 2024 AUF investment slipped below 2023 levels. That led to AUF yearend receipts for 2024 that were down less than one percent from 2023.

“Africa University urged its extended family, stakeholders and friends throughout The United Methodist Church, and beyond our denomination, to stay the course and remember that we have done what we said we would do—educate future leaders for the continent of Africa and the world in a Chrisitan environment—and their response tells us that they are not done with Africa  University yet,” said James H. Salley, president and chief executive officer of Africa University (Tennessee) Inc.

A new denominational budget for 2025-2028 went into effect in January. It includes a shared commitment to invest $1,272,632 in AUF in 2025. That’s around 40 percent lower than the previous budget. In this new four-year churchwide budget, funding for Africa University went from around $9.3M to $4.8M.

For Bishop L. Jonathan Holston, chair of Africa University (Tennessee) Inc. Board of Directors and resident bishop of the newly formed Alabama Panhandle Episcopal Area,  this represents an opportunity for United Methodists to show the world who they, and whose they are.

“Your commitments and support to the mission and ministry of education at your Africa University is about a joy so great that we can’t contain it and want to share it,” said Holston. “The point of giving is never about the money.   It’s about the opportunities made possible through the gifts we offer and the transformation that giving makes possible in us. 

The point is never the money but how we use our gifts and talents for the common good.”

Salley, who heads the entity that raises, holds, invests and distributes the resources to grow and sustain the institution, continues to challenge United Methodists and others to “invest in people and communities in Africa by continuing the upward trajectory in giving for scholarships, research, student and faculty support.

“When you give, it comes back to you,” said Salley. “Africa University is still under the Cross and Flame of The United Methodist Church . I expect the church to continue to prove the naysayers wrong with support that enables the university to continue to make disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the world.”

Local churches’ investment in the Africa University Fund apportionment helps to sustain day-to-day operations at the United Methodist-related institution.