Cooperative Program gifts from South Carolina Baptist Convention churches are $250,408 ahead of last year’s pace but 4.44 percent below budgeted needs through the first three months of 2016.

Through March, churches forwarded $6,808,525 to the SCBC, $316,474 short of budgeted needs, according to figures released by Pam Carroll, the SCBC’s chief financial officer.

In 2015, South Carolina Baptist churches contributed nearly $28 million in Cooperative Program monies, surpassing the previous year’s total by 1.3 percent.