Baugh family challenge nets about $1.2 million in two weeks for agency

Posted: 7/27/07

Baugh family challenge nets about
$1.2 million in two weeks for agency

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—A Texas Baptist family’s spontaneous challenge to jump-start a Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty capital campaign netted the organization nearly $1.2 million dollars in just a couple of weeks.

Brent Walker, executive director of the Washington-based advocacy group, announced in a July 24 e-mail to supporters that a matching-funds challenge from the Baugh family of San Antonio has been wildly successful. In little more than two weeks, donors gave or pledged a total of $688,372 in response. According to Walker, an unnamed benefactor who gave a $200,000 gift requested it not be matched, meaning the challenge raised $1,176,745.46.

With the gift and the original half-million-dollar donation, Walker said, the capital campaign total to date stands at slightly over $2.5 million, or half of the final goal.

The matching-funds challenge started during the BJC’s annual luncheon, held June 29 in conjunction with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly and American Baptist Churches USA Biennial in Washington, D.C. There, Walker noted that the Baugh family had given $500,000 to boost the group’s campaign to build the Center for Religious Liberty on Capitol Hill.

Family representative Babs Baugh then, in a surprise announcement, said her family would match any other pledges or gifts made to the campaign between June 29 and July 15.

The center is part of a capital campaign begun in conjunction with the BJC’s 70th anniversary. It will help purchase, renovate and endow a house on Capitol Hill that will become the organization’s offices. The facility will also contain working space for BJC partner organizations and visiting scholars.

BJC leaders, who advocate for church-state separation, have said they hope such a building will establish a highly visible presence for the Baptist conception of religious freedom near the Capitol. For most of its existence, the organization has rented space in the Washington offices of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

“I am so moved by the incredible generosity of Babs, the Baugh family and all of you who took up the challenge,” Walker wrote. “The BJC is now closer to having the funds required to build the center … a little over halfway there. Thank you! With the continued support of friends like you, we will surely meet our goal of $5 million dollars.”

Babs Baugh is the daughter of Eula Mae and John Baugh, who founded the Sysco Corporation. Over the years, the Baughs have donated large sums to many Baptist causes, including the BJC, Baylor University, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Associated Baptist Press. John Baugh died in March at age 91.