On April 11, 2025, Khachkar Studios launched an innovative US$10+ million philanthropic program targeting 37 Armenian churches across the United States — a move that may redefine how religious giving is structured and measured.

What makes this initiative groundbreaking is its foundation in performance metrics. Churches will not simply receive funds — they will be evaluated based on KPI #1: their ability to increase Non-Holiday Badarak Faithful (“The Faithful”). The logic is simple but rigorous: more engagement equals more funding, and every decision must be backed by measurable impact.

Currently, “The Faithful” is strikingly low. Just 13,000 Armenian Americans — under 3% of the estimated population — attend non-holiday services. Among Orthodox Christian groups, this places Armenian churches in the bottom 10th percentile nationwide.

To address this, Khachkar Studios will fund churches with between $40,000 and $80,000 annually, depending on size and participation. These amounts are comparable to a US$1 million endowment and represent approximately 16% of total church spending for the average parish.

Support is tied to participation in eight structured activities such as leadership training, Bible studies, media production, and outreach efforts. Churches are expected to manage all activities with a collective weekly time commitment of just six hours, made feasible through the use of mobile tools and role-based delegation.

Each activity’s contribution to KPI #1 and its broader Social Return on Investment (SROI) is closely tracked. SROI, as defined by the studio, reflects the change in “The Faithful” per dollar invested, ranked across Armenian and non-Armenian benchmarks.

The program is also addressing another critical gap: media underinvestment. Khachkar Studios’ promotional outreach — through podcasts, music, short videos, and events — will exceed the total media budgets of all other Armenian American religious institutions combined, by more than 25 times.

All program specifics, including a consolidated financial statement for all 164 Armenian churches in the U.S. and an anonymized ranking of the 37 shortlisted churches, are documented in the April 2025 Pilot Briefing Packet available at www.khachkarstudios.com.

With its affiliations to the Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation, JI-Analytics, and Japonica Partners, Khachkar Studios is positioned to lead a transformation in how religious philanthropy operates — one that is accountable, data-rich, and spiritually focused.