Khachkar Studios Details US$10+ Million Support for U.S. Armenian Pilot Churches

--- Pilot Churches will be selected from a shortlist of 37 U.S. Armenian churches that can best empower Christian role models through Good News education-training-retention guided by world-class benchmarking and management excellence ---

--- We at Khachkar Studios are guided in allocating our resources by the parable of the talents, "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more" ---

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- 

1. Today's announcement: Today, April 11, 2025, from Washington, D.C., Khachkar Studios announced details of the historically unprecedented US$10+ million support for U.S. Armenian Pilot Churches.
   
   
2. Who will be chosen: Pilot Churches will be selected from a shortlist of 37 U.S. Armenian churches that can best empower Christian role models through Good News education-training-retention (at 90%+ retention level) guided by world-class benchmarking and management excellence. The selection of Pilot Churches is based on current performance on the 8 activities described in our 8 Activities Menu.
   
   
3. Why the Parable of the Talents: We at Khachkar Studios are guided in allocating our resources by the parable of the talents, "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more."
   
   
4. One question: To help guide Khachkar Studios in making each decision, given the responsibility to ensure that every dollar of this historically unprecedented US$10+ million is spent to increase Non-Holiday Badarak Faithful (NHBF – "The Faithful"), we will ask this one question: "What is the Social Return on Investment (SROI) and where does it rank – by percentile – among both Armenian and non-Armenian benchmarks?"
   
   
5. Pilot Briefing Packet: To help get educated on the Pilot, start by studying the Pilot Briefing Packet, dated April 2025, which has a table of contents listing 10 pages and can be found on the Khachkar Studios website under News.
   
   
6. Prior announcements: The first two pages of the packet provide a refresher on our prior disclosure from the first Khachkar Studios US$10+ million press release, dated January 17, 2025, and from the Overview on Khachkar Studios. All are encouraged to re-read these pages as they provide the essential background knowledge necessary to participate in this historically unprecedented US$10+ million Pilot.
   
   
7. How much support per church: For the average U.S. Armenian church, the annual financial support is estimated at approximately US$40,000 and scales up to US$80,000 for larger churches. To put the US$40,000 per year in perspective, this annual support is approximately equal to 100 days of average Sunday plate and candle donations, 100 average sacrament donations, equivalent to a US$1 million endowment donation, or 16% of the average total annual church spending. No matter how you look at it, the financial support is very motivational.
   
   
8. KPI #1 and SROI: Khachkar Studios recommends that those interested focus on our #1 Key Performance Indicator (KPI #1) to increase Non-Holiday Badarak Faithful (NHBF – "The Faithful") and also focus on our use of Social Return on Investment (SROI) based on world-class benchmarking and management excellence. SROI is the change in KPI #1 from the investment of time/money. KPI #1 and SROI are the heart of our performance management framework.
   
   
9. Two Performance Gap Opportunities: Following our seminal research in 2024, the Khachkar Studios team identified two massive performance gap opportunities and has built plans to close the performance gaps.
   
   
10. Performance Gap #1: The first performance gap targets increasing Non-Holiday Badarak Faithful ("The Faithful") at Armenian churches in America. Currently, throughout America, on average, only 13,000 attend Non-Holiday Badarak, barely 3% of the U.S. Census Armenian population, and ranks next to last - bottom decile - among the 24 American Orthodox Christian groups in both 2010 and 2020. 
    
    
11. Performance Gap #2: The second gap targets the near-total absence of impactful media spending by Armenian American religious groups to promote church attendance. Our research confirmed that Khachkar Studios "Good News" promotional media spending will be more than 25 times larger than all Armenian religious organizations in the U.S. combined.
    
    
12. 7 Workstreams: Khachkar Studios has 7 workstreams: 1. Short-clips, 2. Podcasts, 3. Analyses, 4. Written Content, 5. Events, 6. News, and 7. Music.
    
    
13. 8 Activities Menu: There are eight (8) activities that qualify for financial support. The Pilot Briefing Packet contains details on each of the 8 Activities in the Menu, including the financial support, hours, logic, and necessary implementation process information. Annualized financial support for each activity is between US$9,600 and US$2,000 for an average-sized Armenian American church.
    
    
14. Increasing "The Faithful" and SROI: All eight (8) activities in the Menu seek to increase KPI #1 ("The Faithful") and SROI. The 8 activities include spreading Armenian Christian Good News, world-class training for church role models, increasing Bible study student hours, and increasing outreach home visits.
    
    
15. Time commitment per week: As for the time commitment associated with all 8 activities, we estimate that with proper training and using the mobile apps to simplify the work, it will only take six (6) hours a week, spread across several parish-engaged individuals.
    
    
16. 37 shortlisted Pilot Churches: Also included in the Pilot Briefing Packet is a sheet containing the numbers associated with all 37 shortlisted Pilot Churches, ranked by KPI #1 performance gap on an anonymous basis without disclosing individual church names. We have also included our model of the consolidated financial statements of all 164 U.S. Armenian churches and ecclesiastical centers, which shows a total annual spending of approximately US$30 million.
    
    
17. 10 important analyses: The last sheet in the Pilot Briefing Packet is a sheet from the Learn How slides available on the Khachkar Studios website, which has ten (10) of the most important analyses from our 226 analyses built over the past two years.
    
    
18. NPB: To learn more about our performance management framework, we highly recommend studying the book New Philanthropy Benchmarking: Wisdom for the Passionate.

About Khachkar Studios: Khachkar Studios is a multimedia studio that empowers Christian role models through Good News education-training-retention, guided by world-class benchmarking and management excellence. Khachkar Studios is an affiliate of the Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation, JI-Analytics, and Japonica Partners. 

For more information about Khachkar Studios and its initiatives:
www.khachkarstudios.com
[email protected] 
Affiliate of the Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation
+1.202.449.9600

SOURCE The Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation