The Beginnings: The Birth and The Building Up of The Foundation
The Baptist Foundation of California (BFC) was founded in 1952 by the California Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC) to serve as the “investment agency for the Convention and its agencies.” There have been eight Foundation Presidents during its more than 70-year history:
-Julian Stenstrom, 1952-1960
-Arlie L. McDaniel, 1960-1962
-Carol Nichols, 1963-1966
-Cecil J. Pearson, 1966-1982
-E. Glen Paden, 1983-1996
-K. Milton Higgins, 1997-2009
-Philip W. Kell, 2010-2020
-Jonathan Jarboe, 2020-present
The Foundation was formed by the CSBC, and as such, the convention nominates and elects the Foundation’s board members at its annual meeting every year. Though BFC is a separate legal entity and public charity, BFC acknowledges its position as a subordinate corporation of the CSBC. The Foundation works very closely with both the CSBC and California Baptist University (CBU), the second California Southern Baptist Convention entity. In addition, the Foundation has an exceptional relationship with Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the sole national SBC entity based in California.
Since its inception, the Foundation has focused on Resourcing the Great Commission. Its governing documents clearly state the mission to be:
“Raising, managing, and distributing resources for Kingdom causes.”
The trajectory of the last seven decades has been incredibly fruitful but as would be expected with all long-standing organizations, there were seasons when the organization struggled through real estate slumps, market downturns, and other financial challenges. Throughout its history, the leaders and staff of the Foundation remained faithful to its purpose of helping the convention, entities, partners, associations, and churches raise resources for Kingdom work. Through cooperative agreements, The Baptist Foundation of California has expanded to serve three state conventions:
- The California Southern Baptist Convention,
- The Arizona Mission Network of Southern Baptists (AMN), and
- The Nevada Baptist Convention (NBC).
The Branches: Defining and Solidifying the Foundation’s Focus
The Baptist Foundation of California has three major divisions:
- Institutional Investing,
- Church Lending and
- Estate Planning/Trust Administration.
The Foundation serves as an institutional investment manager for California Southern Baptist partner entities, including the State Convention (CSBC), the University (CBU), and the Seminary (Gateway), including multiple associations and more than one hundred individual churches throughout California (all while also serving alongside the AMN and NBC).
In 2021, assets under management surpassed the $200 million mark. For several years, the BFC lending division made church loans in nearly all fifty states and was recognized as a nationwide leader in this area. The estate planning/trust administration division raises future dollars and distributes these planned gifts to Kingdom partners throughout the West. The Foundation is pleased to provide free estate planning seminars in approximately 40 churches annually as well as new or updated estate plans for hundreds of clients. Many BFC clients choose to leave resources to California Baptist entities, but the number one charity Southern Baptist clients choose to donate their wealth to is the local church. As a result, there is currently more than $360 million in the pipeline to resource Kingdom causes in the West through estate plans.
The Blessings: Strengthening Partnerships and Resourcing the Great Commission
Throughout its 70-year history, the Foundation has created multiple endowments to bless California Southern Baptist partners. Millions of dollars have been raised for these important causes. The BFC has endowments for local churches, church planting, CBU and Gateway scholarships, CSBC Disaster Relief, and dozens of other excellent causes. In recent years, the BFC has created and funded four partner endowments:
- A CBU Double Major Scholarship,
- A Gateway Missions Scholarship (The Karen Denise Watson Memorial Scholarship),
- The CSBC Pastors Conference fund and
- A Mission:Dignity 13th Check endowment to benefit retired pastors and their widows.
Additionally, the Foundation has an endowment (SoCal Baptist Ministries) that provides several hundred thousand dollars in individual grants to cooperating CSBC churches for evangelism and outreach events. Churches are eligible to receive up to $5,000 per year in grants. Since its inception in 2014, this endowment has provided more than 1,500 grants to CSBC churches totaling more than $7 million. Over the last 6 years, grant-recipient churches have reported more than 13,000 professions of faith through these grant-funded events.
Historically, the four Southern Baptist entity leaders in California meet to build healthy relationships and strengthen the partnerships. Typically, the gathering takes place in mid-December when the Executive Director of the CSBC, the Presidents of CBU, Gateway, and BFC, along with their wives, spend two days sharing, praying, dreaming, and supporting each other’s ministries. These men not only lead California Baptist agencies, but, together, are faithful friends. This important gathering is an example of a mutual commitment to partner together and maintain healthy dialogue to effectively reach the state with the Good News of the Gospel.
The Baptist Foundation of California is your partner for Resourcing the Great Commission. We strive to use our God-given abilities to manage God-given resources to accomplish God-given purposes in the West.
*If you would like to learn more about how the Baptist Foundation of California can partner with your ministry or to see how they can help you Resource the Great Commission, you can call them at 909-738-4000, email them at info@bfcal.org or visit www.bfcal.org.
To learn more about Karen Denise Watson
To learn more about the Mission:Dignity 13th Check Initiative
